Let those locks fly free.

I care about my hair, but not to the extent that many of my peers do. I only get it cut once every few months when it gets long enough to cover my eyes, and I don’t go to an especially fancy hair salon to get it done. Hair is, to me, an extension of one’s body, and it is every person’s right to care for and wear their hair however they see fit. Long as they’re not hurting anybody (and really, how could hair hurt somebody?), I say let people do what they want.

Unfortunately, a lot of businesses and schools maintain strict dress codes, and certain kinds of hair styles are forbidden in those dress codes, with many of the targeted types often worn by black men and women. Things like afros, braids, twists, locks, and more, they’re are told to lop off at home. One high school wrestler was forced by a tournament referee to cut off his dreadlocks or face forfeiture. That’s just not right, and I’m not the only one who thinks so.

Credit: AP

Back in July, the state of California signed a new law into effect that officially bans any hair discrimination in the workplace or at school. Senator Holly Mitchel, who first introduced the bill, called its signing a victory for “inclusion, pride and choice.”

“This law protects the right of Black Californians to choose to wear their hair in its natural form, without pressure to conform to Eurocentric norms,” she told CNN. “I am so excited to see the culture change that will ensue from the law.”

Credit: The New York Times

Hair is just hair. To deny someone employment, single them out, or worst of all, publicly humiliate them because of how they wear their hair is such a pointless little nugget of cruelty, that I can’t see what place it would have in the modern world. California has the right idea; it’s your head, put what makes you happy on it.