I want to start by saying I can’t thank all of you enough for the support you showed me on my last post. It’s given me the courage to actually pursue justice. In the last few days, there are have been some notable updates:

1. I made a complaint to the Maryland State Board of Cosmetology, who has confirmed that they’ve initiated an investigation. I don’t believe braiders require a license in MD. But Sugar Braid performs a broad range of services (washes, sew-ins, etc.) that are well outside the scope of braiding, and there is no record of them ever having a license. I’ve also reported them to BBB (state and federal).

2. Thanks to you all boosting the original thread, I was able to connect with at least two other women who had the same experience with nail glue being placed on their natural hair. Together, we are exploring options.

3. I made a video on the clock app summarizing the main facts of my story. So has one of the other women affected. It would mean a lot if you continued to boost these videos for exposure, and to assist with combatting the business’ lies (more on that below...). You can find our videos at “jklmn_xcx” and “limeskittlesupremacy”.

4. As of today, the business has still been dodging my attempts to communicate directly about the situation. However, at 3am this morning, Sugar Braid uploaded video responses to their social media. She finally admitted her braiders used the nail glue, but she couches that confession in a string of lies and mischaracterizations. For example, she claims that I showed up to my appointment with my hair silk pressed, which is why their braiders got confused between the texture of the braiding hair and my real hair. You read that correctly. I apparently decided to show up to a braiding appointment that I scheduled weeks in advance with my 4C hair silk pressed - in the middle of June - and it was done so well that it matched Brazilian body wave hair. If that were the case, I would expect any of the three people who inspected my hair when I spoke up about my hair being left out as they were braiding to say something. I was dismissed.

5. More troublingly though, Sugar Braid’s response videos include a number of private images that I sent to the owner when initially trying to achieve a resolution. One of these is a photo of me in my towel, though with the way she’s cropped it, I appear naked. She has also fully plastered my face throughout, likely as an attempt to intimidate me. All of these have been posted without my consent. I’ve reported both the videos, but I understand that could take a while. I don’t think I’d mind as much if I had taken straight to social media to begin with, but it strikes me as extremely inappropriate to pull this when I made many attempts to resolve the situation privately and protect her business’s reputation. All of those attempts were taken advantage of.

Again, thank you so much for all of the advice and counseling you’ve given. This community really came through. We likely won’t get our money back, but the girls are determined to get accountability and make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else in the future.