9322: Hairport Security.

National news sources reported on an incident no one ever covered at Black Atlas.

Woman: Airport search of my Afro was humiliating

DALLAS — A Dallas hairstylist says security officers at Atlanta’s airport humiliated her when they subjected her large Afro hairstyle to a search in open view of other arriving passengers.

Isis Brantley says she was headed down an escalator at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, after she was screened at the initial security checkpoint, when two TSA agents came after her asking to check her hair for explosives, according to the website of CBS station KTVT-TV in Dallas.

Brantley says the agents began patting down her large Afro in public as she waited on a train platform.

She claims she was embarrassed and couldn’t understand why they checked her again after her initial security screening. Brantley says she couldn’t believe it was happening to her.

She says she wouldn’t have minded if the TSA did the hair pat-down at the security checkpoint. It was the public display that upset her.

Brantley tells The Dallas Morning News the search in full public view brought her to tears.

In a statement to the newspaper, the Transportation Security Administration said Brantley left a checkpoint at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport before security could complete her screening. That prompted a security officer to refer her for further screening.

TSA says a private screening was offered and refused, but Brantley denies that. She says she doesn’t mind being searched, as long as it’s done respectfully.

She adds nothing like that has ever happened to her in the 20 years she’s had the natural hairstyle.