Five. That’s the age girls learn what’s real and make-believe and do a somersault for the first time. Dove research revealed that 53% of Black mothers say their daughters experienced the race-based hair discrimination as early as 5 years old. This work is all about shedding light on this staggering and heart-wrenching insight to compel people to take action on behalf of The CROWN Act—a law co-founded by Dove to make natural hair discrimination illegal in schools and workplaces across the US. Signing The CROWN Act petition was the measure of success for this campaign, so posting on social where viewers can directly take action was ideal.

Currently, there is a lack of knowledge from the General Market population that hair discrimination even exists. Within the African American community there is low awareness of the CROWN Act. The brief was to raise awareness of race-based hair discrimination and to drive CROWN Act petition signatures, specifically aiming to reach women, ages 18-54.

It is legal in the US to discriminate against a person in the workplace, schools, and/or pools because of their natural or protective hairstyle in all states except for California, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Colorado, Washington, Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware, New Mexico, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon and Illinois. Hair discrimination remains a source of racial injustice with serious economic consequences for Black people. The CROWN Act corrects these racial injustices by making hair discrimination illegal. We won't stop until race-based hair discrimination is illegal nationwide.

To jolt people into taking action by signing The CROWN Act petition, we collaborated closely with filmmaker Aisha Ford to create a visceral film that told Phoenix’s story—a story inspired by far too many real stories of hair discrimination lived by Black girls and women from childhood through adulthood. Equally as important as drawing attention to the pervasiveness and impact of hair discrimination was the story of empowerment and love that Phoenix’s father instilled in her for her hair. Phoenix is not a victim but a representation of the countless Black women and girls who have been fighting tirelessly for their hair and their rights.

Race-based hair discrimination is, unfortunately, nothing new to Black folks. Most Black women in the U.S. have experienced it at least once in their lives—often at a startlingly young age. With more conversations around race entering the zeitgeist, hair discrimination is finally starting to be recognized and amended.

In the US, the law in many states does not currently afford protection for race-based hair discrimination, even if the hairstyle is inherent to racial identity. That means, Black women can be denied opportunities for employment or professional advancement without consequence and Black children can be denied entry to school or educational opportunities because of their natural hair. That’s why in 2019, Dove co-founded the CROWN Coalition to advance The CROWN Act. Our mission was, and is today, to advance efforts to end hair discrimination and to create a more equitable and inclusive beauty experience for Black women and girls.

Dove released a NEW body of research unveiling the alarming rate and young age at which Black girls experience hair discrimination in schools. Fueled by this research, we created a short film, As Early As Five, inspired by too many real stories of those who have experienced hair discrimination and bias in both schools and the workplace. The film and campaign assets ran on TV and digital channels including YouTube, Ebony, Cultural Genesis, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. The digital film ran for six weeks (1 February through mid-March) and TV w/c 14 February.

Since 2019, Dove with The CROWN Coalition have advocated for local and federal governments to pass The CROWN Act to help protect the estimated 2.3 million Black children nationwide who are most vulnerable to race-based hair discrimination. The As Early As Five campaign, launched three months ago, has helped gather an additional 60k petition signatures and 19 new states have introduced the legislation. Most recently, the U.S. House PASSED the bill. The CROWN Act is now law in 14 states and 34 municipalities. Our goal is to make race-based hair discrimination illegal in all 50 states.