School Uniform and Hair

[GrimDamnFanjo]

I'm due to discuss the uniform policy at my Governors meeting.
Girls are not allowed to have unnatural coloured hair, beads or braids - no exclusion of anything else eg Afro hair.

Unnatural coloured hair extends to black girls lightening their hair but does not include white girls with black hair who lighten their hair.
I've quickly read around the subject and understand that braiding has been successfully challenged and that natural hairstyles are supported by the Teaching Unions.

Has anyone approached their school about hair and uniform policy?

This is crazy. Where is this school located? Just wondered how diverse the area is?

Northern working class, white majority, largest ethnic group would be Asian but a fair few black kids.
I've heard some anecdotal stories today which are very disappointing :(

I'm white so apologies if I'm gatecrashing but I wanted to offer my support because this is so crap. I don’t get why schools are so determined to take away every bit of individuality the pupils have. Black pupils should be able to style their hair however they want. How are some braids or beads really going to affect anyone's education?

Why aren’t beads and braids allowed? Sounds like prejudice to me

why does the school have any policy about hair, other than being tied back for science etc?

why do English schools have all these silly rules about hair? It doesn’t affect pupils learning.

another white person supporting you.

Could you suggest ´unnatural colour’ should be formally defined in the uniform code as being any colour that does not naturally occur in human hair. So all shades of black, brown, red/orange, blonde, white and grey are allowed for students no matter what their ethnicity but blue/green/purple are off the table?

Several schools in my area have signed up to the Halo code of conduct that advocates for the acceptance of black hairstyles.

halocollective.co.uk/

All pupils should be able to style their hair however they want! WTF difference does a hairstyle make to a child's ability to learn?!?!

Look up the halo code....my DD is off to secondary school and I noticed it mentioned in their uniform policy that they have adopted this code. Basically means that they support black people wearing their hair how they want with no judgement or restrictions...if you google it there's more info than I've just put. Maybe ask them whether they support it and if not, why not?

I was coming to post this link.

Banning braids is ridiculous. I plait my DD's hair into lots of small braids (using only her hair which goes to her shoulders) so it doesn't get tangled. I would not be stopping due to a policy as described in the OP if it existed at our school.

Surely only white girls being able to lighten their hair but not black girls is racist?!

Thanks for confirming my thoughts.
I'd looked at the Halo link earlier and will bringing this.
Plus I really liked the specification of hair colours.

Re beads. I think this is less easy than braids to speak up for, especially as I don't know why they aren't allowed. I was thinking health and safety would be odd?
Perhaps it's the bead colours?
Does anyone know why they would not be allowed, apart from cultural ignorance of course!

@Floraflower3 I was stunned by this and asked DD a lot of questions about it and yes, it seems that black girls can only have black hair but white girls can have different regular hair shades.

That would make more sense
I'm white with curls and forever sick of hearing stuff like unprofessional, frizzy, messy, untidy, untamed, wild about hair. Not to mention "have you tried straightening it?" No. Why would I want to?
It grows out my head like this

it seems that black girls can only have black hair but white girls can have different regular hair shades.

Then a few people in my own family and other people I've met through out the years would find in summer or if they went to a hot country for a few weeks, banned from the school. Some black people's hair bleaches a lighter brown, reddish brown or looks like it has blonde streaks in it due to the sun.

Also a couple of black girls I went to school with would be banned from your DD's school as they had noticeable grey hairs while in school that got progressively greyer.

Reminds me of this - www.nytimes.com/2021/02/19/world/asia/japan-hair-school.html (Sorry I can't remember any cases in the UK over this.)

Taking it on a case by case basis wouldn't solve the problem as while some kids would have an idea of where their features come from, many don't until they are older.

Then a few people in my own family and other people I've met through out the years would find in summer or if they went to a hot country for a few weeks, banned from the school. Some black people's hair bleaches a lighter brown, reddish brown or looks like it has blonde streaks in it due to the sun

My DDs has very dark brown hair...the ends turn quite blonde in summer...lots of people ask me if we dye it.

The only thing I can think of for beads is a H&S thing. Possible swallowing or causing injury if they swish into an eye or something. I'd expect the school to say no hard hair bands at all in that case.

My son's school is very diverse and boys and girls need to tie back long hair. Only navy hair things are allowed but that's it. Nothing about style as long as it's neat.

@Comedycook the hair dying accusation is very common.

@Twizbe

I did a google to see if there was a H&S reason for them. Instead I found these US stories -
www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/us/north-carolina-high-school-hair-beads.html

www.essence.com/hair/louisiana-crown-act-pass/
None of the sports involved mention a H&S reason for banning them.

I use to go to primary school with beads and so did a few other black girls thanks to Baroness Benjamin. The worse that happened is that some would get loose due to you playing with it. With secondary school children that's more unlikely. If there is also no ban on hair bobbles that have beads on them or other attachments as these also break if you play with them or more likely simply reuse them to often, then the policy is racist.

Quite agree. A health and safety reason would have to apply to all hard hair bands for it to be a true reason.

An update.
Beads, braids ban now removed and unnatural hair colours to specify nonhuman shades!
Thanks everyone x

Brava @GrimDamnFanjo ! Well done for pressing forward.

WOW

Well done OP.

My daughter is the only black child in her school.

Their policy is no unnatural colours. She wanted a dark blonde braid and the school were happy with that. They had to be as blonde girls dye their hair black and vice versa.

What they don't want is, say, blue, purple, green etc!

Well done OP, together we must press on. Great result!

Well done - 😊

Excellent result op! 👏