Little Mix’s Jesy Nelson criticised for wearing dreadlocks

Little Mix singer Jesy Nelson has been accused of cultural appropriation for wearing her hair in dreadlocks.
The 26-year-old took to Instagram on Monday night (19Feb18) to post an image of her posing in a grey faux fur coat with her new waist-length dark red hair draped over her shoulders. She captioned the snap with a camera emoji and the word “Shootin'”.
However, the photograph quickly sparked an online debate, with some users begging her to delete the image.
“Jesy, hun, I love you, but please take this down or write an apology. It may have not been thought about at the time, but this is cultural appropriation,” one person commented. “I’m not hating and you do look beautiful, but this hairstyle isn’t meant for you.”
Another wrote, “Jesy I hope u (you) at least apologise. If you don’t, you’ll be labelled as ignorant for the rest of your career. I’m not black but I’m very aware of their culture and I respect it. If someone as simple as a fan like me can get educated on this, it shouldn’t be hard for Jesy to do so too.”
Jesy has not commented on the backlash and the post has racked up over 200,000 likes, with many of the star’s followers defending her choice to wear dreadlocks, a hairstyle associated with members of the Rastafari religious group, which originated in Jamaica. The majority of Rastafarians are of black African descent, although a minority come from other racial groups.
“I think that you look beautiful Jessie ignore all those haters their just jealous, it’s your hair you can do whatever you like with it after all dreadlocks is a hair style like any other hair style,” another user wrote in the comments section of the post.
The debate comes after Kim Kardashian was accused of cultural appropriation and ignorance for crediting Bo Derek for inspiring her new beaded hairstyle, copied from a look the actress wore in the 1979 film 10, when the technique originated in Africa.