Twists, dreadlocks (locs), Afros and braids seem to be the target of discrimination once again. We saw a similar list of ban or unauthorized hairstyles by an elementary school last year which labeled these styles largely wore by natural African American woman as fadish. This time the ban is from the US Army.
As a woman with natural hair, I’m starting to take this personally. Many of these styles are key to the maintenance of our naturally textured and fragile hair. But you can read the details of this unofficial suggestion of changes to the Army’s Grooming Guidelines below:
According to America Aljazeera, The U.S. Army is coming under fire for changes to its appearance and grooming standards, which some say discriminates against black women who wear their hair natural.
Army Regulation 670-1 has not been published or made official yet, but the new rules were detailed in a PowerPoint presentation that was leaked on March 20. Among the grooming regulations are updated restrictions on how women soldiers can wear their hair. An example from the Army’s PowerPoint is shown below:
Within and outside of the Army, women of color have been calling the guidelines racially biased. A White House petition has amassed more than 3,000 signatures to date requesting that the Army reconsider.
colleen says
July 21, 2014 at 3:52 pmI am a retired vet from the Army and I do not feel that the new Red is racist. You are to have a professional look when you are in uniform and your headgear has to fit right and with many of these natural styles you can not wear your head gear the right way. The military is an Organization and every organization has rules. Wearing more than one braid is not new. If you check the regulation back in the 80 ‘ s multiple braids were not allow. There is no racism involved and I support the military. Let’s stop making everything about black and white and be more concern with important things like sex trafficking, wars, young men killing each other, and terrorist.
Nikki says
November 25, 2015 at 1:36 pmI totally agree with Mandy, and I am very glad she shared her sentiments regarding this issue. It’s pretty evident that the person who wrote the laws have no idea about hair types. They should take time to work on the language so that the military doesn’t exclude a group of people based on the type of Afro-hair that grow out of their head naturally, especially where braiding/ corn row the hair flat to the surface is one of the few ways to keep Afro-hair in regulation. Afro hair is naturally “bulky”, and it’s not practical to flatiron the hair straight to fit under a helmet. The best way to do it (especially if you’re exposed to water, heat and sweat), is to cornrows or flat-twist the hair down, so that the hair is smooth and out of the way. But I’m responding to Colleen because of the “lets stop making everything about black and white and be more concerned with important things like sex trafficking, wars, etc…” In response to that last line, I must say 1. This IS an important issue to people with Afro hair because it bans an entire hair type and people with that hair type (I can safely assume this is NOT your hair type, so you may fail to see the importance because it doesn’t affect you). 2. Just because an article focuses on this hair issue, it doesn’t diminish focus on other issues. People can multi-task. An issue of black lives matter doesn’t take away from child pornography. An issue on terrorism doesn’t take away from global warming. Sometimes issues that seem unrelated are quite related to other issues and the solution can solve more than one problem.
And “Lol” To the person who wrote she put her hair in one French braid and keeps it moving! Obviously this person has 1b-2b hair! Please google “4b hair”. 4b hair which I would consider Afro hair can not be put into a single French braid if you want to wear a helmet. Lol… that one braid is going to be too bulky… Multiple flat corn braids will be needed to make the hair flat enough to the head to allow for a helmet to go on. To be honest, that’s how a lot of people with nice thick beautiful 4b – 4c hair, braid their hair down to get a wig on or to put a weave in, so I’m sure it would work for a helmet too. It’s all about awareness and education. But the people with the “privilege” must be willing to educate themselves in order for “this” to work.