Zac Efron is like our best friend’s older brother who we secretly crush on. And he’s always been America’s collective affable bro—but I had no idea he’d be that kind of bro. Ya know, the kind of dudebro that makes me roll my eyes a little bit.
On Thursday, the 30-year-old actor shared a picture of himself on Instagram with a head full of dreadlocks. That’s right, Zefron has white man dreads. Take a look for yourself…
To quote a fan in the comments, “HIS HEAD IS NOT IN THE GAME.”
So why is this such a big deal? Wearing dreadlocks is most common in the black community- a symbol worn by Kenyan freedom fighters and Rastafarians from Jamaica. The hairstyle is sometimes used as a scapegoat for discrimination against people of color, reclaimed as a source of pride similar to the afro, according to Syreeta McFadden of The Guardian. As Josie Pickens noted in Ebony, it’s especially disrespectful of white men to wear dreadlocks because black people who historically wore them fought for freedom from oppression by white men.
Apparently, Zac has been on a beach vacation in Hawaii for the past several weeks. He’s seen with the dreads in another picture from a few weeks ago, but they were noticeably missing in a video posted on the Fourth of July.
It’s unclear whether or not he still has the dreads, but the impact is a little more permanent than hairstyles. Many, including some in the comments of the picture, have been accusing him of cultural appropriation.
Zac isn’t the first celebrity to receive backlash for choosing a potentially insensitive hairstyle. Justin Bieber had some white boy dreads of his own back in 2016 and sparked some conversation about dreadlocks not being just a hairstyle. Several members of the Kardashian family have gotten some flack for adopting typically black hairstyles as well—cornrows, bantu knots and others.
Maybe the faux pas was unintentional, as cultural appropriation sometimes can be, but regardless, maybe Zac (and all of us) should be a lot more cautious about what the style choices we make really mean. Here’s hoping our bro can learn a lesson from this.