Racism in the UK exists in both blatant and underlying ways, causing people of colour to fight bigotry in almost every aspect of their lives. This begins from an early age and a new study has shown that the majority of women with afro or textured hair were discriminated against in school.
Nearly half of Black or mixed-race women have faced some form of racial discrimination based on their hairstyle while at school. This ranged from being told their natural hair was “unruly” or “not smart looking” to being told explicitly to shave their hair off.
A new study by Dove revealed that this discrimination can begin as early as five years old and over half of the women involved had long-lasting trauma from this. Many schools have policies which dictate young girls’ clothing, makeup and hair but women of colour become the target of racial biases and discrimination within those rules.
Dove's new campaign, Reclaiming School Picture Day, seeks to change this for young women across the UK. For many young women of colour, picture day increased the pressure to conform to white standards with a third of participants saying felt anxiety or dread leading up to photos.
Stephanie Yeboah, author and social media influencer, is involved with the campaign and shared her experiences as a young girl growing up in the UK. She said: “When I was younger, my head of school forced everyone to shave their afros off because they deemed them unkempt, unruly and not smart looking.
“When it came to school picture days, I used to try and chemically straighten my hair to try and fit in with the Eurocentric ideals of beauty at the time. It’s taken me some time to get there but since then, I now embrace my afro and wear it unapologetically.”
Stephanie was not alone in facing this blatant and shocking discrimination, although it was much more common for girls to experience comments from their peers than teachers. These incidents were not one-offs either with over a third of women saying this was a recurring issue throughout their schooling.
Also working with the campaign is author and activist Emma Dabiri, who said: “I think we still have a long way to go when it comes to understanding Black hair, how it grows and the significance of its difference when compared to European hair textures. These differences can result in varying styling practices and techniques for Black or mixed-heritage students, and it’s important for teachers and those in positions of power to be aware of this, so those pupils aren’t penalised for how they wear their hair.”
Young girls are particularly vulnerable to pressures of society’s beauty standards with the unhealthy emphasis from the media on Eurocentric features and thin bodies. This impacts everyone but women of colour have to work harder to fit this unfair bias and often abandon their cultural styles to fit in.
Not only can this pressure to conform damage women’s natural hair through excessive chemicals and straightening, it also damages their self esteem. Society values women who are beautiful so those branded less than beautiful by society’s standards are devalued consistently which impacts all aspects of their life from school to personal relations.
Dove has launched this campaign to push for equality and understanding for young women who should be able to wear their hair freely. They are urging people to sign Emma Dabiri and Zina Alfa’s petitions to make hair discrimination illegal under the UK Equality Act.
There is also an app called My Hair, My Crown which Dove has launched to give tips on styling and managing afro and textured hair. Educators, parents and mentors are being encouraged to use the toolkit to help boost hair confidence in kids which might have a long-lasting impact on their self-esteem
