I just wanted to take a moment to talk about an article that I just came across on BET.com. I’ve been keeping up with the Military Hair regulations, well. I’m going to call it Military Hair War when it comes to natural hair with African-American women and bi-racial women.
I have a military background. I spent nine and a half years in the military and one of the biggest problems that I had with my hair was having to pull it back all the time, having to make sure I met regulations. At that time, going natural was not an option for me. I would wear braids a lot because you had to pull your hair back a lot. It could sometimes cause traction alopecia if it was too tight. It was just too much.
Since more and more women are choosing to go natural, these women in the Armed Forces are having issues with their chain of command about how their hair is to be worn in uniform. Key word, natural hair.
Each branch of the military has a different regulation when it comes to hair and the standards, but they always said that it needs to be in a natural appearance and not faddish. My blond hair would definitely not fly!
Depending on where you're stationed at, some of our protective styles are considered to be faddish like Kinky Twists, or Micro Braids. Those are protective styles. They protect our natural hair. The issue lately is that these women would have issues with their chain of command for wearing their hair in it's natural state.
In fact, the Navy announced this week they were discharging Jessica Sims, a 12 year sailor for refusing to cut off her locs. In the military they call that disobeying a direct order.
I am very disappointed in all of the branches of the military for this! What they were essentially asking is for these women to chemically alter their hair to meet a certain standard and that’s not right.
That’s just like saying if the hair needs to be in its natural state and you have a Caucasian woman who colors her hair blond when she’s naturally a brunette, that’s not natural, so who’s to say what’s natural and what’s not? Why would you ever tell someone they can’t wear their hair in its natural state?
I'm interested in hearing what your thoughts are on this. Sound off below!
Be blessed,
Marquetta Breslin
