After school administrations in and out of the U.S. have received very public pushback to attempts to regulate natural hairstyles, punish teens for wearing braids, and force students to dye their hair black, you would think someone would get the message. And yet, it shouldn't come as a complete surprise that yet another school is at it again. This time, admins are working to ban a hairstyle predominantly worn by teenage boys in the U.K., The Independent reports.
The style in question? A cut that’s worn short on the sides with a flop of long hair top and center. Referred to as the “meet me at McDonald’s” haircut, the look is popular across the pond and worn by U.K.-based celebs, like singer Myles Stephenson.
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So how exactly did this seemingly innocuous style go from “meet me at Mcdonald’s to “meet me at the headmaster’s office”? According to The Independent, the Great Yarmouth Charter Academy in Norfolk county, England, issued a letter on February 16 notifying parents of the consequences of wearing the cut or any of the other six banned styles, of which they outlined in a PowerPoint.
According to the report, the letter reads: “Any child whose hair has not been restyled appropriately by Monday 26th February will either be sent home to have their hair restyled or placed in isolation until their hair is restyled.”
Unsurprisingly, the reaction on social media has been swift and unfavorable, with some respondents pointing out that the school should be focusing on curriculum, not hairstyles.
When will the control freakery in UK schools end? Our children's hair cuts, hair colour etc. are none of your business. Focus on delivering education and fostering creativity, and not on creating an army of homogeneous clones unable to think for themselves! #meetmeatmcdonalds
— Maik Barrett (@maikbarrett) February 22, 2018
Meanwhile, others are posting #TBT class pics from the ‘80s that show a predominant crop of similarly-styled hair, which was not banned at the time and didn’t seem to get in the way of learning.
Some school hair from 1986. Who knows if the hair affected the education. #meetmeatmcdonalds pic.twitter.com/85lmcH9ASx
— Helen Gourlay #FBPE (@HGourlayUK) February 22, 2018
As for how this hairstyle got its seemingly random, yet catchy-as-hell name? Well, that’s still a bit of a mystery outside of secondary school circles in the U.K. It seems as though the origin of the cut — and name — popped up on Twitter in April of 2015, but parents and older denizens of the internet are likening the vibe to cuts worn in the synthpop scene in the ‘80s.
As for now, time will only tell whether the school’s ban will hold. But if similar attempts in the U.S. and Japan are any indication, something tells us the “meet me at McDonald's” will prevail.