Issue date: 12/7/07 Section: Features

Media Credit: Associated Press Photo Melissa Theodore, 27, an accountant at Ernst & Young in Manhattan, knows the uniform when it comes to corporate America: dark suits and sensible shoes. But when it comes to hair, she wears hers in long, thin, braided extensions.

MELVILLE, N.Y. (AP) - Despite warnings from her family that an ethnic hairdo might hurt her career, Melissa Theodore of Huntington, N.Y., an accountant at Ernst & Young, wears her hair in long, thin braids with burgundy highlights that cascade past her shoulders.

But Theodore, who has worked at the company for two years, doesn't believe that. "My hair has never been a problem as far as my career goes," said Theodore. "It's neat and very professional."

Black hair has historically been a controversial issue - especially when worn in its natural state in styles like afros, braids, cornrows and dreadlocks. Glamour magazine is still trying to put to bed an ugly matter that erupted five months ago when a former staffer made racially insensitive comments about the appropriateness of black women's hairstyles in the workplace. The magazine recently hosted "Women, Race & Beauty," a panel that explored the culture of beauty, with an emphasis on ethnic hairstyles in corporate America.

"It was important to open up a dialogue on personal issues related to women, race and beauty," said Samantha Rosenberg, a Glamour spokeswoman. "We wanted to do something about (the incident)."

The incident that Rosenberg is talking about involves Ashley Baker, a white former associate editor at Glamour, who touched off a firestorm of controversy last summer when she told a roomful of female attorneys at law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton that afro-styled hairdos and dreadlocks are Glamour "don't's."

"`No offense,' she sniffed, but those `political hairstyles really have to go'," reported American Lawyer magazine, which first broke the story.

After Don Imus' "nappy-headed hos" comment in April, the remarks were shockingly hard to believe; some actually thought them a joke.

Glamour received hundreds of letters from angry readers, Rosenberg said. Editor Cindy Lieve posted an apology on the magazine's Web site. Baker "resigned" shortly after. Still, the anger over her comments continued to foment, prompting Glamour to assemble the panel. Journalist Faria Chideya moderated. Panelists included Essence magazine's executive editor Vanessa Bush, Lisa Price, founder of Carol's Daughter, which creates natural haircare and beauty products for black women; Jami Floyd, news anchor and legal analyst at Court TV, Daisy Hernandez, managing editor of Color Lines, a magazine on race and politics, celebrity makeup artist Mally Roncal, as well as professors Venus Opal Reese, who teaches aesthetic studies at the University of Texas at Dallas and Barbara Trepagnier, who teaches sociology at Texas State University.

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