My mother agreed to let me have all the girls from my class to come to our house for the night. I think I was 10 or 11. That were about ten girls and only one adult. I was showing the girls who just arrived the basement when dryer girl was dared to go in to see if she would fit. She got in and closed the door. One…

I think “Suzie’s mom” is commenting all over this thread.

Okay. So I am not, nor have a ever been, a cheerleader. My cousin was a cheerleader for years and is now a high school cheerleading coach. (She’s also an algebra teacher and a heck of a smart person, so I get kind of cranky about some of the cheerleader stereotypes.) But my understanding of the hair and makeup is as…

Cheerleading is hard core and very athletic, and all star cheerleaders don’t cheer for teams. It’s got a rate of injury equal to or greater than football (partly because people have decided that it isn’t a sport and they don’t have the protection and training for coaches that other sports have).

I have two daughters in all star cheer... hair has to be up for safety reasons and for competition hair is absolutely part of the “uniform”. We have a great coach who never takes it over the top .... but if she says high pony (which is 100% the norm) straight or curled... that’s what you do.

But when you dance, if a bun is required you can’t expect your director is going to allow one girl to have a ponytail. I’m not saying it’s rational, just that this is how competitive cheer works.

I don’t think the coach was saying only straight ponys are acceptable in cheer. It’s more like for a certain routine, the squad chose straight ponys. Do some squads and gyms allow different styles? Probably. It’s also probably more common when cheering for a high school or college. That is not what this girl was…

I will say when all together it doesn’t look so much like little girl hair. It just looks like crazy cheerleader hair.

I’m gonna say it has more to do with her mom not wanting obey the conditions of being on the team. When you make a team, you sign a form agreeing to the terms. It probably wasn’t the hair as much as it was the principle of the thing. Plus it sounds like this isn’t the mom’s first brush with the coach and this was the…

I think so, too. It’s an elite, internationally competitive squad/gym. You know what you are signing on to with that. Reading the source article and seeing that the mom told him she wouldn’t “compromise her daughter’s natural talent and beauty” sealed my opinion.

I was a cheerleader for a few years and danced and also have very, very curly hair. If you are supposed to have a certain hairstyle for a performance, then you have to have that hairstyle.

I’m guessing it wasn’t as much for her hair as it was her mother’s attitude. Cheer moms can be entitled assholes. When her daughter was accepted on that team, she signed a form accepting the conditions of being on the team and then apparently didn’t want to observe them or even reach a compromise. The fact that the…

It’s completely silly, but that’s what they ALL look like.

The girl in question is white. Why does everyone on this article think it’s racism? Her mother is white (perhaps hispanic but idk so can’t say) and her father is clearly white.

This girl is white. I don’t think that is the issue here.

A good friend of mine’s daughter has ridiculously curly hair. She looks like Merida. She does Irish dance, however, and wears the curly fake ponytail because even her curls aren’t curl enough. You already pay a shit ton of money on competitive dance and cheer, I find it hard to believe a clip on pony or some thermal…

That guys a douchecanoe of epic magnitude, too. The only loser in this situation is the girl, there are no winners. I bet if she and the coaches handled it alone, they could’ve come up with a solution that wouldn’t destroy her hair, as the mom claims. That didn’t happen and the mom got her kicked out.

Sure, but I don’t think curling straight hair or straightening curly hair is a bridge too far. Plus this mom said she “wasn’t going to compromise her daughter’s natural beauty and talent” which just turns me off. Your kid is not more special than any other on the squad.

Idk. My daughter is in competitive dance, and everyone’s hair and makeup MUST be uniform. It’s so strict that we all have the exact same makeup kit from the same brand. Curly, straight, it’s all styled uniformly. It’s part of the gig.

Yeah I think they are actually judged on how uniform and cohesive they look. If this were about cheering at a football game, then yes, rage on. But for competitive competitions looking cookie cutter is part of the game.