Salon Accused of Bias Will Be Taught to Style Black Hair
Source: New York Times
A luxury Upper East Side hair salon accused of telling black workers that Afros and box braids did not fit the area’s upscale image will train employees to work with black hair and help advance the careers of stylists who are not white, city officials said Tuesday. The salon, Sharon Dorram Color at Sally Hershberger, agreed to the measures as part of a settlement with New York City’s Human Rights Commission that grew out of an investigation prompted by former employees’ complaints about hair-based racial bias.
The settlement, which also calls for the salon to pay a $70,000 fine, was the first to be reached since the commission’s February release of legal guidelines recognizing discrimination on the basis of hairstyle as racial discrimination. “This resolution is another step toward ensuring that racist notions of professional appearance standards are not applied in New York City,” Carmelyn P. Malalis, the commission’s chairwoman, said in a statement.
The settlement calls for the salon to team up with a New York City styling school with expertise in the care and styling of black hair for two purposes: to instruct and inform current employees and to start an internship program specifically for stylists from underrepresented groups. In addition, the commission said, Sharon Dorram, a colorist, and Tim Lehman, a senior stylist, must complete 35 hours of community service with a racial justice group “that works to combat hair discrimination and promote black beauty.”
Sally Hershberger did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent via her publicist. Ms. Dorram and Mr. Lehman could not immediately be reached. Steve Tuttleman, whom the commission identified as an owner of the salon with Ms. Hershberger and Ms. Dorram, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/12/nyregion/nyc-salon-racial-natural-hair-discrimination.html
Of note at this article was this as part of the case that had been filed -
The guidelines adopted by NYC regarding public facilities and discrimination based on hair style, have been adopted in other locations as well per the OP article.
= new reply since forum marked as read
but for a large majority of those of African descent, the actual hair shaft is shaped differently and that dictates the type of hair care needed to keep the hair healthy and requires a thought process regarding the type of styling (which may require extra processing to achieve in addition to a cut). There was some research done by L'Oreal that actually took a look and attempted to describe it without all the racist overtones that have happened in the past when looking at this subject - https://www.loreal.com/media/news/2016/mar/diversity-of-hair-type
As part of that, the above link included a pic of generic types of what I would assume is "unprocessed" (whether chemically straightened or chemically curled) hair across racial/ethnic groups -
Genetics will play a factor in the degree of variation, which is pretty huge! 
