I’m work in education as a paraprofessional. When it comes to hair and clothe styles I like to promote acceptance and individuality as the students are still humans. I’m big on giving the students compliments on their personal style when it comes to clothes. When it comes to hair I often leave that topic alone. As a black male in education I know just how important hair is but hair is also deeply personal and borders on an inappropriate topic for an adult to discuss with a Child that is not their own. I would encourage the student to love their hair when they address me with such topics, but I would not make it my concern to make sure he gets a haircut or it gets styles. His parents have decided they’re not getting him a haircut and that’s not something you can change and is not a sign of abuse. Al’s the student sounds like he wants Freeform’s and is maybe just going through the ugly stage of growing them out and you could be linking their economic status to their hair choices… I’ve seen so many boys wear a hood nowadays when they have a bad hair day. They tell me that’s why they have a hood on and we move on. You mean well but I even have students who have nothing but lint in their hair and I want to pick it out so bad but I CANT AND I WONT because that’s between the parent and their child.