In 1999, I applied to only two colleges: Florida A&M University and Hampton University. I visited both institutions that summer, and decided on FAMU.
For most of my life at FAMU, I alternated between twists, a short Afro, and cornrows. In 2003, I finally decided to loc my twists and have donned locs ever since.
By rule, I would have had to change my hairstyle if I wanted to be a business student at FAMU. At the business school’s mandatory forum, gentlemen are supposed to “maintain a neat, professional and well-groomed haircut (no braids, no dreads).”
According to three of my close friends who were business students, officials did (and do) not enforce this rule. Actually, one of my friends who had cornrows, told me, “the only caveat was that dreads or braids had to be ‘neat.’” He kept his neat and went on to graduate at the top of his class.
Reportedly, FAMU business officials have been open-minded enough to emphasize neatness, and teach their students that to look neat is to look professional. They have been culturally sensitive enough to realize that braids and locs can be professional if they are neat. They have not been stuck in the past of flagrant assimilation and accommodation to a white cultural aesthetic.
The same cannot be said of Hampton University.
In my next two blogs, I would like to showcase two historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) that have strict student codes, strict products of the past, starting with Hampton.
