Young Blonde Girl With Cornrows Hairstyle And Green Stockings On The Wooden Swing On Ropes

Over the years, cornrows, along with dreadlocks, have been the subject of several disputes in the American workplace. Some employers have deemed them unsuitable for the office and have banned them – sometimes even terminating employees who have worn them. African American employees and civil rights groups have countered that such attitudes evidence racial and cultural bias. Some such disputes have resulted in litigation.
In 2011, the High Court of the United Kingdom, in a decision reported as a test case, ruled against a school’s decision to refuse entry to a student with cornrows; the school claimed this was part of its policy mandating ‘short back and sides’ haircuts and disallowing styles that might be worn as indicators of gang membership, but the court ruled that the student was expressing a family tradition and that such policies, while possibly justifiable in certain cases (e.g. skinhead gangs), had to accommodate reasonable ethnic and cultural practises.
Braids pulled too tight or worn for considerable lengths of time can cause a type of hair loss known as traction alopecia.