The Maryland hairstylist who dragged a 15-year-old client at her home-based salon has learned her fate.
Last March, Jayla Cunningham, aged 19, reportedly spent four hours installing a weave and styling her client’s hair.
According to the hairstylist, the girl had agreed to pay $150 for the service but attempted to leave without paying once it was completed.
The hairstylist who dragged a teenage client across the floor of her salon has been sentenced
Image credits: FOX 5 Washington DC
A video viewed more than 50 million times shows Cunningham pulling the client across the floor by her hood and toward a salon doorway.
Following the incident, the girl’s mother took legal action against Cunningham. In November, a jury convicted the 19-year-old of second-degree as*ault, which carries up to 10 years in prison.
On Thursday (January 22), the hairstylist was sentenced to six months of home detention.
“I really do regret what I did,” Cunningham told Judge Michael Pearson before he handed down the sentence, The Washington Post reported.
“Can you have faith in me? Can you believe in me that I am trying?” she asked the judge.
Image credits: FOX 5 Washington DC
Judge Pearson said he has “no reason to believe you’re a bad person,” but told the hairstylist that he could not ignore her behavior in the video.
“The disregard you showed that young lady on that day is unacceptable,” he said. “I trust you’re going to learn from it.”
Cunningham told Fox News in March that the teenager attempted to run off without paying her the $150.
“I dragged her by her hood back into the salon until I could get paid or, you know, until the police came or until, you know, she let me take out the service, because it’s like she literally ran outside, like she was about to be gone,” she said.
“I feel like if I didn’t do that, she would have been gone,” the stylist added, “and I would have just never been paid.”
Jayla Cunningham accused the 15-year-old of trying to leave without paying for a four-hour service
Image credits: FOX 5 Washington DC
The charging documents say the 15-year-old client was “pulled and dragged by her hair.”
The mother also accused Cunningham of telling her daughter “not to move until I get my money” before approaching her with a pair of scissors to scare her.
She said her daughter tried to pay electronically but accidentally sent the money to the wrong account and was trying to remedy the error before being attacked by Cunningham.
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Samuel Elira, Cunningham’s attorney, argued that his client acted in defense of her business and that she used scissors to “take the service out” of the girl’s hair, not to harm her.
“She’s a business owner,” said Elira. “She was protecting her business interests, and the other thing that’s important is she’s 18 years old.”
Instead of detention, Elira argued that his client needs “business skills, training, and anger management.”
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In court, the hairstylist said she had moved into her apartment two weeks before the incident and was worried about not being paid by the client.
She also said she was experiencing serious mental health struggles stemming from a toxic relationship.
In evidence admitted at trial, Cunningham texted an apology to the 15-year-old, as per The Washington Post.
The judge concluded that Cunningham, 19, showed no remorse for her actions
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Still, Assistant State’s Attorney Jeffrey Woolf concluded that Cunningham showed no remorse for her behavior, even posting videos on TikTok of her dancing to taunting music, which were shown at the trial.
Additionally, she reportedly posted a video of herself dragging the 15-year-old toward the door.
According to Elira, his client lost her business and her apartment following the incident.
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Maryland girl tries to run off on D.C. hairstylist after getting her hair done pic.twitter.com/umfXaJBdKK
— The Night Warrior (@WarriorNight007) March 9, 2025
De’aja Thompson, the attorney representing the 15-year-old, told 7News that the girl suffered physically and psychologically after being attacked by Cunningham.
“I was appalled,” she said. “I was shocked honestly, I don’t know how else to put it in words.”
“It’s a minor child we’re talking about on commercial property, dealing with a business owner who as*ulted one of her clients,” Thompson added.
“You do not put your hands on people, regardless of the circumstances,” wrote one user on X
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