Hair Rules - example in Jamaican and in English school

In every culture and society, some things you are socially and culturally allowed to do with your hair, and other things you are not. These rules are not always explicit, but in workplaces and schools they are sometimes part of the internal regulations.

Here the link (click) to an article from the Jamaican writer Kei Miller's blog, about a controversy in a Jamaican school (2016), explaining why, in the particular context of Jamaica, it is more that just a haircut we are talking about: Yes, this is about slavery and its long legacy. It is about a full emancipation that has been so desperately long in coming. 
Read also Corey Hairstory (click)  about natural hair at school and the difference of reception between a Jamaican school and New York one.

In 2018, a court decision in Jamaica clears the way for dreadlocked child to start school (links here).

(Photo from Kei Miller's blog)

And here the link (click) to an article about haircuts that are not allowed in different schools in England (2017 - with a remember of olds days:

Aged 17, David Bowie campaigned for long-haired boys rights in his Brixton Schoolboy (photo Getty)

Hair Sculptor: Laetitia Ky

Laetitia Ky (Ivory Coast) transform hair in masterpieces speaking about body positivity, gender equality, environment, gun violence,... and celebrating African heritage.
A short video about her work here
(image from Laetitia Ky Instagram)

The Hair Tales - Project by Michaela Angela Davis

The Hair Tales is a collection of Hair Stories from Black Women collected by Michaela Angela Davis with the idea to look at Black Women's identity through the lens of hair and to affirm it.

2 series are visible online: The Parlor Series and the Kitchen Table Talks

Here is how she present it on the website consacred to the project - MAD FREE Website (click):
The Hair Tales is created to affirm Black Women, inform non-Black people about Black Women and inspire the world through Black women’s beautiful curly, kinky and coily journey.

After nearly 5 years of analyzing the senseless relentless Black death on CNN and other public

Hair! Human Stories - Exhibition

Tabitha Moses, Hairpurse, 2004

From intimate personal stories, to unexpectedly global tales about hair’s circulation around the world, Hair! Human Stories explores our curious relationship to hair. Encounter strange artworks made from hair, see images of hair harvests and wig manufacture past and present, and learn about hair’s recycling possibilities.

Curated by Emma Tarlo, anthropologist and author of Entanglement: The Secret Lives of Hair, the exhibition invites you to confront hair – the original human fibre.

7 – 26th June 2018
The Library Space 
London

Hair Stories collected at the Jamaica Biennial 2017 (Part 2)

Thanks to all of you who participate to the Hair Project. About a hundred of Hair Stories were collected during the Jamaica Biennial 2017 (26/02 - 28/05/2017 - National Gallery of Jamaica). Readable Here

I-D's Hair Week: 60's articles about Hair !

I-D present her Hair Week like “an exploration of how our hairstyles start conversations about identity, culture and the times we live in”. 

Yes! 

They do the job of this blog, speaking about gender, races, identity, culture through songs, films, music, video, art, hair stories… from around the world (mainly western)

You can consult all the articles here on their Website but here already a few links among the sixty articles

Willow Smith - "Whip My Hair

Art: Icelandic artist and Björk collaborator Shoplifter has a hair fetish

Movie: 10 iconic hair moments from movie history

Music: 5 empowering hair anthems for defying the haters

Gender: Rose Mcgowan on why going bald is the ultimate feminist battle cry

Science: What is Hair? 

I-D: 13 New York Creatives tell their unique Hair Stories

(…) Over the years, I've experimented with so many looks (including wigs) and it's felt like a social experiment on how people experience me based on my hair. It's truly incredible how freely people provide their feedback and how diversely I've been perceived.

Depending on where you are in the world and the social climate, the importance and value of hair shifts. Some people assume I have cancer, others think I'm a rebel. The most difficult aspect of the condition is not being in control. I didn't ask to be part of this conversation but I'm so thankful for the lessons it has a provided me. I've found the more I love and respect myself as I am, the more capable I am of pouring out love on everyone around me. I'm reminded daily of how fragile our condition is and it simply makes me smile. All we have is now.

(…)

Anna Grace, 27, Female, Cape Cod (Massachusetts)

Read all of them here !

Hair Stories collected at the Jamaica Biennial 2017 (Part 1)

Thanks to all of you who participated for this first part... the second part could be seen here

Photo: Barbers of Freetown and Vietnam

Pictures by  Olivia Acland

click on it for more pictures and the full article

(...) Barbers also take on the role of counsellors, listening to clients agonise over their love lives or confide in them about family crises. The barber shop provides a safe space for people to sit back and unwind - after all, it's important to feel relaxed as someone takes a knife to your chin or a pair of scissors to your head. (...)

Pictures by  James Duong

click on it for more pictures and the full article

Hair: the film - the song

Hair is a 1979 musical war comedy-drama film adaptation of the 1968 Broadway musical Hair: An American Tribal Love-Rock Musical about a Vietnam War draftee who meets and befriends a tribe of long-haired hippies on his way to the army induction center. The film was directed by Miloš Forman.

(source: wikipedia) 

The musical’s title song begins as character Claude slowly croons his reason for his long hair, as tribe-mate Berger joins in singing they deem they “don’t know.” They lead the tribe, singing “Give me a head with hair,” “as long as God can grow it,” listing what they want in a head of hair and their uses for it. Later the song takes the tune of “The Star-Spangled Banner” with the tribe punning “Oh say can you see/ My eyes if you can/Then my hair’s too short!” Claude and Berger’s religious references continue with many a “Hallelujah” as they consciously compare their hair to Jesus’s, and if Mary loved her son, “why don’t my mother love me?”

The song shows the Tribe's enthusiasm and pride for their hair as well as comparing Claude to a Jesus figure.

(Source: wikipedia)