Ohio School Bans Afro Puffs and Braids
A letter to parents from an Ohio school was posted online and the school now may have to answer questions about their dress code.
Horizon Science Academy outlined what was acceptable student dress and included a ban on some natural hair styles:
The letter details changes to the dress code for the upcoming school year and includes the line:
Afro-puffs and small twisted braids, with our [sic] without rubberbands, are NOT permitted.
It’s unclear what the administration means by small twisted braids, but if they are referring to box braids they are banning a protective style that black girls have worn for generations. Afro-puffs are essentially the black version of the ponytail (when pulled back our hair puffs out instead of laying down), and yet the rules do not have a ban on ponytails for students of other ethnicities.
Read more at Black Girl Long Hair.
The “personal appearance” ban also includes mohawks, hair dye, and body piercings.
Why do schools find the need to police their students’ self-expression to the extent that they would ban natural hairstyles?
Why is this ban necessary?
Sound off below!!!!
[…] Everything you are, everything you do, your skin, your speech, your lips, your nose, every part of you is wrong. Even your hair is wrong. […]
[…] Everything you are, everything you do, your skin, your speech, your lips, your nose, every part of you is wrong. Even your hair is wrong. […]
[…] Science Academy outlined what was acceptable student dress and included a ban on some natural hair styles: The letter details changes to the dress code for the upcoming school year and includes the […]
[…] Science Academy outlined what was acceptable student dress and included a ban on some natural hair styles: The letter details changes to the dress code for the upcoming school year and includes the […]
[…] to the news on Black Youth Project on June 21, an Ohio school bans afro-puffs and twisted […]
[…] to the news on Black Youth Project on June 21, an Ohio school bans afro-puffs and twisted […]
[…] Black Girl with Long Hair notes that “afro-puffs are essentially the black version of the ponytail.” […]
[…] Black Girl with Long Hair notes that “afro-puffs are essentially the black version of the ponytail.” […]
[…] seeks to control their family planning through incentives like Eggsurance, and for many women (and girls) of color, forces them to ‘tame’ their tresses if they ever wish to succeed. A media […]
[…] seeks to control their family planning through incentives like Eggsurance, and for many women (and girls) of color, forces them to ‘tame’ their tresses if they ever wish to succeed. A media […]
[…] was always met with great anticipation because for the rest of the year, it was only braids and Afro puffs for us (how boring! we thought). Having our hair pressed meant that it would blow in the wind, it […]
[…] was always met with great anticipation because for the rest of the year, it was only braids and Afro puffs for us (how boring! we thought). Having our hair pressed meant that it would blow in the wind, it […]
[…] Science Academy in Ohio took that ideal of uniformity entirely too far though: they banned African-American hairstyles. In their letter to parents detailing the school’s updated dress code, the school included […]
[…] Science Academy in Ohio took that ideal of uniformity entirely too far though: they banned African-American hairstyles. In their letter to parents detailing the school’s updated dress code, the school included […]