Award-winning filmmaker Leila Djansi has stated her support for schools insisting that girls maintain low haircuts or simple cornrows.
She frames the issue not as one of control, but of academic focus and equity in a social media post sighted by MyNewsGh.
Djansi identifies a core problem; the significant investment of time and resources girls are socialized to dedicate to their appearance from a young age.
She contrasts this with the experience of boys, who are “often freed from those expectations and can concentrate on performance and progress.”
This imbalance, she argues, creates a disadvantage that follows females through life.
She points to the practical drain that elaborate hairstyles cause, questioning the logic of “wasting time braiding hair before class.”
Djansi expands on this, noting that between biological challenges like menstrual cramps and the hours spent on grooming, girls are stealing time from “rest, study, and self-reflection.”
Citing personal experience, she shared that when her daughter was not performing well in junior high school, “the first thing I did was cut her hair.”
She believed her daughter was too focused on beautifying herself instead of her books.
Djansi also highlights the financial burden, stating that women can spend “at least $400 a month on sometimes just hair.”
She describes the physical toll of maintenance, listing “nails, eye lashes, hair glue, lash glue, lacefront,” and the eventual fatigue that leads many Black women to cut their hair short for liberation. For students, she implies, school rules preemptively provide this focus.
