An Ulta salon on the Upper East Side is facing a new lawsuit after two Black customers say staff told them the store “doesn't do their kind of hair.” The complaint, filed this week on behalf of Manhattan resident Lauren Smith and her 7-year-old daughter, accuses the shop of racial discrimination and asks for money damages along with court-ordered training for workers.
According to Gothamist, the lawsuit claims that on July 6, 2025, Smith and her daughter, who are both professional models and say they had booked appointments ahead of a photoshoot, were turned away at the Ulta salon on the Upper East Side. The filing alleges that staff at the location told them the salon "do[es] not do their kind of hair." The suit identifies their assigned stylist as "Jessica C." and names store manager Mohammed Salam, alleging the refusal was a pretext for race-based discrimination.
Legal Context
The dispute is unfolding under city and state rules that explicitly protect Black hairstyles. The New York City Commission on Human Rights has said grooming or appearance policies that ban, limit, or otherwise restrict natural hair associated with Black people generally violate the city’s Human Rights Law, according to the Commission. At the state level, lawmakers acted in 2023 to require cosmetology programs to include education and testing on all hair types, a change that took effect in May 2024 under Senate Bill S6528A, as reflected in the bill text on the New York State Senate site.
What Plaintiffs Are Seeking
The complaint says Smith and her daughter were denied service because of their hair texture and left without the styling they say they needed for work. Filed by attorney Wendy Dolce, the lawsuit asks the court for monetary damages and court orders requiring anti-bias training and changes to how the location operates, according to Gothamist.
Ulta's Response And Corporate Context
The lawsuit states that staff at the East 86th Street store directed questions to Ulta’s corporate office in Illinois. Ulta’s public-facing materials say the company is "committed to creating a more inclusive world," and corporate filings and press releases describe a footprint of roughly 1,500 stores across the country, a scale the plaintiffs point to in arguing that what happened goes beyond a one-store problem. See Ulta Beauty and the company’s press release for more on its nationwide presence.
Why This Case Matters
The lawsuit taps into a long-running complaint in the beauty industry: people with textured hair often report that they struggle to find stylists who are trained to work with their hair and that they are sometimes turned away or receive worse service than other customers. New York’s textured-hair education mandate for cosmetology programs was pitched as a direct response to that gap, aiming to raise the minimum level of training and reduce discriminatory refusals. Coverage of the law highlighted those goals and the increased pressure on salons to adapt, and Allure and legal analyses linked the measure to a broader push for more inclusive salon practices.
The case is still pending and could become an early test of how national chains’ in-store salons line up with New York City and state protections around hair and race. Future court documents, along with any formal corporate response, will be part of the public record, and developments in the case may signal whether Ulta makes policy or training changes that reach beyond the Upper East Side location named in the suit.
