The CROWN Act in California: Your Rights at Work and School

California’s CROWN Act makes it illegal for employers and schools to discriminate against you because of your natural hair texture or because you wear a protective hairstyle like braids, locs, or twists. Signed in 2019, the law amended both the Fair Employment and Housing Act and the Education Code so that penalizing someone for these traits counts as racial discrimination under state law.¹ If that has happened to you, you have two main enforcement paths: a complaint with the state’s Civil Rights Department, or a private lawsuit in Superior Court.

What the Law Actually Protects

The CROWN Act rewrote the legal definition of “race” in Government Code Section 12926 to include traits historically associated with race, specifically hair texture and protective hairstyles. Protective hairstyles are defined to include braids, locs, and twists, and the list is not exhaustive.²

That change matters because of what it collapses. Before the amendment, an employer could argue that a grooming policy banning locs was about appearance, not race. Now, a hair-based policy that targets styles associated with a racial group is treated the same as a policy that targets the group directly.

Where the Protections Apply

At Work

Employers covered by FEHA cannot enforce grooming or dress codes that ban natural hair or protective hairstyles, and the legislature expressly found that policies prohibiting afros, braids, twists, and locs have a disparate impact on Black workers and applicants.³ The protection runs through hiring, promotion, discipline, termination, and day-to-day treatment. A supervisor who repeatedly calls a Black employee’s natural hair “unprofessional” or pressures her to straighten it is engaging in race-based harassment under California law.

At School

The same law amended Education Code Section 212.1 so that students receive parallel protection. Schools cannot discipline, exclude, or otherwise penalize a student for wearing a natural or protective hairstyle, and the definition of race in the Education Code now mirrors the employment-side definition.³

Filing a Complaint With the Civil Rights Department

The agency that handles these claims is the Civil Rights Department (CRD). You may still see older references to the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH); that was the same agency’s name before July 1, 2022.⁴

You begin by submitting an intake form. For employment claims, you have three years from the date of the last discriminatory act to file, and that window can be extended by up to 90 days if you discovered the discrimination only near the end of the period.⁵

After you file, CRD investigates and decides whether there is reasonable cause to believe the law was violated. If it finds cause, it may mediate or sue on your behalf. If it does not, it closes the case.⁶

Suing in Superior Court

You are not stuck waiting on the agency. If CRD has not filed a lawsuit within 150 days of your complaint, it will tell you that you can request a right-to-sue letter. Once you have that letter, you have one year to file in California Superior Court.⁷ Most people with strong claims take this route because it gives them control over timing and strategy.

You can file in the county where the discrimination happened, where the employer keeps the relevant records, or where you would have worked but for the discriminatory conduct. Many plaintiffs’ employment lawyers take these cases on contingency, and FEHA allows the court to award reasonable attorney’s fees and costs to the prevailing party.⁷

What You Can Recover

A successful FEHA hairstyle discrimination claim can produce several categories of relief:

Back pay for wages lost because of the discriminatory conduct, plus interest.
Compensatory damages for emotional distress, mental anguish, and out-of-pocket costs.
Punitive damages for willful or especially egregious conduct. FEHA sets no statutory cap, though courts apply constitutional limits.
Injunctive relief, such as a court order changing the employer’s grooming policy or requiring training.
Reasonable attorney’s fees and costs if you prevail.

You may see claims online that each violation carries a $25,000 civil penalty. That is a misreading of the statute. Government Code Section 12965(d) authorizes a civil penalty of up to $25,000 only for violations of Civil Code Section 51.7, which addresses hate violence, not ordinary workplace grooming policies.⁷ In a typical hair discrimination case, your recovery comes from compensatory and punitive damages rather than a fixed penalty.

When an Employer Can Still Restrict Hair

The CROWN Act does not wipe out every grooming rule. It leaves narrow room for employers to regulate hair, and the bar is high.

The clearest surviving justification is health and safety. If a specific job genuinely requires it (unrestrained hair around industrial machinery is the standard example), an employer can require workers to secure or cover their hair. The permissible rule is to contain the hair, not to cut it or change the style.

Employers can also raise a business necessity defense. Under California law, the policy must be necessary to the safe and efficient operation of the business, it must actually accomplish that purpose, and there must be no less discriminatory alternative that would work equally well. The burden sits entirely with the employer on all three elements, and courts examine whether “business necessity” is being used as cover for the same appearance policing the law was designed to end.

Federal Options and the EEOC

California’s law is stronger and more explicit than federal law, but federal law is still a parallel route. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission takes the position that discrimination based on hair texture violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because hair texture is an immutable characteristic tied to race.⁸ A federal CROWN Act has been introduced repeatedly, most recently as H.R. 1638 in the 119th Congress, but has not been enacted.⁹

Because California has its own anti-discrimination law, the EEOC filing deadline here is 300 days from the discriminatory act rather than the 180-day default.¹⁰ CRD and the EEOC share a worksharing agreement, so filing with one generally preserves your rights with the other.

If Your Hairstyle Is Religious

Hair worn for religious reasons, such as a turban, uncut hair, or a required head covering, is protected under a separate framework: religious accommodation law. Under both federal and state law, your employer must provide a reasonable accommodation unless doing so would create a substantial burden on the business.¹¹

You do not need to use any particular language to ask. Once the employer knows you need a grooming exception for religious reasons, the duty attaches. Coworker complaints or customer discomfort do not qualify as undue hardship; the employer has to show an actual operational burden such as a real safety risk.¹¹ When a hairstyle is tied to both race and religion, the CROWN Act and the religious accommodation rules can apply at the same time.

1
California Legislative Information. SB-188 Discrimination: Hairstyles
2
California Legislative Information. California Government Code 12926
3
California Legislative Information. California Senate Bill 188 – Discrimination: Hairstyles
4
California Civil Rights Department. Department Name Change
5
California Legislative Information. California Government Code 12960
6
California Civil Rights Department. Complaint Process
7
California Legislative Information. California Government Code 12965
8
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Facts About Race/Color Discrimination
9
Congress.gov. H.R.1638 – 119th Congress (2025-2026): CROWN Act of 2025
10
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Time Limits for Filing a Complaint
11
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Fact Sheet: Religious Accommodations in the Workplace