State plans to untangle braiding issue

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Joe Copeland

Joe Copeland Feb 6, 2018

Feb 6, 2018

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                <h1>State plans to untangle braiding issue</h1>
                <h2><p>Update 4:07 p.m. A Kent woman who practices the art of African hair braiding is optimistic that the state will come up with a regulation exempting her and fellow braiders from needing to get a cosmetology license. With the help of the libertarian-leaning Institute for Justice, Salamata Sylla</p></h2>
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               <p>By <a href="/author/joe-copeland-crosscut-com/">Joe Copeland</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Feb 6, 2018</time></p>
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            <p><em>Update 4:07 p.m.</em> A Kent woman who practices the art of African hair braiding is optimistic that the state will come up with a regulation exempting her and fellow braiders from needing to get a cosmetology license. With the help of the libertarian-leaning <a href="http://www.ij.org/?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">Institute for Justice</a>, Salamata Sylla had sued after the Department of Licensing ordered her to get the costmetology license – which requires significant time and money for training. The Institute has argued there is no problem with regulation if it’s appropriate to the actual work done, but it said the 1,600 hours program for a cosmetology license doesn’t include any work on hair braiding. Institute attorney Wesley Hottot praised the Department of Licensing for recognizing the problem (it’s also apologized to Sylla), but said that if the planned rule-making fails, Sylla could renew her suit.  — J.C.</p>
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Update 4:07 p.m. A Kent woman who practices the art of African hair braiding is optimistic that the state will come up with a regulation exempting her and fellow braiders from needing to get a cosmetology license. With the help of the libertarian-leaning Institute for Justice, Salamata Sylla had sued after the Department of Licensing ordered her to get the costmetology license – which requires significant time and money for training. The Institute has argued there is no problem with regulation if it’s appropriate to the actual work done, but it said the 1,600 hours program for a cosmetology license doesn’t include any work on hair braiding. Institute attorney Wesley Hottot praised the Department of Licensing for recognizing the problem (it’s also apologized to Sylla), but said that if the planned rule-making fails, Sylla could renew her suit. — J.C.

By Joe Copeland

Joe Copeland is the former senior editor&nbsp;for Crosscut, where he has been an editor since 2010. Before that, he was an editorial writer and columnist for the Seattle P-I and editorial page edi