MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota will soon require cosmetologists to learn how to care for, cut and style textured hair.
Only a few states have such a law. In Minnesota, the governor made it official last month, and it goes into effect Monday next week.
Valencia Montgomery Johnson helped push for the change. She's a cosmetology educator at Aveda Arts & Sciences Institute in Minneapolis and a stylist at a salon in St. Paul.
"We helped pass the texture education law," Montgomery Johnson told KARE 11. "It makes me [feel] very nice and happy. Knowing that wherever you go, into whatever salon that you go into, that you'll find at least a stylist that feels comfortable and confident in their skills to help any client who sits down in their chair."
Montgomery Johnson was a student at Aveda from 2015-2016.
"When I was a student, I don't believe the texture curriculum was the same as what it is now," she said.
Aveda's curriculum expanded a few years ago to include more styles for textured hair, she says, but not every salon is as inclusive. That can leave both stylists and clients feeling frustrated.
"You can tell when a stylist gets out into the salon if they had the education or not," Montgomery Johnson said.
She testified at the state capitol in support of changing the existing law.
The amendment says anyone applying for a license to practice as a cosmetologist, hair technician, manager or instructor must complete training on all hair types and textures, "including coil, curl, or wave patterns, hair strand thicknesses, and volumes of hair."
It goes on to say they need to have "experience providing services to individuals with hair of all types and textures."
That part of the law goes into effect July 1, and other relevant deadlines can be found here on page 90.
Montgomery Johnson says she hopes more clients with braids and locks visit the Aveda salon so students have more chances to practice. She also says Aveda will soon update its mannequin heads to include tighter curls.
Student Iz Dickey is set to graduate next month.
"As far as like braids or corn rows or anything like that, I really did not know how to do any of that prior to coming here," Dickey said. "There's definitely always more to learn and I'm always willing to learn and take that feedback, especially from the people whose hair I'm actually doing."
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