Politics of Black hair: why grooming rules are under scrutiny across the diaspora

Negative connotations surrounding afro hair stem from the colonial period. Photograph: Jordi Salas/Getty Images

Last month a Jamaican woman said her teenage son had been pulled from lessons because school staff had deemed his afro hairstyle inappropriate.

“The dean of discipline called me to state that my son has been removed,” Michelle Scott said. “You’re telling me that you took him, a fifth-form student, out of classes to go and get a haircut?”