AKRON, Ohio — Tara Mosley-Samples is an Akron councilwoman who has been serving the city for seven years.

“I represent Ward 5 — the ward that I was born raised and grew up in.”

But despite working at her dream job, Samples says she has dealt with unwanted comments due to her hair throughout her career.

"I’ve changed my hair a lot, there’s times where I would wear braids, maybe wear a weave. I’ve cut my hair off, and I’ve died dyed my hair, and there has been times I’ve had colleagues say to me, ‘I didn’t even know that was you. You change your hair so much.’ Or, ‘Are you keeping your hair like that?’"

What concerns samples is not the curiosity, but instead, discrimination due to a hairstyle.

“We wanted to make sure that people in the work place don’t feel like they are discriminated against because of their hair — making sure that not just me, but other people, whether they look like me or not, if they want to wear their hair curly or straight, or have it in its natural state like mine is right now, and not feel like they will be targeted at work or even be terminated at work.”

Akron City Council recently passed legislation making hair discrimination illegal.

The legislation, also known as The CROWN Act was presented by samples and councilman Rich Swirsky almost a year ago.

"Say, if they fire you or tell you that you need to change your hair color, it’s like telling someone they need to change their, I don’t know, the color of their skin. This is something that is near and dear to them. They now will have the opportunity here in our city to go to our Akron Civil Rights Commission and file a complaint stating they were discriminated against because of the style of their hair or the natural state of their hair."

According to the official national CROWN Act campaign, CROWN stands for “create a respectful and open world for natural hair.”

Samples hopes that other cities throughout the state will adopt the CROWN Act.