HAIRY SITUATION

Black BYU-Hawaii Student Fights to Keep His Long Locs

“I shouldn’t have to cut my hair to get an education here.”

A Black student at Brigham Young University’s Hawaii campus is battling the school to keep his shoulder-length locs. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Kanaan Barton, who is a member of the Mormon church, said a security guard reported him to the administration for having hair that violates school rules. “Regardless of the length of my hair, I am spiritually involved. I am actively going to church,” he told the paper. “I am doing well in school work. I am doing everything else. But my locs mean something to me. They are culture. They are family.” The school declined to comment on the controversy, which has picked up steam on TikTok, but BYU’s honor code dictates that hair “should be clean, neat, modest and avoid extremes in styles and colors.” Barton says he has been told his locs are too long and that he should consider getting rid of them altogether. “I shouldn’t have to cut my hair to get an education here,” the 22-year-old computer science major said.