Black women in uniform may be able to go back to wearing their twists, cornrows and dreadlocks.
Last month the Army issued new grooming regulations that included controversial changes in how military women can wear their hair. The rules banned certain hairstyles that are popular among black women, and riled many women who called the rules racially biased.
The Congressional Black Caucus weighed in on the issue on April 10, writing to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel asking that the hair regulations be revisited.
On Tuesday, Hagel directed the military to reconsider the new policies.
“I want to assure you that, while none of the Army’s revised grooming and appearance policies were designed or intended to discriminate or disparage against any service members, I take your concerns very seriously,” Hagel wrote to the Black Caucus, according to a report in the Military Times.
Atlantan Jasmine Jacobs, until recently a sergeant in the Georgia National Guard, had lead an Internet-based protest against the regulations. In a story in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jacobs called the new grooming regulations 'at best insensitive and at worst racist.'
“I didn’t have any options of what to do with my hair,” said Jacobs, whose twists barely reach her collar. “At the end of the day, it hit so personally, because it was offensive and insulting. To be quiet would have been the greatest insult.”
Hagel directed the service branches s to review their policies within the next three months.
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