For Utah’s growing Black population, the experience of having one’s hair done properly isn’t just a matter of looking good — it’s about personal identity.
Lexy Heuston, 11, patiently sits in a salon chair for eight hours as Essence of Ebony hair salon owner and stylist Imani Powell braids her hair into cornrows, March 10, 2022, in West Jordan.Lexy Heuston, age 11, is completely at ease as she gets her hair done, watching something on her iPad, even though she’s been sitting in the chair for almost 8 hours now.On this day, Powell is putting Lexy’s hair in cornrows, pulled back from her face — a must for her, as a ballerina.
Lexy’s mother, Kelley Heuston, said her daughter has already experienced unwanted attention because of her hair — like how, when she wore her hair in an afro, people touched her hair without permission. “If you are looking at the industry of cosmetology, immediately you think of a white blonde person,” Powell said. “You have this image of what that looks like because that’s what they wanted to do. That was the intent. That is the purpose. And they have been thriving ever since.”
In her seven years in the industry, Johnson Kramer said, she’s had to go out of her way to learn how to work with Black hair, because it was never taught to her at school. She said it’s treated more like a “niche” that people can get into if they choose. “We have the most segregated industry in America, and it’s time that we kind of start having these conversations, especially in this state where it’s really prevalent,” Johnson Kramer said.
The requests from students to staff began rising in the summer of 2020, when issues of racial discrimination received more attention nationwide in response to the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The staff asked Powell to teach about handling Black hair, for free, on top of her own educational responsibilities.
From her mother’s salon, Powell said, she learned about “the politics behind why relaxers came into existence, especially for Black people. The stigma behind what professional looks like and what nappy is, and how that’s unprofessional and unkempt.” The phrase now sits in the center of a loaded political debate, co-opted by conservative pundits and politicians and turned into a catch-all insult for anything that suggests the existence of systemic racism.
Perez-Landon said Powell taught her how to take care of her hair between appointments. She said she was anxious the first time she came to the salon, but feels much more confident now.
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