In her first year of culinary school, Reanna Bryan, 18, was told her braided hairstyle was not suitable for the kitchen. “I was like, ‘What do you mean, you can’t have braids or dreads?’ because this is what I wear. My hair is in braids the majority of the time,” she says.
When she shared her experience with the young woman’s circle she is a member of at Rise.365, a community support group based in Hackney, similar stories were echoed back.
