Philadelphia Writing Project
Supporting Civically Engaged Argument Writing with Primary Sources
Text Set
Hair Policies
Hair is often part of a person's identity. Our hair and how we style it may help us to communicate who we are and a community we are part of. Sometimes, institutions and governments have enacted laws and policies that dictate or restrict how someone can wear their hair. Should hair policies exist? Should schools be able to ban hairstyles?
FEATURED PRIMARY SOURCES
Legislation
H.R.2116 - Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act of 2022. (Library of Congress).
TEXT SET
Introduce the Issue
Teachers may introduce one or both of the featured historical primary sources above alongside more current news articles to introduce the issue and jumpstart inquiry.
Girl says school threatening suspension due to dyed hair. News video about a student impacted by a school policy about hair. (WKMG News 6 Orlando).
Black student at Texas high school suspended over hairstyle. News video about a student impacted by a school policy about hair. (NBC News, 2023).
Native American boy forced to cut hair to comply with school hair policy, ACLU says. News article about a student impacted by a school policy about hair. (CNN, 2023).
Dress and hair regulations. Web article describing why schools may set up hair and dress codes and related court cases about free speech. (Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, n.d.).
Go Deeper
Students may use these texts—or excerpts from these texts—to identify additional perspectives on the issue.
More states are trying to protect black employees who want to wear natural hairstyles at work. (The Washington Post, 2019).
States and cities are banning hair discrimination. Here’s how that’s affecting schools. (Chalkbeat, 2020).
The House passes the CROWN Act, a bill banning discrimination on race-based hairdos. (WHYY News, 2022).
The Black Hair Experience: An Atlanta museum celebrating Black hair and Black hair culture. (NBC 11Alive).
Additional Planning Resources
Primary Sources
The hairdresser making a call, Japan. Photograph. (Library of Congress, 1905).
Hopi hair dresser. Photograph. (Library of Congress, 1909).
Business card of Mme. Dovie Wright, hair culturist. Business card. (Smithsonian Learning Lab, ca1917).
The school days of an Indian girl. Excerpt: II. The cutting of my long hair. The Atlantic Monthly, 85(508), 185-194. Essay. (HathiTrust, 1900).
Teacher Planning
Should your hairstyle be a Constitutional Right? (Learning for Justice).
Chapter 3: Boarding schools: Struggling with cultural repression. (National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution).
This is the story of Black hair. (Good Morning America, 2021).
A visual history of ancient hairdos. (The Atlantic, 2016).
Picture Books
Hairs/Pelitos. 1997.
Hair Love [video]. 2019.
This website features resources created by educators affiliated with the Philadelphia Writing Project (PhilWP), supported by a Teaching with Primary Sources grant from the Library of Congress.
The following Philadelphia Writing Project teacher consultants contributed to this page: L. Lapina, J. Ross, and J. F. Smith. Additionally, teacher consultant T. Anderson, helped with editing this page.
Some of the resources and approaches referenced on this page were developed by the National Writing Project's (NWP) College, Career, and Community Writers Program.
Teacher Consultants in the NWP Write Now Teacher Studio and members of the Teaching with Primary Sources Teachers Network have provided feedback on and suggestions for this page.
This page was updated 29 September 2024.