Robyn Nair considers herself an experienced mom. She’s got three kids. Her youngest, Rohan, is 8 months old.

In all her years of breastfeeding — “their mouths have never touched a bottle,” she says — no one had ever questioned her.

Until Wednesday, when the Ponder resident took Rohan and Ria, age 3, with her to Regis Hair Salon in Golden Triangle Mall to get a haircut.

DRC/Al Key

Robyn Nair, a mother of three girls, holds 8-month-old Rohan at her family’s home in Ponder. Nair says a hairstylist asked her to leave a salon because she was breastfeeding in public. The shop’s manager says Nair wasn’t asked to leave, but the stylist felt frustrated.

“It’s the only place I ever go,” Nair said. Between herself and her 5-year-old, Rahni, they’ve visited the salon about six times a year in the past three years, she estimated.

After her shampoo, Nair put Rohan in a Bumbo baby seat on a vacant stylist’s chair next to the one she was sitting in. Rohan got fussy several minutes later, Nair said, so she decided to nurse her.

The stylist would have none of it.

“She told me, ‘I’m sorry, we don’t allow that in public. You’re going to have to leave,’” Nair said.

Shop manager William Morton said although he wasn’t there that day, the three stylists working that day told him that Nair wasn’t asked to leave. The stylist who was cutting her hair was fresh out of school, he said, and she was frustrated by the situation.

For safety and sanitation reasons, Nair could have nursed Rohan in the back, sitting on one of the shampoo or dryer chairs, he said.

“We wouldn’t send her to the bathroom. That’s not sanitary,” Morton said. But, he also admitted that none of the stylists ever offered Nair the option of the other chairs. 

“She just got up and left,” Morton said.

Flustered and flummoxed herself, Nair got up as the stylist helped her remove the drape. Rohan was screaming, having been denied her feeding. Nair gathered up her purse, the baby seat and her diaper bag as Ria picked up her toys. Then, the stylist reminded Nair that she still had several clips in her hair. She helped Nair remove them.

She also accompanied Nair to the front of the salon. Nair said she mumbled a request for a phone number to make a complaint, and the stylist handed her a card.

“I left with dripping, half-cut hair,” she said.

Later in the day, still upset, Nair called her mother, Marchelle Taylor of Keller, who is a pediatric nurse.

Taylor said she complained to both the shop and an employee who answered the complaint line at Regis corporate headquarters. She wasn’t satisfied that either party understood that Nair had a right to nurse her baby.

Federal law permits a woman to breastfeed in public places, according to Denton lactation consultant Diana Hatch. “It doesn’t matter how much breast is showing either,” Hatch said.

Hatch said it’s been a long time since she’s heard of someone being asked to leave a business for breastfeeding her baby.

There was a scene at a Denton area restaurant about 10 years ago, she said. Several women with La Leche League worked with the restaurant’s corporate leadership to make sure everyone understood how important it was that babies be allowed to eat, too, Hatch said.

The Texas Legislature went further with a law passed in 1995, guaranteeing a mother’s right to nurse her baby wherever she is.

Hellen Sullivan, a registered nurse with the Texas Department of Health, said that these situations aren’t common, but they do happen from time to time.

“Most of the time it’s [complaints] coming from people who are ignorant or uncomfortable,” Sullivan said.

Susan Evans, a spokeswoman for Regis Salon corporate headquarters, said that while company officials weren’t quite sure what happened that day, kids are welcome and women are allowed to breastfeed at Regis salons. But stylists have to be careful, too.

“Safety and sanitation are a top priority,” Evans said.

PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com.