You watch the clip once and your stomach drops. A 19-year-old stylist storms out of a home-based salon, grabs a 15-year-old girl by the hair and yanks her back inside after a fight over payment. What started as a routine appointment ends with a teenager on the floor, a stylist facing a felony-level reality check, and a viral video that would follow both of them into court.
The case of Maryland hairstylist Jayla Cunningham is not just about one disturbing video. It is about what happens when a business dispute turns physical, when social media becomes evidence, and when the justice system decides how a young adult should pay for violently crossing a line with a child.
From payment dispute to viral assault clip
You are looking at a home salon in Prince George’s County, Maryland, where 19-year-old hairdresser Jayla Cunningham was finishing a style on a 15-year-old client. According to county officials, the argument started over a payment of about $150 for the service, after the teen tried to send the money electronically and ran into trouble with the transfer, later telling her mother she had sent the funds to the wrong account. That version of events, including the amount and the failed electronic payment, is laid out in charging documents and in a detailed statement from the State’s Attorney Announces, which describes how the disagreement over that Payment Dispute escalated into violence.
Instead of letting the teen walk away while the adults sorted out the money, Cunningham followed her outside, grabbed her by the hair and dragged her back across the floor toward the salon door, an act captured in a short, jarring clip that spread quickly across platforms. The video, originally recorded and posted from the stylist’s own account, shows the girl being pulled by her hair and hood while other voices shout in the background, and it later surfaced in coverage that identified the location as a home-based business in Prince George’s County and the stylist as a Maryland hairdresser seen dragging the 15-year-old back inside. That same sequence, replayed in slow motion and clipped for reaction reels, became the centerpiece of public outrage and the backbone of the criminal case.
How a 19-year-old stylist ended up with a five-year sentence
Once the clip started circulating, you could not escape it on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube. A widely shared reel described a “19‑year‑old Maryland hairstylist” and tagged “#JaylaCunningham,” inviting followers to swipe for their “Thoughts??” as the footage showed the teen being hauled by her hair across the threshold of the salon, a moment preserved in an Instagram reel that helped push the story into national feeds. Local TV followed, airing the same footage in segments that identified Cunningham as an 18-year-old at the time of charging and replayed the confrontation frame by frame, including one broadcast that introduced her in a package titled “MD hairstylist charged with assault after dragging teenage client,” which is still visible in a YouTube clip of the early coverage.
From there, the legal fallout moved quickly. Prosecutors in Prince George’s County charged Cunningham with second-degree assault and related counts, leaning heavily on the video as proof of what happened inside the home salon. A county news release on the case, which appears on the official site under the heading State’s Attorney Announces, spells out that the office viewed the assault on the Teenage Girl as a serious crime tied directly to the Payment Dispute. Another local explainer on the case, tagged with topics like “Hairstylist,” “Client,” “Video,” “Prince George’s County” and “Assault,” walked viewers through how the clip from the home business became central to the charges, a breakdown still accessible through a local news link that lists those topics in its metadata.
By the time the case reached sentencing, you were not just dealing with a viral scandal but a fully documented assault in the eyes of the court. In a detailed account of the hearing, one report notes that a Maryland hairstylist who posted a video of herself dragging a 15-year-old client toward the door at her home-based salon in Prince George’s County later saw that same clip introduced as evidence, a point underscored in a piece that describes how the viral video became a key exhibit. Another detailed narrative of the case, which focuses on how a Maryland hairstylist’s own upload turned into evidence against her, reinforces that the clip from the home salon in Maryland was central to the state’s argument, a point echoed in a separate analysis that notes a Maryland hairstylist who posted the footage faced a criminal charge shortly after it spread.
What the sentence says about violence, business and social media
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