MADISON, Wis. — As kids head back to school, a Madison hair braider offered her services free of charge with the hopes students will look and feel their best.
Ndey Binta Sarr said she never expected to braid hair for a living when she moved to the United States in 2019 from the Gambia in West Africa.
“It's nothing like I went to school and studied for, nope,” Sarr, who owns Binken's African Braids, explained. “It just came naturally.”
Sarr began braiding last year after Wisconsin became the 31st state to deregulate natural hair braiding. She opened her salon in October since a cosmetology license is no longer required for braiding.
“I was pregnant with my baby, and I couldn't go to work again because it was risky for me,” Sarr said. “I'm a microbiologist. I have my master's degree in biomedical informatics.”
State Rep. Shelia Stubbs, D-Madison, helped get the legislation across the finish line and said the policy is no longer discretionary as it was before lawmakers passed the bill.
“This bill has been a trailblazing bill,” Stubbs said. “It's done exactly what I knew first-hand it would do, [which] was be able to help the economy. I think it helps us culturally, I think it helps us bring in more diversity, and I think it allows us to be us.”
The deregulation also allowed Sarr to have a schedule that fits with her family.
“That bill really helped me to open the business,” Sarr said. “If that bill was not there, honestly, I wouldn't open this business.”
Sarr also would not have been able to offer free back-to-school hair braiding as a sort of "thank you" to the community.
“When I had the baby, I never bought diapers, I never bought clothes, I never bought cream, everything they gave to me,” Sarr said. “They bought everything, so why not give back to the same community that helped me?”
It's the kind of gratitude Sarr hopes she can spread with every style.