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by Tara Weinberg, Global Connect Chicago Bloggers
Chicago, USA – Fatimata Traore, 37, had only been in Chicago for a few months when she received an urgent call from her aunt, a hair braider.
"I remember her crying," Traore says of her aunt, her eyes growing larger beneath her penciled eyebrows. "She said 'I'm too busy. I'm gonna lose all these clients.'"
So Traore offered her aid. "I said, 'Okay, auntie, I'm gonna help you.' She said 'You are not used to braiding. You very slow.'"
Traore, originally from Mali, now runs a shop in Chicago called “Braids & Weaves by Fatimah.” She is also president of the Illinois Association of Hair Braiders (IAHB).
Wearing a black head-wrap and big, round earrings that jingle when she speaks, Traore explains that she came to the U.S. to study architecture. "Now, I'm an architect of braids," she says.
African immigrants have dominated the hair-braiding industry in Illinois for at least two decades. Recent investigations have revealed that many braid shops have been operating illegally due to the difficult procedure required to obtain a state license.
Traore and many other hair braiders in Illinois were previously required to go to cosmetology school in order to acquire a license to braid hair. But that training can cost as much as $10,000. Traore admits that many hair braiders could not afford to get a cosmetology license.
As a result government officials from the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation would often order hair braiders who did not have cosmetology licenses to close their businesses.
In response, many hair braiders resorted to operating their business "underground.” Today, many say they visit their clients' homes or they braid hair in their own homes.
But over the course of the last three years hair braiders in Illinois have started to organize. And they are starting to see change.
Back in 2010, a group of 70 braiders marched to Springfield, Illinois - the seat of Illinois' state government - to demand a new category of licenses that would enable hair braiders to circumvent the cosmetology license requirement. The hair braiders were supported by the United African Organization (UAO), a Chicago-based non-profit that works to improve the lives of African immigrants and refugees in Illinois. With the UAO’s support, hair braiders held meetings with think tanks and politicians on both sides of the political spectrum, and caught the attention of the Chicago Tribune newspaper, which published an editorial and several articles on hair braiders’ battle for a new license. They also received the support of the Black Caucus, the Latino Caucus and State Representative Will Burns, who introduced the bill for new hair braiding licenses at the Illinois House of Representatives in 2010.
By the time the bill for new hair braiding licenses reached the Illinois Senate, many female members, as well as Senator Kwame Raoul (the bill’s main sponsor), were fully behind it. On July 24, 2010, Governor Pat Quinn signed into law HB5783, the bill that would create a new category of licenses for hair braiders.
The hair braiders’ organizing efforts were successful. The new licenses, introduced by the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation in September 2011, allow local braiders to practice their craft without spending thousands of dollars on cosmetology school. In order to be licensed as a hair braider, applicants need only pay a fee of $30 and submit three affidavits from clients or business partners verifying that they have been practicing hair braiding for two consecutive years or more.
But in the five months since the new licensing law passed, some braiders say there has been little change.
Amazon Smiley and her daughter Nadra run Amazon Natural Essentials, a salon and spa on Chicago’s south side. Both were born and raised in Chicago. The elder Smiley is also part of the IAHB leadership. She supported the efforts of African and African-American hair braiders to get the new licenses introduced last year.
But her daughter says that after running a check on the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation website, she determined that only 20 people have obtained the new license. Despite the small number both women say the licenses have the potential to uplift braiders professionally and economically.
“I think the license will be positive,” Nadra says. “I'm hopeful that we will be able to create schools in this area and young women who know how to braid hair coming out of high school can have a trade. They can come out [of high school] with an education, get a license and further their career, instead of hair braiding not being a professional thing - instead of it being a basement thing or a porch thing.”
Mimie Oumou Wague, a Senegalese immigrant who chairs the Illinois Hair Braiding and Natural Hair Care Association, says the new license provides African hair braiders with a greater sense of security.
Other African hair braiders agree.
Kadysylvie Padonou, a hair braider from Benin, a small country in western Africa received the new license in December 2011. “I feel better,” Padonou says about having a license. “In America everyone must have a license. When they [the Department of Professional Regulation] come, they ask ‘Do you have license?’”
Nancy Asirifi-Otchere, a program coordinator at the United African Organization, believes the new hair braiding licenses will allow local braiders to earn stronger wages from their businesses.
“I've heard so many stories about problems dealing with customers,” Asirifi-Otchere says, citing examples of braiders’ clients who have refused to pay. “Some resort to all sorts of things to run away without paying, [like] the use of pepper spray in a hair braider's face, or they say someone else is coming with the money, and when the car comes they jump in the car and drive off.”
Asirifi-Otchere says that many African hair braiders are reluctant to report their customers’ behavior to the police because they fear the police will investigate their immigration status. This is particularly true for hair braiders who are undocumented immigrants.
Asirifi-Otchere says she is cautiously optimistic that the licenses will make African hair braiders feel secure enough to speak out against abuses they suffer. “I'm sure it gives them a sort of security,” Asirifi-Otchere says.
Still, Asirifi-Otchere says many undocumented braiders will likely not apply for the new license for fear the state will investigate their immigration status since the license application requires a social security number.
Cristina ‘Ronke’ Thomas, a hair braider from Nigeria and organizer at the Illinois Association of Hair Braiders, says braiders’ fears have made outreach efforts around the new licenses difficult.
A few weeks ago, Thomas knocked on the door of an undocumented braider. The lights were on and she could see the woman braiding a client’s hair. “But she wouldn’t let me in, even after she opened the door a bit and I told her I was from the Association,” Thomas said.
There are mixed reports on whether or not hair braiders could be issued licenses using an alternative identification number, such as an Individual Tax Payer Identification Number (ITIN). An operator at the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, the unit that controls the hair braiding licenses, said that it was mandatory to fill in one's social security number on the application form.
But Smiley says the department is still discussing whether or not SSNs should be mandatory. Wague, who sits on the Barber, Cosmetology, Esthetics, Hair Braiding, and Nail Technology Board, which decides on the licenses, said the department may allow braiders to use their ITINs. She says the board is currently working with legal advisers to reach a compromise.
For now, Traore is encouraging braiders to apply with their ITINs to see how the Department responds.
Mariam Ndiaye, a hair braider from Senegal, said that while she was afraid of applying for a license at first, she now thinks it is worth doing. “God will protect me,” Ndiaye says.
For Asirifi-Otchere, resolving hair braiders’ fears of the licenses is “about getting hair braiders to know their rights so they can find out how to protect themselves. It's a lot about education and advocacy to make sure reporting a crime does not end up an immigration issue."
The battle to achieve better living and working standards for all hair braiders goes beyond the question of licensing. It is ultimately about empowering hair braiders to be able to lead healthy lives in the United States, without being discriminated against because of their profession, gender or immigration status.
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