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Woman Denied Service At JC Penney Salon For Having Black Hair
New York, 6:47 PM
Thu Nov 12
73 posts in the last 24 hours
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Woman Denied Service At JC Penney Salon For Having Black Hair |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
10/30/08
Sorry white hairdressers, I need a reference.
No offense!
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If it were not true that there is a substantial difference in the hair of many black persons then there would be no need for places that specialize in black clientele. All you need to do is open your eyes and look around to see that these places do exist.
More than likely Ms. McElmore is just one of those people who is easily offended and quick to play the race card. In my opinion people like that are just as guilty of keeping racism alive as the KKK and skinheads.
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I can understand both sides, but the girl at the salon most likely really didn't feel competent to do the woman's hair. It does take some knowledge and experience to dress black women's hair.
Sometimes you have to understand the situation. Not everything that happens is racist. Now if the girl had said, "we don't do ni$$er hair here" that's a different story. I'm a fat guy, and Men's Warehouse doesn't carry suits my size. Now if I go in there and the salesperson says, "I'm sorry sir we don't have suits your size," will that comment sting a little bit? Sure. But if they really don't have suits my size what can I do? I'm not going to sue the store for something they can't do at the present time.
I can recommend that they start carrying larger sizes just like this lady could have suggested to JC Penney that their salon should be prepared to handle customers of all races and hair types.
There's no question that the JCPenny's girl could have chosen her words better, but either way this lady would have been offended. You have to look at the situation.
~JB in New England
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I need to go lie down.
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Now myself I have never been to Supercuts, and I personally don't know any other black people that do, mostly we go to certain barbershops in our neighborhoods, so I think her saying "We don't do black hair" was probably not meant to offend. A better statement should have been " I am not proficient cutting or styling black peoples hair".
And as a black person I only think she needs a public apology, nothing more.
10/30/08
But my fear with this lawsuit is that the next time I call and ask a salon this question, they'll just lie to me.
10/30/08
10/30/08
White and Asian women come into my hair salon all the time, and the women who relax my hair can cut, style, and color many other types of hair.
Why is it acceptable to turned down because of your race? Would it not benefit someone to have stylists who can style a range of hair types?
@Penultima: Yes because human beings bodies are to be treated like car parts.
10/30/08
We had an instructor in cosmo school who told us that there is no such thing as black, asian, mexican, etc. hair. There is hair that is coarse, medium and fine, curly, straight and wavy and possibly everything in between and any number of combonations. Of course certain types of hair are attributed to certain types of people, but that shouldn't make you scared to work with it. Hair is hair.
I don't remember who made the comment about gray hair being different than non gray hair, but she was exactly right. Gray hair is coarse and stubborn but you would never hear of someone being turned away for having it. It frustrates me to no end to still hear of cosmos that are terrified to work on typical black hair, or any type of hair for that matter. Everyone has a preference of what type of hair they would like to work with and they should be allowed to do so. I, for example, could die a happy woman if I never had to roll another perm or try to do an updo on fine hair ever again, but that's not to say that I wouldn't and couldn't do it if necessary.
Shame on JC Penney's for not having a stylist who is comfortable with working with ALL types of hair. Either hire someone or educate all of your stylists. And teach that receptionist how to properly, respectfully turn someone away.
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It's a pain in the rear to find someone to deal with natural hair, even if they are of the same(or similar) ethnic background. "We don't work with natural hair here!" "We don't do that, get a relaxer! We'll do that for you." Did I ASK for a relaxer? No. I went to one salon, the woman sneered at me like I was diseased (for wanting a wash/press), and then cast me to the side to coo at my friend's dyed, relaxed/black-korean hair (I don't remember if it was relaxed, but when we were little she'd have it done. Her natural hair is wavy.).
The funny thing, I've had better reception with white stylists. They'll say "well, we don't normally work with your kind of hair, but if you're comfortable with us doing it/willing to guide us so we don't fry it, we'll do it".
Most "Black" Hair products are made by the same companies that make "white" hair products, just slap a black person on it and call it something like Dark Beauty Pride or so. There is a difference in the bonds of the hair, but those are general hair bonds. Yeah, I have to oil my hair instead of frantically washing it every single day, but I'd say that's about the biggest difference...
10/30/08