Woman Refuses to Leave Tip at Salon Over Racial Discrimination; Shares Experience in Viral Video

From dissatisfaction with tips to working conditions, several factors have recently been seen influencing staff behavior at salons. But recently, a TikTok user shared an unpleasant experience at a hair salon which has sparked off a conversation around discrimination against Black women. The user named Giordan Simone (@realgsimone) shared how a staff misbehaved with her just because she had curly, wavy hair which led to her not leaving a tip for the worker.

Here's how Simone’s $60 service went

Simone said she went to the salon to get her hair done and everything was going fine at the beginning. However, she noticed that the Hispanic woman, who was serving her wasn’t happy with working her hair as she had 4C hair type. According to L’Oreal, this type of hair is a mix of waves, coils, and zigzags.

While Simone admitted that “It does take a little extra effort to do my hair in its entirety,” service providers at salons aren’t supposed to misbehave, which was the case with this worker. “She was making comments like, ‘oh my god,’ huffing and puffing,” Simone said in the video.

Soon things got worse when the hairdresser began complaining about Simone’s hair to other staff. The TikToker said that the worker started speaking in Spanish assuming that Simone won’t understand. Unfortunately for her, Simone spoke the language and understood her making sly comments.

Simone didn’t call the woman out on the spot but the discrimination made her uncomfortable. She said that such comments could have deeply affected someone else who might have taken steps to change their look entirely.

“She could have done that to the wrong person with 4C hair, and that might have made that person go get a perm. That might have made that person go get a keratin treatment,” Simone said.

Simone said at the end of the session, which turned out to be worth $60, she thought of leaving the hairdresser with a small tip of $2. However, she felt that the actions of the worker did not deserve a tip after all. “One, you’re not going to disrespect my hair texture, and two, you’re not going to disrespect my intelligence because you think that I don’t understand you,” Simone said.

Viewers on Simone’s video also shared how they had gone through similar discriminatory experiences. One user named CiCi said that she too went to get a Dominican blowout at a salon where the worker started huffing and puffing while working on her hair. However, CiCi replied to the worker in Spanish which shocked her.

Another user named Valerbearr on TikTok said that when she went to get her hair done, her stylist wasn’t satisfied with the $20 tip she had left. She said the worker was still a student and she didn’t even have a license yet.

Simone’s case shows how black women have historically faced discrimination over their natural hair. A 2023 CROWN Workplace Research study found that race-based hair discrimination is a widespread issue for Black women in the workplace as well.

The study found that black women’s hair was 2.5 times more likely to be seen as unprofessional and over two-thirds of the women surveyed said that they had to change their hair for a job interview to be successful.