Lauren Smith and her seven-year-old daughter allege the company\u2019s employees violated state laws regarding hair texture and racial discrimination.<\/p>\n
A shocking lawsuit is brewing for Ulta Beauty after employees of a location on the Upper East Side in New York allegedly refused service to a Black woman and her daughter, telling them they don\u2019t do \u201ctheir kind of hair.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawsuit<\/a>, filed by Lauren Smith and her seven-year-old daughter, alleges racial discrimination by employees at the Ulta Beauty store on East 86th Street in July 2025. The employees, according to Smith, denied her and her daughter due to their hair \u201ctype\u201d and \u201ctexture,\u201d their general inexperience with \u201cyour kind of hair,\u201d and their disrespect for not telling employees in advance \u201cwhat kind of hair\u201d the two had. According to Smith, no employee at the shop looked at her or her daughter\u2019s hair and both had appointments to have their hair done.<\/p>\n Both Smith and her daughter are professional models.<\/p>\n A portion of the complaint reads, \u201cThis discriminatory treatment occurred in full view of other customers, causing severe humiliation to Ms. Smith and traumatic distress to her 7-year-old daughter who left the store crying hysterically and asking, \u2018What is wrong with my hair?\u2019 and \u2018Why can\u2019t I go there if there are brown girls [in ads] on the walls?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Smith alleges that \u201cJessica C.,\u201d the stylist who was assigned to do her and her daughter\u2019s hair, was \u201cnot comofrtable\u201d doing their \u201ctype\u201d or \u201ctexture\u201d of hair. The store\u2019s manager, identified as Mohammed Salam, backed the decision and called out both Smith and her daughter for not identifying their \u201chair texture\u201d while booking their appointment.<\/p>\n \u201cIt therefore became immediately apparent that the stated reason was a pretext for race-based discrimination,\u201d the plaintiffs allege.<\/p>\n Ulta, which has long championed its role in advancing<\/a> diversity, equity and inclusion, has previously defended itself when accused of discriminatory practices. In 2019, the company issued a statement after former employees accused the brand<\/a> of encouraging employees to racially profile customers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe stand for equality, inclusivity and acceptance and strive to create a space that is welcoming to all,\u201d Ulta, in a statement, said at the time. \u201cThat is why we have our associates participate in ongoing trainings on diversity and inclusion. This is our responsibility and we take it seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith\u2019s lawsuit also contends that the salon\u2019s refusal to serve her and her daughter violated the New York State Human Rights Law<\/a>, which prohibits discrimination based on traits associated with race, namely hair texture. The suit also alleges that Ulta employees broke New York State cosmetology licensing laws<\/a>, ratified in May 2024, which require hair stylists to be trained and competent to provide services to people of all hair types and textures.<\/p>\n Smith and her daughter are seeking financial damages in the suit, along with training for salon employees, among other requests.<\/p>\n More must-reads:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lauren Smith and her seven-year-old daughter allege the company\u2019s employees violated state laws regarding hair texture and racial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69774,69773,9,56,63,65,64,47162,22390],"class_list":["post-170829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-hair-texture","tag-lauren-smith","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-racial-discrimination","tag-ulta-beauty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}