The Hair industry has for a long time overlooked the importance of creating learning institutions that train in ALL hair types and textures, especially Afro-textured hair. This is a disservice to past students and future Cosmetologist’s that are not confident in how to do Afro hair or any very curly hair for that matter. Why is that? And what can we do to change that? Salons shouldn’t be sending potential clients to a “specialty” shop because they can’t do it, but they are and it keeps Black and very curly hair clients feeling like they can’t trust us with their hair and why would they? We should know how to do ALL hair types. Our industry has failed them across the board e.g hair, make up, and skin care. This is a petition I’m hoping that can make Cosmetology schools pay attention to include more classes and training on Afro and curly textured hair. Im aware that some schools DO include some training but it’s either outdated or time is spent very little going over techniques. I know that for licensed stylists we must educate ourselves on our own and I hope this also will have us reaching out to our fellow Black hairdressers and break down that invisible barrier and start listening to their stories and what can we do to support them better along with educating ourselves. Furthermore, I would like to collect any stylists personal stories and experiences they would like to share about how their school prepared or unprepared them for when they finally got on the Salon floor. I will send them in an email along with this petition to all the Cosmetology schools. Please sign and share!