Actor Zac Efron has received a backlash from fans for rocking dreadlocks.
"The Greatest Showman" star recently posted to his Instagram an image of himself with the hairstyle, captioning "Just for fun" with a rock-on emoji, and quickly received a number of comments with various reactions (not all good ones) to his new hairdo.
A lot of those in the comments pointed out a cultural appropriation, which is when a portion of a minority's culture is adopted by a person from the majority population's culture. While he's received over 1.5 million likes thus far, along with many supportive comments, other followers have shown disappointment for the style choice, evidence by the hundreds of negative comments like, "This is our culture!!!! Not just for fun! 🗣🗣🗣 "
The hairstyle has been around for a very long time in world history among many cultures, however since the '70s it has been associated with Reggae legend Bob Marley, a look popular in his home country of Jamaica, as a symbol of one's religious roots and spirituality.
This is not the first time a celebrity has come under fire for dreadlocks and cultural appropriation. Kim Kardashian has been criticized multiple times by fans and critics alike for wearing different historically African-American hairstyles. As well as Justin Bieber sported dreads back in 2016 at the iHeartRadio Music Awards, sparking his own controversy.
While other celebrities, who are not African-American, feel that wearing historically black hairstyles doesn't really cause harm, there is a possible double standard at play here. Singer Zendaya wore dreadlocks to the Oscars in 2015 and she was knocked as looking like she "smells like patchouli oil" by Giuliana Rancic.
Efron has so far yet to respond.