Despite progress toward hair inclusivity for Black students and professionals, ongoing restrictions on natural Black hair are sparking widespread criticism across the diaspora over its roots in colonial-era norms.
From Kingston, Jamaica, to parts of Ghana, Nigeria, and Uganda, disputes over natural Black hairstyles continue to emerge across the African and Caribbean diaspora, raising questions about how grooming standards rooted in colonial ideas of “neatness” still influence workplaces and schools today, the Guardian reports.
Recent incidents include a case at Ardenne High School in Kingston, Jamaica, where a mother said her teenage son was pulled from class after staff deemed his afro inappropriate. Similar policies persist in countries like Ghana, Nigeria, and Uganda, where some schools require girls to cut their natural hair before enrolling.
Scholars say that despite independence from Britain, colonial-era attitudes toward grooming remain deeply embedded in institutions.
“Schools continue to be hyper-focused on maintaining strict and oftentimes discriminatory hair and grooming policies,” said Sint Maarten Minister of Education, Melissa Gumbs. “Many of these can be traced to subjugating colonial-era standards of appearance rather than providing a safe, dynamic, and innovative learning environment for students.”
Other incidents have surfaced globally, including in Trinidad and Tobago, where a student said he felt “embarrassed” after he and his classmates were barred from graduating because of their hairstyles. In the U.S., there are cases like Darryl George, who was suspended over his locs, and Damon Landor, a Rastafarian man suing a Louisiana prison for cutting his hair. In the U.K., students like Chikayzea Flanders and Ruby Williams have also faced pushback from schools over dreadlocks and afro hairstyles.
With hair discrimination rooted in the transatlantic slave trade and Eurocentric beauty standards, Verene Shepherd, professor emerita of social history at the University of the West Indies, said colonial-era attitudes still shape school policies today and disproportionately impact Black students.“Afro-textured hair and Black hairstyles have for a long time been regarded as problematic by some people,” she said. “We have heard comments from children in schools that locs, twists, and other styles are not accommodated because of the view that there needs to be uniformity.”
In Jamaica, Shepherd said she has advised the government on creating non-discriminatory grooming policies, noting that “the Victorian gender order that defined post-slavery society has continued into the present.”
Michelle De Leon, founder of World Afro Day, said progress has been made in some countries, pointing to improvements in school hair policies and guidance from the U.K.’s equality watchdog aimed at preventing discrimination.
Other changes are emerging globally. In France, lawmakers have backed legislation targeting discrimination based on hairstyle, texture, or color, championed by MP Olivier Serva. In the U.S., California became the first state in 2019 to ban discrimination based on natural hairstyles through the CROWN Act—a measure since adopted by other states.
In the U.K., schools have also been able to sign on to the Halo Code since 2020, pledging to end discrimination against Black hairstyles. Campaigners are also calling for afro-textured hair to be recognized as a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010, which would extend protections against discrimination in areas like employment.
Some Caribbean nations have already taken action. Anguilla became the first to introduce a national hair-discrimination policy in 2022, and in 2023, Trinidad and Tobago implemented a school hair code allowing styles such as locs, afros, twists, and cornrows.
“While societies have evolved, the lingering perception that natural afro-textured hair must be controlled, altered, or hidden to be considered ‘acceptable’ still echoes within some institutional policies today,” Gumbs said. “We owe it to current and future generations to carve away the ugly remnants of that history.”
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