The clip lasts less than a minute, but its content has rippled across social media, drawing hundreds of thousands of views and a torrent of outrage.
In a video posted on social media, a Ghanaian teenage girl, her face streaked with tears, sits in a chair as a hairstylist uses a pair of scissors to cut through her long hair.
The girl appears to be a new student at Yaa Asantewaa Girls’ Senior High School.
First thought to be created by AI due to its quality and nature, the video has reignited debates about the practice of girls cutting off their hair once they enroll in junior and senior high school.
For generations, female students across Ghana have been forced to shorten their hair. Authorities say the practice is to instill a sense of “discipline” for students.
Others say the practice is rooted in colonial disdain for African hair and is stubbornly resistant to change.
The controversy has thrust female grooming rules back into the national spotlight, reigniting debates over gender equality, cultural decolonization, and the boundaries of institutional authority.
Remnants of Colonial Legacy
The mandate for short or shaved hair among SHS girls traces its origins to Ghana’s colonial past, when British educators imposed European standards of “tidiness” and “discipline” on African pupils.
Natural Black hair — often textured, coily, and voluminous — was dismissed as “unsightly,” “dirty” or a “distraction” from learning, a view steeped in racist assumptions that equated Blackness with deviance from white norms.
Some trace the practice even further back to the transatlantic slave trade, where enslaved women were forcibly shaved to curb lice infestations and enforce a facade of “cleanliness,” a dehumanizing ritual that lingered as a twisted badge of compliance.
In Ghana’s public schools, the policy was solidified post-independence in 1957, ostensibly to promote uniformity and focus.
Boys, too, face hair regulations, but enforcement is laxer.
For girls, the rule is absolute: No extensions, no styles deemed “extreme,” and no length that sways past the ears.
Justifications for the practice include reducing distraction for female students to focus on their studies and the cost of maintaining hairstyles while in the boarding school.
Yet beneath these justifications lies a deeper unease. A 2024 academic paper in the Journal of Cultural Sustainability frames the rule as a form of “afro-identity redemption” overdue for decolonization, arguing that it perpetuates the very Eurocentric beauty standards Ghana’s independence was meant to dismantle.
No Evidence To Support Current Rule
Ghana’s Minister of Education has weighed in on the debate, siding with authorities who want to maintain this practice.
Haruna Iddrisu, speaking at the 75th Anniversary celebrations of Mawuli School, empowered officials to continue the practice, stating that it instills discipline and character.
“We’ll not tolerate it today, we’ll not tolerate it tomorrow, in so long as we are moulding character. If we give in to hair today, tomorrow it will be shoes and the next day it will be the way they dress,” he said in a speech at the event.
Some members of the public tend to differ.
“It’s an archaic tradition carried over from colonial times,” one person who spoke to The Labari Journal stated.
“The girls will be able to manage their time accordingly. And the hairstyles should follow certain guidelines just like school uniforms. In Nigeria, girls keep their hair through school, so why can’t we do same?”
Another individual who spoke to the Labari Journal echoed similar sentiments, stating that girls in a co-ed school they attended were allowed to have neat cornrows.
“It didn’t affect the quality of the students as the school was one of the best Lagos state-owned schools at the time,” they said.
Although officials argue that the rules are to stop distraction for female students, there is no evidence to support this.
A 2018 study conducted by a US college called Harmline University found no evidence that dress codes, including those targeting hair, reduced student attention or performance.
Online Debates with No Policy Reversal
Although the viral video has sparked new debates, there appears to be no current plan to reverse the policy.
With the Minister wading into the debate and publicly declaring his stance on the side of short haircuts for female students, it can appear that current and future female high school students would have to adhere to the rule.
However, most still think that the rule is outdated and needs review.
“Keep guidelines for neatness and hygiene, but allow natural hairstyles and cultural expression, as long as they’re tidy and practical,” one commentator said.
