Whether there is a connection between the call to ban dreadlocks and the non-acceptance of frizzy hair styles is not clear. The fact is that since that standard statement by Minister Peneux that dreadlocks should be banned , the attack on frizzy hair styles seems to have broken loose. In the space of a week, two cases have come to my attention that make you wonder what era some teachers are living in and whether they realize the long-term effect of their actions on children.
This is student 2
The first case is of the young man above with a haircut that they call a fade top here in America. Quite nice, hip and contemporary. It reminds me of those teenage boys I see walking around here in Brooklyn.
In the prime of their pre-teen years, boys and girls try out hairstyles. A form of creative expression and pushing boundaries. That's part of growing up as kids. Straight-haired boys walk around with spikes, start coloring, grow their hair long or go punk. Exactly as student 1 is described. Frizzy boys wear fade tops, dreads or those weaves. On what basis does someone with straight hair have more rights than someone with frizzy hair?
That this young man with such a cool haircut is almost literally shouted at by a headmaster is downright ridiculous. In my opinion, the headmaster should take a course in “Subtle Racism” soon. However, the next event that was reported less than a week later really takes the cake.
A girl with short curly hair is bullied by her classmates who think her hair is not combed and has so-called “mira passions”. And what does the teacher do? She thought the children were right and relaxes the child's hair!!!! Mind you, relaxing with chemicals that contain the same ingredients as depilatories, without the parents' permission. Even without informing the parents.
These are cases that I have heard of by chance. From the commentary below you can conclude that this is not uncommon. My niece was also told that she was not allowed to go to school with her hair loose. Just like this cute child, her hair is also frizzy.
Colonial mentality
What makes these cases painful is that they shed light on an unresolved slave past that no one wants to talk about, but which has created a colonial mentality that is impossible to ignore.
Unfortunately, there are still too many people who are deeply ashamed of frizzy hair. They cannot look at frizzy hair without an uncomfortable feeling that they probably cannot even place, but they are convinced that frizzy hair, certainly in its free form, cannot or should not be. It is sad but true.
Examples abound. From the mother who tells her daughter, your hair is uglier than a monkey's pubic hair to the organization that gives a jar of relaxer to the White family that adopts a frizzy-haired child.
Apart from the examples, the numbers speak volumes. 73% of black women suffer from hair breakage and hair loss due to the use of relaxers and weaves. With the aim of changing this, I wrote Order: Bad Hair Uprooted . It describes the unwritten history of frizzy hair not only to place the negative feeling towards frizzy hair, but even more to create a healthy image of frizzy hair. The health of our hair is sad and as long as we do not have a healthy image of our own hair, this will never change. This is therefore the motto of Going NaturalHair Care .
There is hope!
But fortunately there is hope. Delceggio Scheineman, who walked in the very first afro hair show and has had dreadlocks since he was 5, is now a student of Economics at ADEK. He has had locs ever since I met him. His mother is Johanna Scheineman, who is the only one in Suriname who has a specialized loc shop. It should be clear, wearing dreadlocks has nothing to do with whether you are good at studying or not.
