The Battle Continues...

Last week I posted about the "war" on natural hair and it seems that the battle continues within the actual context of war as well.

One of my friends recently sent me an article that discusses the army's new "grooming regulations". Decide for yourself, but again, they seem specifically designed to marginalize and denigrate natural hair/traditional "black styles" and really just women in general for some of the rules.

AR (Army Regulation) 670-1 makes twists, both 

flat twists and as well as two strand twists 

as well as dreadlocks, which are defined as 

"any matted or locked coils or ropes of hair" 

unauthorized hairstyles.

Read the Article here:  http://www.myfoxla.com/story/25142086/soldiers-claim-grooming-regulations-are-racist

However, I will say that in this specific case, some of the regulations make sense and seem to have a basis in safety standards instead of this "professionalism" standard. For example, wearing scrunchies that are similar to hair color only or not adding beads to braided styles, or ensuring that hair is properly secured all make safety sense to me. On the other hand, regulating whether the part in their hair is a straight line, whether the cut is symmetrical, whether they wear locs or twists?….those bans seem to be a bit overboard.

Here is the complete AR 670-1: http://www.apd.army.mil/pdffiles/r670_1.pdf

Are you interested in SIGNING THE PETITION?

Do you think that the new regulations are outrageous or do they make sense to you?

- "Mo hair"

 

Rahkua Ishakarah

rahkua.com

iHEARTrahkua@gmail.com

I Declare War?

Besides the everyday struggle of getting "validation" from the general population, Naturals also face a more problematic issue: the systematic implementation of institutionalized natural hair discrimination. Maybe that's a bit of a mouthful but it speaks to a very real problem that marginalizes our hair choices and deems them inferior.