A Texas high school recently suspended a Black student whose locs were “too long.” For centuries, we’ve been penalized for our natural hair. But how we style our hair has also allowed us to resist oppression.
As early as 500 BCE, locs were a part of African culture. As the centuries passed, the hairstyle spread across the world. But locs are much more than a hairstyle; they are resistance.
Throughout slavery, people were denied the right to style their hair as they pleased. Locs were just one of the hairstyles that allowed us to have our own identities and resist what slave owners deemed “acceptable.” After emancipation, many formerly enslaved people began growing locs to resist the imposition of Eurocentric standards of beauty. But it didn’t stop there.
Rastafarianism began in Jamaica in the 1930s, but the movement was more than just locs and reggae. It was a way to resist British colonial culture. Locs were just one of the ways to show strength and to reject the colonial presence.
Locs were also spiritual. Along with resistance being a driving force in the significance of locs, many Rastafarians claim that the more hair they had, the more strength they possessed. Locs are also grown out to resemble a lion’s mane, evoking the second coming of their spiritual leader, the Lion of Judah.
Our hair is sacred and should not be subject to judgment, let alone discrimination. We must continue to love ourselves unconditionally because Black beauty lies within all of us. We can resist and celebrate ourselves while doing so.