A Blog written by Jay Parker, BSWn Creative Intern
Even though there are established laws to protect against racially motivated discrimination in the UK, Afro hair discrimination continues to be one of the ways Black people still suffer prejudice and injustice. In a study by Dove UK, they found that 1 in 4 of Black adults have been sent home from work or faced disciplinary action as a result of wearing their hair in a natural or protective style, and nearly 2/3 of Black adults have faced hair discrimination, and more than half of Black children have been sent home from school due to wearing their hair naturally or in a protective style.
To work towards positive change and the creation of specific guidelines that are free of ambiguity, Enact Equality and the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Race Equality in Education are working with the Equality and Human Rights Commission to launch a survey, supported by GLAMOUR and a host of other brands. The survey will collate people's experiences of hair discrimination, and be used to produce a set of robust guidelines that can be used in schools across England, Scotland, and Wales to help put an end to hair discrimination. Following the results of the survey, the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Prime Minister's Office have both agreed to publish new materials that schools will refer to when creating their uniform policies at the national level in September, aligning with the start of the new school year.
As a woman of mixed Jamaican and English heritage, I, like many others around me have always struggled with appreciating my natural hair as well as understanding its versatility and uniqueness. It is believed that these self-criticisms stem back to colonialism, which changed the way Black people perceived and wore their hair when Europeans brought with them their ideas of what hair and beauty were supposed to be, resulting in centuries of being mocked, ridiculed, and discriminated against because they didn’t fit this new beauty standard.
Image of Jay Parker by Tasha Hylton
I have experienced micro-aggressive comments in my previous place of work where in one instance, my hair was described as ‘too urban’ for a particular look at a photoshoot. Let's also not forget to mention the countless times that I have had strangers actively try to touch my hair. This type of behaviour may seem small in comparison to other injustices Black people have to deal with regularly, however, it tells us so much about how people still see the Black community. During my final year at university, I created a photo book titled ‘Fuzz: A Celebration of Afro Hair’, where I requested submissions to be sent in to be published in the book alongside editorial images I took of my family. The request was simple, send me any story that you want to share, the good, the bad, and the ugly. The shocking part of these submissions were the similarities between the experiences. Whether that was chemically straightening their hair to fit a particular beauty standard, or being told that their hair was not suitable for work or school, the common theme was that in all cases, everyone now unapologetically celebrated their hair and its versatility to some extent.
Image from 'Fuzz: A Celebration of Afro Hair’
These notions of what makes ‘Good hair’ are concepts that stem from centuries of bias, even from within our own community. In 2009, Chris Rock made a documentary titled ‘Good Hair’ after his little girl, who was 3 at the time asked him, "Daddy, how come I don't have good hair?" It was at that point that he realised that she had already absorbed the perception among some Black people that curly or afro-textured hair was not "good." Throughout the documentary, Rock explores why Black women adopt so many different hair styles and techniques such as Relaxer, a cream designed to chemically straighten the hair to portray a more Caucasian look. Other techniques such as weaves and wigs offer a less permanent solution, whilst still helping them achieve their desired European look.
““I knew women wanted to be beautiful, but I didn’t know the lengths they would go to, the time they would spend and not complain about it. In fact, they appear to look forward to it.””
And most of the time that is true. For a lot of these women, it’s not only time that goes into these hairstyles, it’s money. The US Black hair industry is valued at around $2.5 billion USD and whilst there are Black-owned hair care companies such as Flora & Curl, Nylah, and Ecoslay, Reverend Al Sharpton says that we still, “Wear our economic oppression on our heads”, referring to that fact that the Black hair care industry has shifted from African-American manufacturers to Asian manufacturers, redirecting the profits from the industry out of the African-American community. Small steps are now being made globally to combat hair discrimination, particularly in the US and UK.
Chris Rock’s ‘Good Hair’
In 2020 South African retailers started pulling TRESemmé's hair products from their shelves in light of a problematic print advertisement describing natural Black African hair as "frizzy & dull" and "dry & damaged,” next to two pictures of white women whose hair is described as "fine & flat" and "normal." Another issue occured in Jamaica in 2020, where a 5 year old girl was refused acceptance into Kensington Primary School unless she cut off her dreads. To this day we are still seeing hair discrimination globally, even in majority Black countries.
In a step to end hair discrimination in the UK, a group of 30 young Black people created the Halo Collective. The Halo Code enables Black people in both schools and workplaces to wear their hair as they want, without limitation, scrutiny or, discrimination. This self-made collective shows us that you don’t need to be part of a political party to make change. They share their own personal experiences, educate by providing a detailed history of hair discrimination, as well as giving the user access to two live petitions on Change.
Although we are moving in the right direction, there is still a long way to go in the journey to hair equality. If you are interested in making a change, here are the relevant links for petitions from Dove and Halo Collective, as well as the Enact Equality survey.
