How Dove Is Helping Create A Respectful & Open World For Natural Hair

Dove is synonymous with celebrating your authentic self, typically showcased through their Real Beauty campaigns where you’d see imagery and messaging supporting a beautiful gamut of body types, hair textures, skin tones, and ages. So, it’s only fitting that the brand that continues to champion beauty inclusivity is helping drive an important cultural change with their support for the CROWN Movement: helping end race-based hair discrimination nationwide through their advocacy of The CROWN Act.

Just in time for National CROWN Day – also known as Black Hair Independence Day – on July 3rd, and to celebrate the last five years of the CROWN movement, we are shining some well-deserved light on the issue of race-based hair discrimination in the United States and all of the work that the CROWN Act, supported by Dove and the CROWN Coalition, has done to help address it head-on.

First, some background: The CROWN Act, which stands for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural hair, is legislation that was first signed in California in 2019 to prohibit race-based hair discrimination based on hair texture and protective hairstyles, including braids, locs, twists and knots. This legislation applies both in the workplace and in public and charter schools, from kindergarten to grade 12.

Here’s where Dove’s longstanding support comes in: As a co-founder of the Coalition since 2019, they continue to help support the CROWN Movement by creating awareness and education of race-based hair discrimination as well as advocating for CROWN Act petition signatures, with a goal of reaching one million. While the CROWN Act or legislation inspired by the CROWN Act is currently enacted in 26 states and over 50 municipalities (positively impacting the lives of over 30 million Black people in the United States), Dove and the Coalition hope to see race-based hair discrimination made illegal nationwide.

Black women’s hair is 2.5x more likely to be perceived as unprofessional.*

In case you’re wondering how large the issue of natural hair discrimination is in the United States, you’ll probably be surprised by this: Black women are 1.5x more likely to be sent home from the workplace because of their hair. In the same vein, a Black woman is 80% more likely to change their natural hair to meet social norms or expectations at work. Quite shockingly, this discrimination begins early: 1 in 2 Black children experience hair discrimination as early as five-years-old, often creating an impact that can last an entire lifetime.

While the CROWN Act legislation specifically protects against race-based discrimination in workplaces and K to 12 public and charter schools, Dove has even expanded their wider CROWN mission by advocating for real impact in the virtual world: Their Code My Crown initiative aims to improve hair representation within the gaming world and virtual space. Addressing the massive lack of Black hair visibility in the video gaming space (according to Dove’s research, 85% of Black gamers believe video games poorly represent textured hair and 91% of Black gamers are eager to see themselves as characters reflecting their own experiences), Code My Crown is a guide to the creation and celebration of Black hair textures that anyone can access to create characters in the digital world.

As you can probably glean, Dove knows the power of people and community, which is where you can take action to help create a respectful and open world for Black hair. To start, sign the official CROWN Act petition here. Then, share the petition with friends, family and on social to encourage them to also sign. Whichever way you contribute to the cause, know it has a huge impact for millions of people who have historically been shown to be an afterthought. Remember, your voice matters to drive change – because everyone deserves to feel confident and respected wearing their hair how they choose.

*CROWN 2023 Workplace Research Study