According to a recent article in the Jamaica Gleaner, a school in Barbados has banned girls from wearing their natural hair in a twist-out style.
What’s next, mandatory hot combing? Sigh.
Before I go into my tirade, let me give you some background on me and my hair. As an adult, I choose to chemically relax my hair (it’s texlaxed actually). I also grew up in Jamaica and attended a conservative, prep school complete with uniforms, teachers who were allowed to beat us, and a principal with an overzealous belief that “Pickney who kwan ear muss feel” (Translation – children who don’t listen, shall feel).
Girls were expected to be feminine and boys were expected to be little gentlemen. There was no running and no loud talking allowed from girls or boys. The goal was to produce functional, respectable, well-adjusted young-adults, who would be positive contributors to society. If you watch Downton Abbey, then picture that level of social scrutiny about how you behaved in a school yard with children. So believe me when I say that I understand what it means to attend a school with strict rules.
I also take issue with the article categorizing a twist out as “un-combed hair.” A twist out is a hair style that requires you to comb your hair, twist it, allow it to set/dry, then remove the twists to wear the style. How is that un-combed? If a girl with straight hair roller set her hair, let it dry, then removed the rollers but left the curls undisturbed, would that be considered “un-combed hair?” I think not.
But I digress…