Let’s start with facts: In a study conducted by Dove in 2019, 80 percent of Black women surveyed reported having to change their hairstyle from its natural state to “fit in at the office.” From the postal service to the military to Fortune 500 corporations, racial discrimination has been forbidden since 1964, when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. And yet. Hair, a physical representation of our racial differences, has remained a barrier to entry — coils and kinks stretching toward that glass ceiling but too soft and springy to break through. When a Black child is sent home from school because of their cornrows or a woman is denied a promotion because of her Afro, it serves as another economic hurdle for Black people to overcome. That’s why the CROWN Act*, so far passed in seven states and the House of Representatives, is such an important moment in beauty — and social justice — history. Making hair type a protected class normalizes the hair so many Black people are born with.
So, as Allure celebrates 30 years of beauty milestones, our content director Jessica Cruel had the honor of sitting down (virtually) with three women who worked hard over the past two years to bring the CROWN Act to life: Esi Eggleston Bracey, EVP and COO of beauty and personal care in North America at Unilever, who led Dove and the CROWN Coalition to rally politicians and more than 75 organizations to support the law; Jennifer Carroll Foy, former Virginia delegate and current gubernatorial candidate who cosponsored the CROWN Act in the Virginia House (where it passed 72-25); and Tabitha Brown, an actor who has used her social media platforms to spread the word about the CROWN Act petition, which now has over 244,000 signatures. (The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.)
Cruel: “Esi, you and Dove have been instrumental in moving this conversation about hair discrimination forward. I would love to hear about the conversations you all had internally when you began discussing the CROWN Act.”
Eggleston Bracey: “We were seeing kids denied from school, and adult women denied employment [because of their hair]. Dove [owned by Unilever] has always been a champion for what we call ‘real beauty,’ which is not beauty as a standard, so we can’t ignore that. We did work trying to figure out how to make hair a protected trait, [from] existing legislation that protects race, gender, and sexuality, and that’s how we were able to help facilitate the CROWN Act. I went to the convening of a group called NOBEL, the National Organization of Black Elected Legislative Women, and the majority in the audience had textured hairstyles. I was like, ‘You can make [this] change.’ We formed an alliance [alongside like-minded organizations] called the C.R.O.W.N. Coalition: Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair. We did this because we know legislation changes lives. We’ve seen it time and time again, starting with the Emancipation Proclamation up to the Civil Rights Act. Our hair is part of who we are and our identity. People denying our hair is denying us access to employment and education in addition to [not allowing us to be] confident in who we are.”Carroll Foy: “I was excited to co-patron the CROWN Act and then also to take it to another step by carrying a bill called [Dress Code Equity Act]. [Ed note: This bill limits public school dress codes in Virginia from prohibiting locs, braids, and other significantly religious headgear, like hijabs and headwraps.] It really comes back to sometimes you have to legislate what’s right. First you change the law, then you can change hearts and minds. I told my fellow legislators, ‘I need you to trust me.’ You may not understand or see or feel the effects of someone thinking your hair is unkempt or unprofessional, but I do. There are so many little girls who are told, ‘When you grow up and you go for that job interview, let’s go ahead and relax our hair so everyone else can relax.’ It is a form of racial discrimination based upon our texture, our style. I can’t tell you how many times legislators said, ‘This isn’t a thing. How do you prove that it was actually someone’s hair that someone was discriminated against and not just because it was a distraction?’ And I say, ‘Listen, when my hair is natural, it’s big. It’s kinky, it’s curly, and it’s a huge distraction.’ And that’s the point because that’s how God made me, and I am fine with that.”
Cruel: “How do you think being able to wear our natural hair in the workplace changes the way we can go about our work and even do better work?”
Eggleston Bracey: “I’ve been in corporate America 30 years. At first, I had a straight, little black bob. I wanted to put my head down and focus on my work and have everyone think, Esi is just like all of us. Then I realized that the sheer act of doing that was choosing to conform. So I cut off my perm and wore a short Afro. And the freedom I got from that… That’s when my career started taking off.”
Cruel: “When you wear your hair natural, do you receive any comments from coworkers?”Carroll Foy: “When I am in the general assembly and I wear my hair in its natural state, other legislators want to talk about my hair. I’m trying to talk about bills and budgets! We have to start working more to make it a norm. I’m walking into these rooms where sometimes I’m the only woman and the only Black woman… There are so many preconceived notions and biases and stereotypes already and [hair] is yet another one. Oftentimes, when we wear our hair natural, some people think we’re militant. So sometimes I just go with the path of least resistance [and wear my hair straight]. But I would encourage people, like I try to encourage myself: Be who you are. Yes, it can be annoying to answer the questions, but it’s about educating people. If I do it now, then the Black and Brown girls that come behind me won’t have to.”
Eggleston Bracey: “My daughter [doesn’t want to] change her hair at school. She wears a big Afro puff, but she says, ‘If I change it in any way, it’s going to invite them to start grabbing my hair. And I don’t want that.’ [She doesn’t want to] invite any attention.”
Cruel: “Tabitha, when you started acting did you get comments on your natural hair?”
Brown: “I started pursuing acting in Greensboro, North Carolina, and I had locs at the time. I would go to auditions and [someone said], ‘Can you wear a wig to cover that up?’ And I’d be like, ‘No.’ One day, [that person] said, ‘Listen, you got to change this look. Nobody wants to see a Black woman with your complexion with hair like this.’ And that was the first time I felt like I was told I wasn’t enough. And I believed it. I wanted to act so bad. I stripped my locs until I had a baby Afro. [I] moved to L.A. and I became addicted to the flatiron. It all became me trying to fit into what they told me. I wanted to win. I believed that I had to do this, not realizing that that meant I wasn’t free. I pressed [my hair] so much that it would no longer get curly when I washed it. She was oppressed. Not pressed, oppressed.”Eggleston Bracey: “She was oppressed, honey. She was down.”
Cruel: “My hair has been oppressed many a time. What are your memories around hair from growing up?”
Carroll Foy: “I remember my grandmother sitting me in the kitchen chair. I had to be all of, like, five or six when I had my first perm. It burned, and I remember thinking, Why do we do this to ourselves? I have no problem with what my hair looks like, but clearly everyone else does. It sends a negative message that how you are is not okay.”
Cruel: “How do you think the CROWN Act is going to affect the way our own community sees natural hair?”
Eggleston Bracey: “I think you start changing legislation, then you can start to change the culture. I’ve been natural for years, but my mother was like, ‘Girl, what is wrong with you? They are gonna fire you with your hair like that.’ [Our parents] were scared. It’s the same thing from slavery. You learn that the more compliant you could be, the better your life would be. So how does the CROWN Act make a difference? It legitimizes the fact that our hair is great the way it is.”
Brown: “With our parents and grandparents, it was fear. You can’t do anything that makes you look stronger. The moment that we take our power back, we know what true freedom is. What it boils down to: You can’t free part of us and not all of us.”
Carroll Foy: “It also has to do with addressing the systemic racism that has happened for generations. It is about three things: economics, empowerment, and equity. The economic piece is that we shouldn’t have to get a perm to get a permanent job. The empowerment piece is about setting that new normal, which is natural [hair]. The equity is eliminating the policing of Black bodies.”
Cruel: “Why do you think our hair needs to be a protected class?”
Brown: “I think when you try to get us to change our hair you’re trying to erase our culture. Our hair is part of our culture. We share things, especially us natural-hair women. We know how, when you go to wash and detangle, you’ve got to do it in sections. We know how you can’t air-dry without a conditioner on. These are things that we relate to and understand. And that’s ours.”Cruel: “So much of our culture has been erased already.”
Brown: “Exactly. We’re taking it back in this way. We’re making it normal. I can’t tell you how many messages and videos and pictures and emails that I get from parents saying, ‘Oh, my God! Thank you for embracing your hair. My little girl now wants to wear her Afro, where before she would never want to wear her hair out. Now she wants her Afro puffs.’ Representation matters.”
Cruel: “Tabitha, you call your hair Donna. I’m brainstorming names for my hair now too.”
Brown: “You got to give her a name so that people know that she has a life too. And she deserves to be free.”
Carroll Foy: “This is a part of the Black experience. Because I can say two words and everybody going to be right with me: Blue Magic.”
Cruel: “Whoop.”
Brown: “Hello.”
Carroll Foy: “I can still smell it. How do you have four women on a call across the country with different lives and experiences, but this is one thing that melds us all together. It just goes back to that Black experience. It’s a beautiful thing. And we’re making it better for so many other women coming behind us.”
*As of this writing, the CROWN Act is law in California, Colorado, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, and Washington State. In 2021, the CROWN Coalition is working to get the act passed through the Senate, making hair discrimination illegal in all 50 states. To help, sign the petition at thecrownact.com, write a letter, or send an email to your local legislator. Dove has also pledged to invest $5 million over five years to expand the cause beyond hair and into ending racism nationwide.