Isis Brantley

Isis S. Brantley (born 1958) is an American natural-hair stylist, entrepreneur, educator, and activist based in Dallas, Texas. She is best known for leading a decades-long campaign that resulted in the deregulation of natural hair-braiding in Texas in 2015.

Early life and education Brantley was raised in the Bonton neighborhood of South Dallas, where she began braiding hair at about age nine. She traces her ancestry to Mali in West Africa and views hair-braiding as part of a spiritual and cultural lineage.

Career African Braiding Studio and early work In 1981, Brantley opened the African Braiding Studio in Dallas.

Legal advocacy 1997 arrest In 1997 Brantley was arrested for braiding hair without a cosmetology license after undercover officers entered her salon. In January 2015, a federal court ruled the regulations unconstitutional, and later that year the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 2717, removing braiding from state cosmetology laws.

Philosophy Brantley promotes hair as both ancestral and spiritual, describing it as "the highest point on the body that connects to the heavens." She continues to live and work in Dallas, Texas.