A 25 year-old Hooter's waitress is suing her former employer for firing her because she put blonde highlights in her hair The Baltimore Sun reported Wednesday.
"I didn't see that it would be a big issue just because there were a lot of other employees working at the restaurant of other races with color in their hair. For instance, there were Asian girls with red hair and Caucasian girls with black hair and blond streaks so I didn't think it would be an issue for the little piece of blond highlight in my hair," Farryn Johnson told The Baltimore Sun.
Johnson was consulted about the hair highlights in June, and was let go in august when she did not remove them.
Managers told Johnson and other Hooters employees to alter their hair. Johnson's co-workers who came to work with curly hair were told to make it straight. According to The Sun, Caucasian workers were able to wear their hair curly.
Johnson's complaint claims her highlights were "not natural" because she was african American after she mentioned an Asian-American woman dyed her hair bright red, while a caucasian was able to have black hair The Sun reported.
"When you're representing an iconic brand there are standards to follow. Hooters Girls are required to be camera-ready at all times to promote the glamorous, wholesome look for which Hooters is known. Hooters adamantly denies that it has different policies and standards for hair based on race. As a global brand, Hooters embraces our culturally diverse employee base and our standards are applied impartially," Rebecca Sinclair, chief human resources officer at Hooters of America said in a statement.
Johnson wants to receive the wages she did not earn for the time she did not work, and the company to change its policy for how employees should appear.
"She wants to show Hooters what they did was wrong and get them to change this," Jessica Weber of Brown, Goldstein, and Levy told The Sun.
