LYNDHURST, Ohio — A good haircut can change your day.
For Cleveland NAACP Chapter President Danielle Sydnor, being accepted for her natural hair has changed so much more.
"It makes you feel proud of who you are, you don't feel like a second-class citizen, especially when you have a stylist who takes care of your hair and cares about your mane as long as you do," Sydnor said.
For Black women in America, there have been rules and restrictions on what hair is deemed acceptable or professional, both written and unwritten.
Now, legislation called the Crown Act has passed the U.S. House and would make it illegal to discriminate based on someone's texture or style of hair.
"You know, you got to have that European look to be accepted, that type of thing, so I think a lot of times it can be liberating to be able to cut it or perm it or twist it or braid it, whatever your choice is," Bangs Salon owner Edith Donaldson-Wheeler said.
As the owner of Bangs Salon, Edith Donaldson-Wheeler has had many clients in her chair scared to wear their natural hair, worried they would be considered unprofessional or worthy of being taken seriously.
It's a stigma the salons work to break with clients like Sydnor who grew up believing relaxing her hair for a straighter look was expected.
"It's just a form of self-expression and it's a form of agency we have and ownership over our bodies and we won't let people tell us what we can do and now we have potentially federal legislation to back us," Sydnor said.
As the saying goes: Look good, feel good. Donaldson-Wheeler is here to make people feel their best.
Previous Reporting:
Editor's Note: The below video is from previous reporting on the Crown Act