WASHINGTON (AP) — Art director Momo Pixel moved to Portland, Oregon in 2016, and confronted a challenge she had never experienced before: Strangers reaching out to grab or stroke her long braided hair, often without her permission.

"I would be walking down the street visibly mad," Pixel recalled.

One day, she told her boss about it. In trying to mimic that scene, he playfully ducked imaginary hands coming toward him. Pixel remarked that it would make a funny game.

With the support of her employer, advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy, an online game, "Hair Nah! " was born. Since Pixel shared it o...