A friend recently asked my thoughts about recent articles and protests about how Afro hair styles are viewed by educational establishments.
In my opinion, twists, braids, funky dreads, traditional locs - everything up to and including so-called ‘unseemly’ freeform locs should be acceptable everywhere.
Smart dress requirements should not be tainted by preferences for Caucasian attributes.
A black girl with the kinkiest, tightly coiled 4c type natural hair pulled back in a low bun with zero gel and ‘laying of edges’ should not be considered any ‘messier / unprofessional / unkempt’ than a Caucasian, curly haired girl who has pulled her own hair back into one, in exactly the same way.
‘You can’t get away with that, because your hair responds differently.. ‘ reinforces the incorrect assumption as white as the default, the norm, and anyone NOT white as ‘other’.
I dispute any idea that ‘we’ have to do more to our natural hair .. have to put in work to hide our hairs natural attributes to make it palatable and attractive.
Away from the religious basis, I simply dispute the idea that a badly done weave or plaits formed from horse hair or cut from an Asian or European woman, then woven around my head, is somehow ‘better’ than the hair that comes out of my scalp.
