Hot boy summer is well underway and I’m just going to give myself 300 points for writing this article. With school out, the ridiculous politics of how (and to what extent) black males get to groom our hair don’t apply. In Jamaica, teens use every school break and holiday to groom ourselves to look ideal. For black males, especially, we use this awesome time to reclaim and take ownership of the hair on our heads that public institutions see fit to confiscate from us. But that’s that on that. Relish this moment and milk it for everything it’s worth!  But… what about outside of school… what’s the opinion?

Well for one, I visited a few local barbershops and asked around about what business looked like now, compared to when school is in session. Here are some of the responses:

“Betta. Shop fuller in dem time yah because everybody want fi look fresh.”

“Ting loud! Chair full every hour a di day.”

“Day dem kinda longer. Everybody want hairstyles that tek longer to do than usual school. Some a dem even haffi guh over to the woman section fi get colour treatment and plait and twist”

“Nuff school yute always in yah more than when a school time. Some dem in yah all three time a week”

It is evident that the euphoria of controlling how you look has boiled over. Science has proven that how you look (your perception of yourself) has a great effect on how you feel and it seems like everyone is feeling themselves, no pun intended.

Of course, responses to how men are carrying themselves aren’t all positive. There’s always that one group of people who are stuck in their colonial thinking or are just plain mean. Many of times, I’ve been a victim to, and have witnessed people (usually older folk, religious zealots or business people) castrate me and my black brothers by sharing their disapproval and disdain for how we choose to express ourselves and own the hair on our heads. The truth is, however, they are wrong and will always be wrong for this discrimination and often… self-hate. The truth is, this micromanaging of black expression and the natural features of black people is just another socio-systemic colonial apparatus. The truth is, that this way of thinking is cultivated out of pure propaganda which suggests that our kinks and bodies need managing— that we need to contain ourselves to belong, and that we must conform to survive. The only way pass this issue is to resist.  

We (from the little primary schoolboy up to the high-ranking government official) need to begin to have productive and change-effecting conversations on how we wrongly police the sartorial expressions of black people on the island— especially black males— and how to remedy this ill.

The dark stuff aside… enjoy yourselves, enjoy your Hot Boy Summer and enjoy taking ownership of the moments you can freely express your dreads, your afros, your fades,your dyed hair, your braids, your twists, your styles, your body.   

— Kiseon Thompson