School hair

[MooseBreath]

I will preface this by saying I am not from the UK and never attended a school with a uniform. I was a teacher in the UK for a while, and there was a uniform in those schools.

Why is there a rule about how children can style their hair? I genuinely don't see how it affects learning in any way. Is it a rule for rule's sake? If so, why aren't parents saying that the rule is outdated and should be abolished? What am I missing here?

Yesssssssssssss someone has said it. I agree with you on this

Every school my kids have gone to has had basic rules for hair, across 5 countries.

Out of their eyes/tied back, natural colours, sometimes different rules for boys (which I object to TBH).

I also grew up with no uniforms. I have no strong opinion either way, there are pros and cons to any method, and even with the same rules as written, there is wide range in how it's applied. Some schools need a rethink, but parental engagement is slim enough in a lot of schools that I don't think hair is going to end up inspiring revolt.

I think part that's often left out is that we have to remember that falling back to 'individuality', especially for younger children who often have little control over their hair, can ignore the wider picture including parental involvement. My no rules on hair school as a child meant I was bleached from the age of four. Yes, this detracted from my learning, it detracted from others learning at times when a teacher would lose control over a class over a discussion about the latest shade I'd been bleached, I was bullied for the bleaching and the very dark roots I'd inevitably get, and I wondered why all the adults around showed no issue with this and if they agreed my natural hair was 'wrong'. Not having any hair rules may shift, but it isn't going to stop racial issues the way some seem to think.

I'm not going to fight the school on hair, it's the least of my concerns with schools and really, my teens either don't care or they find the idea of getting to do a big change post-GCSEs for college exciting. If I was going to push for any uniform change, it would probably be around shoes, at least to expand to include boots for winter walking cause the whole 'you can wear boots to school, but then need to change' is silly, even more so when the adults are wearing them. I also don't get the British obsession with white button up shirts on sweaty, messy teenagers and why some schools hate having kids wear coats inside.

The days of suits and business dress are pretty much over. But even when they aren't, people are generally intelligent enough to know how to dress depending on the situation.
To look at at in another way, the teen years are exactly when people experiment with different looks / hairstyles. For most, the need to have pink hair or tramlines in a buzz cut will be out of their system by the time they hit the world of work. And if it's not, they'll likely choose a profession that allows them to embrace their chosen style.
Are people forgetting that universities do not have a dress code but are often the last rung of the ladder before starting work? I spent a lot of my time as a student looking utterly ridiculous but it was so much fun.

I find it so entertaining to watch when a family leaves for the day. A small child in a full on suit while parents are wearing significantly more causal clothes to head to their professional office jobs.

I hate this utter nonsense. People have to conform when they are adults, so lets make them conform when they are children too, just to prepare them for the drudgery of adulthood? Make it make sense.

Depends on the job and industry I think. Both DH and I work in tech, DH is very senior, I'm fairly senior, we both hire people. Ripped jeans wouldn't be an issue for either of us, though I don't remember the last time I interviewed someone in person!

I think it's just England that has these mad, sanctimonious rules.
I teach in Scotland (in a leadership position) and wear trainers to work and have and a nose stud and visible tattoos. Granted when I started teaching things were a bit more formal but the workplace in general has got more casual.

I wonder how much time is spent in schools in England policing the small stuff like this.

Also all the posts extolling the virtues of these weird policies, saying that it helps kids not focus on appearance/stops bullying... I'm not aware of any evidence that shows that English schools are better prepared for the workplace/have less bullying etc than schools in European countries where they don't have uniform. Does anyone have any links to anything supporting this?

Our primary school has these rules for long hair

School uniform:
Long hair must be tied back with hair bands in the school colours, grey, purple, green.

PE uniform:
Long hair must be tied back with a black hair tie.

DD is starting in a couple of days. I wonder how many of the children with long hair untie it, and then retie with the appropriate coloured hair band for PE, and then back again after the lesson.

Now those rules are ridiculous, different coloured hair band or PE.

One of the things anoy me, removing piercings before PE. Then you watch professional athletes running, jumping, doing gymnastics with multiple piercings.

An other I find amusing is that on non uniform days 90% of kids turn up in the same outfit. Behaviour is fine, learning goes on.

The one that really really anoys me though is the policing of girls skirt legnth and at the same time the PE kit is a tiny skort.

I am a teacher. Fully professional, leadership, for the most part well-respected by colleagues and students. The policies of every school I have worked in for the last 15+ years had a clause about natural-only looking hair in it for staff.

I have ignored every single one of them and have always worn unnatural, bright colours. My reasoning was that I got hired with my hair in whatever shade of bright red/ blue/ pink/ purple/ green, so if it was acceptable at interview for what was usually a promoted post, it will be fine for the job.

No one has ever pulled me up on it and I avoid pulling kids up on their hair, too. But I grew up without uniform rules before coming over to England and I do think that uniform is just one more thing for teenagers to rebel against and is part of why most of them dislike school.

I also love spotting the highly rebellious patterned socks some of them wear.

And I'm not trying to be anyone's mate; my classrooms are as disciplined as is possible under the chaotic circumstances in most of the schools in the highly deprived areas I normally work in.

Me too. My tattoos are visible (hands and a bit of neck) it has never been a problem.

My sons British primary school didn’t have any rules about hair. His new school in Sweden has no rules about hair, make up etc, and the rules on clothes you can wear (no uniform) are limited, essentially unless you go in wearing just pants you’re fine.

There is enough pressure in schools without depriving children of the pleasures of wearing their own clothes.

But even more importantly, part of growing up is working out who you are. School uniform hampers that important process.

A uniform is there so all kids are the same it helps to prevent bullying

Use anti dandruff shampoo. It's the only thing that faded mine

@Maddy70 yep tried that it's still very red. Red is the most difficult colour to get out apparently. she's just going to see what happens at school tomorrow and if she gets into trouble then it looks like the only option will be to try and dye it again a brown shade. it's a shame she'll have to dye her hair again though to hide a current dye it's not even as though her hair is an outrageous colour it just has a lovely hint of red. infact I'm worried she's going to ruin her hair with the amount of stuff she's putting on it trying to get it out. we honestly thought the colour would only last 2 or 3 weeks in her hair!

I've known people who have gone for interviews in ripped jeans for phone based customer services, QVC, Argos etc, warehousing, retail and hospitality to get given jobs.
I wonder how many people are going into court, outside of London, but multi ethnic cities. It was around 2012 I first saw a male black solicitor with died red braids, the women staff and roles like SWs have hair colours and styles that wouldn't be allowed in schools. Medical and hospital support staff have visible tattoos, piercings and different coloured hair. When my youngest DD went for her interview she stated that she'd change her hair and was told not to bother. She decided to go natural anyway, because she didn't want to spend her one day off a week getting her hair done.
As for the poster who said that a uniform/rules stops teens bothering about looks and noticing personality, that's just ludicrous.

So are those parents buying designer headscarves, or sexualising their primary age girls by putting a headscarf on them, chavs or not? Your post wasn't clear.

But even more importantly, part of growing up is working out who you are. School uniform hampers that important process nope that’s the point, my daughter is in school to learn, there are 29 other kids in that class to learn, no one has time
for individuality. Being individual isn’t about what you wear anyway.

Juts want to point out and sorry if it's upthread and I missed it but when you say UK you mean England? Possibly Wales, not sure about NI?

I'm in Scotland and we don't have the batshit 'rules' that you are attributing to the UK.

Do you really not think that part of growing up is working out who you are?

Yet, bullying is still rife in many schools!

Bullies can just as easily move from clothes to things people can’t change (without surgery) like facial features, body shapes, and other things. Wearing the same clothes as everyone else, doesn’t stop anything and obviously all kids are not the same, will all never look the same, and there will always be bullies who will choose to pick on differences as long as such behaviours are allowed.

Maybe if schools focused more on such behaviours instead of using uniforms as a tiny plaster to act as if that solves the problem, society would be better off.

The UK and especially England has a major conformity fetish. The idea that it's possible to raise functioning young adults without a decade plus of oppressive rules on appearance doesn't seem to occur. Apparently British kids are so stupid that they need 12 years of wearing uniform in order to be able to dress appropriately for work. And of course British schools are utopian places because uniform prevents bullying.

Meanwhile out in the real world, swathes of countries manage just fine without all the petty rules. You couldn't make it up.

When I was at Primary School in the late 60's/early 70's, navy blue knickers were a compulsory part of the uniform!