What are your memories of college picture day? Was it a day that inspired excitement? A keenly anticipated likelihood to decorate up nice and express your identity? Or was it a day of dread, a source of hysteria? For a lot of Black and mixed-race women, the apprehension was so strong they missed it altogether; almost one-third – 28 per cent – of ladies with afro or textured hair skipped school picture day due to anxiousness around race-based hair discrimination.

The information comes from recent research by Dove, who polled over 1,000 Black and mixed-race women within the UK to seek out out their experiences around their hair while at college. The outcomes were overwhelmingly negative: nearly half (42 per cent) said they’ve experienced race-based discrimination at college and over half (57 per cent) said this left long-lasting trauma.

Meanwhile, 84 per cent of the ladies felt the necessity to alter their natural hair to slot in at college. While unrealistic beauty standards put immense pressure on everyone, Black women and girls specifically face discrimination in relation to their hair texture and styles. “Growing up in Ireland as a girl of African descent, I used to be often reminded that I didn’t ‘fit’ in,” says Emma Dabiri, writer, academic, and broadcaster. “In school, my hair was some extent of contention and sometimes the rationale I got into trouble.”

Not much has modified since then. In 2020, student Ruby Williams was awarded an £8,500 settlement in compensation for being repeatedly sent home from the Urswick School over the course of two years due to her afro hair. In 2019, five-year-old Josiah Sharpe was excluded from playtime after which banned from school due to his “extreme” fade hairstyle, while Tyrese Francis was banned from lessons and put in isolation at Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy because his fade was deemed inappropriate.

Chikayzea Flanders was told on his first day at Fulham Boys School that his dreadlocks needed to be cut off or he would face suspension. Just yesterday, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), with contributions from the founder of World Afro Day, Michelle De Leon, put out recent guidelines to stop afro-hair discrimination in UK schools. These include resources that may help school leaders ensure hair policies aren’t unlawfully discriminatory.

“After I was younger, my head of college forced everyone to shave their afros off because they deemed them unkempt, unruly and never smart-looking,” says writer and influencer Stephanie Yeboah. Feeling pressure to slot in with Eurocentric beauty ideals, she used to chemically straighten her hair and it’s taken her years to embrace her afro unapologetically. 

In an effort to place a stop to incidents like this, Dove has been working with women like Dabiri and Yeboah to boost awareness of race-based hair discrimination in schools. A part of it is a recent campaign from the body care brand launched this month called Reclaiming School Picture Day, where eight women who missed having their school picture taken or felt the necessity to change their natural hair, got the prospect to have a recent picture taken with their hair as that they had chosen, reflecting their most authentic selves.

“It’s a staple in the varsity calendar – the youngsters are told about it weeks prematurely, and there’s all of the fuss about having them look their best, they may wish to get a haircut, have their uniform freshly ironed,” says Dabiri about why picture day holds such a distinguished place in our faculty day memories. “Ultimately, it’s a day based on appearance in some ways and who wouldn’t wish to feel and look their best? But when features of your appearance are stigmatised due to racist norms, it might turn into one other source of worry and stress for young people.”

Neither Dabiri nor Yeboah were surprised by the information from Dove’s survey, with Dabiri only surprised that it wasn’t higher. “I’ve truly lost count of the variety of conversations I’ve had with friends, family, and colleagues on the negative encounters we’ve had,” she says. Yeboah agrees, “Nearly everyone I do know has experienced some type of race-based hair discrimination, from having our hair pulled and touched without our consent, to being told that our hair is unprofessional and mess, and being sent home,” says Yeboah.

Alongside the recreated school pictures themselves, the campaign also features a film of the ladies sharing their stories of discrimination during their youth and the long-lasting impact it has had on their lives. It also captures each woman sitting all the way down to have their recent picture taken, and the emotional moment they see it for the primary time. 

“I felt beautiful! It was a full circle moment for me, especially pondering back to my previous school photo with my shaved head, feeling stuffed with shame,” says Yeboah. “It felt right, I hold such a deep sense of pride and freedom in having the ability to wear my hair in all its curls and coils. It makes an announcement and embodies every little thing I really like about my Blackness.”

For Dabiri the image was a moment to reflect on how far she has come regarding how she feels about her natural hair. “It’s really been a journey, and what helps is knowing I’ve not been alone in it. This photo is an actual visual representation of how much I’ve grown into myself, and the way proud I feel to be living on this world with this head of hair.”

To assist put an end to race-based hair discrimination, you’ll be able to sign Emma Dabiri and Zina Alfa’s petitions to make hair discrimination illegal under the UK Equality Act here.