Do people really think there is something wrong with "African" hair?

Around 40 years ago, I did work for a company that required employees that interfaced with the public to have "natural" hair color (not necessarily the color one was born with, but a color humans have "naturally" somewhere in the world). Those who did not interface with our conservative Catholic customers, could dress and wear their hair anyways they wanted to.

This policy was more of a problem for one of the white women, who was into "Goth" dress, she dyed her hair purple, and had an array of piercings and tattoos that weirded out our policyholders. She was a wonderful person, when you got to know her, but the CEO of the company insisted she not staff the front reception desk because our older conservative Catholic policyholders (we were a Catholic fraternal life insurance company) might be shocked. She was fine to work in other administrative jobs and did.

Was this unreasonable or unfair... I don't think so.

Other companies I worked for avoided hiring people whose tattoos could not be covered up at work with a long-sleeved shirt or long pants. Other companies had issues with certain body piercings, especially if the piercing represented satanic or witch symbols. But I have never worked at a company (and I worked at many) or audited a company, that cared how black women styled their hair.

When I started my career, I was told I had to get my hair cut (it was below my ears, now most of it has fallen out). I had to wear a suit with a vest and a white or light blue button-down collared shirt with polished black or brown laced shoes. Was that discriminatory towards me, a product of the 60s and 70s? Probably, but that was how things were.

I can remember how controversial it was when a company I was working for introduced business casual Fridays. The CEO thought it was a nice perk, the employees loved it, and some senior executives said the company was losing its discipline.

Anyways these days it seems most people and employers just care that your underwear is covered and clean if its not, your clothes don't have unintentional holes, in them, nothing is hanging out of your clothes that shouldn't be, and your hair is "maintained", however you prefer, but it has to look clean.

For most companies, a well-dressed black woman no matter how she wears her hair is a "home run" as Human Resource departments scramble to make diversity goals. More difficult for many companies is clothing worn by young men, who seem less inclined to "dress" for work.

Bottom line, in our multi-cultural diverse workplace, I really wonder where people care about someone's hair as long as it's well maintained.

Can you cite any specific employers that have been found discriminating against black women based on their hair style? I find that really surprising these days, but if you can cite some, that would useful.