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Isis Brantley, Dallas Woman, Mad At TSA For Checking Her Hair For Weapons

Isis Brantley

First Posted: 09/21/11 12:24 PM ET Updated: 11/21/11 05:12 AM ET

A Dallas-bound woman is angry at the TSA after agents stopped and searched her afro while she went through security at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport.

Isis Brantley, a hairstylist, was rocking her signature haircut while going through security to make her American Airlines flight, Dallas' KXAS reports. Brantley, it should be noted, has not cut her hair since she was 12 (she is now 53).

"I just heard these voices saying, 'Hey you, hey you, ma'am, stop. Stop -- the lady with the hair, you," Brantley told the station. She then claims that TSA agents stopped her so they could "check for weapons." A female agent started "digging in her scalp."

The TSA released a statement to the news station saying, "Additional screening may be required for clothing, headwear or hair where prohibited items could be hidden. This passenger left the checkpoint prior to the completion of the screening process. She was offered but refused private screening."

But Brantley says that "they have never done that to me before". A TSA agent apologized to her regardless.

Back in July, Laura Adiele accused the TSA of racism after agents inspected her curly hair at Seattle's Sea-Tac airport.

Check out Brantley's interview below:

View more videos at: http://nbcdfw.com.

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A Dallas-bound woman is angry at the TSA after agents stopped and searched her afro while she went through security at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport. Isis Brantley, a hairstylist, was rockin...
A Dallas-bound woman is angry at the TSA after agents stopped and searched her afro while she went through security at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport. Isis Brantley, a hairstylist, was rockin...
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
boomcat44
If you're gonna be a BEAR....be a GRIZZLY
11:11 AM on 11/19/2011
Much a hair-do about nothing.
12:41 PM on 09/27/2011
If they also check a white woman's bouffant hairdo, then by all means check the 'fro as well. If she is being singled out because of the 'fro, then I have a problem with it. But considering that the TSA has checked people's adult diapers and even patted down infants, I think this is par for the course.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Edward Wilkes
Poet/Stage Actor
07:01 AM on 09/26/2011
Great hair! Sexy voice! It is a wonder they did not demand to look at her tonsils!
03:02 AM on 09/26/2011
Is she serious?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
stopnlisten
Hitch your wagon to a star!
05:50 PM on 09/25/2011
She could have hid an entire terrorist in that mane. A small one, but one nonetheless....
03:06 AM on 09/26/2011
They made a WHITE grannie take off her DEPENDS undies & this "H" is crying about hair?

Somebody smack this fro-fro-FROO-FROO!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
AERO
05:20 AM on 09/25/2011
You think that's bad--they made me take off my shoes and my belt!!
07:40 PM on 09/24/2011
The cost of vanity? The Afro pat down.
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piul05
Can I have a biscuit yet?
06:00 PM on 09/24/2011
That's one beautiful mane!

I have one, but it's a Latin curly one.

It's great to see women over 40 wearing the kind of hair that suits them, rather than the ones deemed "suitable" for their age.
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Richbruin
We'll walk this world together through the storm
02:38 PM on 09/24/2011
She needs a makeover.
02:08 PM on 09/24/2011
TSA did the same thing to me back in 2003 and my hair is long and straight, but exceptionally thick. The big difference is they didn't search my hair they made me lift my hair in small sections to prove nothing was hidden in it and then bend over and shake my head.

Another lady on the same flight was chosen for a random search, they barely looked at her or her carrying and instead focused on her baby. They made her completely strip her baby down to nothing. This baby was just a few weeks old, it was the dead of winter they did the search at the entrance to the gate - not back at security. The door leading to the plane was open, it was cold and this poor baby was screaming from the cold air and no clothes. Once the search was complete the agent handed her her boarding pass and she slipped it into the pocket of the diaper bag so she could redress her child. The agent SCREAMED at her and said he wasn't finished searching the diaper bag and made her start the search over again. All she did was slip the boarding pass into the pocket so she could finish getting her child dressed. TSA is a joke.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Edward Wilkes
Poet/Stage Actor
06:59 AM on 09/26/2011
T) The
S) Satanic Birdbrain of
A) America
08:31 AM on 09/24/2011
Our adversaries are laughing while TSA bleeds our economy dry with their expensive and senseless abuse of taxpayers.

Under Pistole, TSA screeners have become facto child molesters. They have stated that pat downs involve direct contact with children's genitals meeting any reasonable definition of sexual assault. Despite the repeated past claims that they were adopting sensible procedures for children, these abuses continued.

Add to that the 52 TSA screeners arrested this year for serious crimes, including two this week, one for rape and the other for murder. Of these 52 crimes, nine arrests were for sex crimes involving children. They can’t prevent crime within their own ranks, but we’re supposed to trust this agency with airport security.

No wonder TSA complaints are up 40% over last during in his tenure, This version of security is unacceptable and those responsible must be held accountable. TSA needs to be abolished and Pistole fired for mismanagement and malfeasance.

TSA Crimes & Abuses
http://www.travelunderground.org/index.php?threads/master-lists-of-tsa-abuses-crimes.317/
06:05 AM on 09/24/2011
Okay, paranoid America, you cannot have it both ways. You either want security or you do not. The 'bad' guys don't play by rules and would hide stuff anywhere they could, whether it be in an afro or in a baby's diaper. As long as the TSA does not hire sex offenders, let them do their job or just let everyone on an airplane without complaining about no security. If I were a bad guy and had hair like that and knew it would not be checked, I would hide something in there.
02:49 PM on 09/25/2011
I am glad that TSA is doing its job. I used to marvel about how small islands in the Caribbean used such security measures and the USA had none--you could just walk in after showing your passport. As for this lady, she needs to comb her hair, forget the 60's and join the rest of us in the 21st century
Yaa
Working mother of five, now happily retired
03:37 PM on 09/26/2011
No, she should keep her huge afro, and stop complaining about the TSA employees doing their jobs.
Or she could take the train, the bus or drive.
01:39 PM on 09/28/2011
The so called "Afro" is not not an African Hair style.. It is a hair style that is common iamong women of the South Pacific Islands like Figi etc. Braids are African!!!

f
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
CLSayles
There's nothing micro about me...
08:15 PM on 09/23/2011
Not funny, but I couldn't stop laughing at this one...
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Stageman
My micro-bio remains empty
06:52 PM on 09/23/2011
On an airplane, sitting beside her, that hair would be inches from your face.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
HGfromOmaha
A hungry, free man not a well-fed slave
06:56 PM on 09/23/2011
So? Some people are so fat, they squeeze onto my seat. Guess what? I deal with it.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Ohin Gaston
04:50 PM on 09/24/2011
WHATT!!!????? your statement is crazy.

We're just as afraid of your hair as you are about ours.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
lshaft
This We'll Defend
04:34 PM on 09/23/2011
Get A Damn Haircut!!!
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
cherieamour
..u may haz cheezburger...
01:30 AM on 09/24/2011
...grow a pair!...
03:03 AM on 09/26/2011
That is toooooo much hair.