Why Dove’s Campaign About Hair Discrimination is Personal for Me

The basis of this campaign is to fight discrimination against African/ non-western hairstyles in schools and workplaces in the US.

But this issue is global…not long ago, a family in Kenya had to go to court to fight against their daughter being denied admission to a school because she kept dreadlocks. There have been similar cases reported in other parts of the continent including Ghana. Our own people discriminate against our own hairstyles.

My little one had dreadlocks…she loved them. We kinda knew she wanted to have them as early as when she was barely two. You would see it in how she shook her hair whenever she had braids on.

One question we constantly dealt with was people asking us which school will allow her with that hair when she becomes of school-going age.

I am lucky that I have managed to take her to very accommodative schools. First, it was a kindergarten and now her new school which is kinda very progressive.

But the fact that people asked that in itself worried me. That how one wore their hair was such a big deal in our society.

But she still lost her hair.

At first, she had to do braids on top of her locks on school days. Not that the school demanded it but coz of the unkind things some kids often said to her coz of the locks. Then one day when she was visiting me I noticed the braids were thinner. The locks inside them were gone.

I called her mum to ask and she told me my little one did not want dreads anymore. She was tired of the names. She was only five and the bullying came from her peers.

Dreadlocks, braids, kinky…all authentic African hair get discriminated on informal spaces because we have been made to think that we can only be neat when we dress and look like the white man.

Sad that however smart someone may be, however creative…they will still be judged by the kind of hair they wear.
I still hope that one day my little one will want to wear her locks again…if not because she likes them but as a statement. For those not in spaces as accommodative as the ones, she is in.

This is why this campaign by Dove has touched a place close to my heart. Scratch that – why this campaign has touched my heart. Because my little one is my heart.