Soon after Sojourna Worthy moved to Oklahoma from California, she was stopped in the grocery store by a woman admiring her braided hair and asking if Worthy took clients.

Worthy, in her early 20s at the time, quickly had a growing group of women who would come to her home to have her braid their hair.

“The next thing I know, I’m doing all kinds of people’s hair,” said Worthy, now 48 and owner of Twist It Sistah salon in Del City. “But then I did a woman’s hair, and after I finished - seven to eight hours of work - she said ‘Do you know what you just did is illegal?’ And I’m looking at her like ‘What are you talking about?’”

At the time, a person in Oklahoma was required to have a license or certificate to do services involving hair.