School hair policies are tied up in race and class | Letters

Letters

Sunday, 30 Oct 2022

# Children

Oladapo Feyisetan and Mike Woodcock respond to an article on discrimination against afro hair

As a parent born and raised in Nigeria, I am saddened that a school would suspend a child on account of natural afro hair, or even suggest using a relaxer (Why should my daughter have had to fight for her education because of her afro hair?, 27 October). It’s a theme that I’ve come across too often. I have two daughters, born in England, both now in secondary school. We have never been challenged about their hair. I can only conclude that schools choose to make an issue if those in charge believe that they will get away with it. How else to explain the disparity in hair policy in different schools?
Oladapo Feyisetan
Southport, Merseyside

• From the 1970s to 2006, I taught in good local comprehensives. Headteachers would have hair edicts that were usually focused on one working-class style or another – buzz cuts, for example – and often excluded a child until there had been regrowth. Is it an expectation that we educate or that we demand (white) middle-class behaviours and mores?
Mike Woodcock
Olveston, Gloucestershire

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Letters

Sunday, 30 Oct 2022

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