It's mostly just overbreadth of hairdressing laws -- legislators (largely white males) don't think about putting in exceptions for certain types of what they co

It's mostly just overbreadth of hairdressing laws -- legislators (largely white males) don't think about putting in exceptions for certain types of what they consider hairdressing, so it ends up covering braiding. You then get an entrenched oligopoly of companies that have jumped through the hoops and provide the service and therefore don't want the competition from unlicensed people, so the law (even if it came into being through ignorance) gains supporters with a vested interest in keeping the status quo.