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Opinion – emojis are missing the trick with hair inclusivity

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Brighton, UK
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Since when did representation stop at skin tone? 

In the distant land of pre-2015 texting, all emojis were jaundiced little blobs. That was until the great Skin Tone Update, which allowed users to transform their emojis into a spectrum of humanity – sort of.

Despite these ostensibly diverse offerings, one very obvious detail has remained overlooked in the world of digital mini people: hair.

Fast forward to 2025, and despite boasting a library of over 4,000 emojis, there’s still no adequate representation of Black or non-white hairstyles. A quick scroll through your keyboard offers an array of smooth and ambiguous haircuts.

But if you’re looking for an emoji with cornrows, locs, Bantu knots, or even a humble afro – you’ll be scrolling for a while. Apparently in emoji world, everyone has the same generic, textureless hair.

This glaring oversight speaks to a larger issue of erasure. Like it or not, we live in a world where hair is deeply political. Natural curls are regularly deemed ‘unprofessional’ and protective hairstyles are still fighting for acceptance in workplaces and schools.

The Legal Defence Fund (LDF) has fought to end race-based hair discrimination for decades, describing this specific strand of racial aggression as a means to preserve white spaces and uphold systemic forms of racism. ‘By penalising hairstyles that fall outside of Eurocentric norms of beauty, discriminatory grooming policies in schools and workplaces are a manifestation of institutional racism,’ the LDF writes.

‘The increased attention on Black hair is the result of heightened social media conversations and viral news stories, such as FedEx employees suing the company after they were fired for having locs.’

As the LDF documents online, these cases of hair-based racial discrimination are not uncommon. And if hair is a battleground in real life, why should it be erased in the digital one?

A new campaign by RISE 365, in collaboration with Dove beauty, is fighting to have this question answered. Both organisations have worked together after founding the CROWN fund, an initiative amplifying the call for more inclusive emojis alongside other forms of diverse hair representation in the mainstream media.

Reanna Bryan, a member of RISE 365, recalls being told her braided hair was ‘not suitable’ for her workplace at just 18 years old. ‘I was like, ‘What do you mean, you can’t have braids or dreads? Because this is what I wear. My hair is in braids the majority of the time,’ she told the Guardian.

As part of RISE 365’s campaign, an analysis of nearly 4,000 emojis was conducted to show that not a single one currently represents someone with a Black or mixed-race hairstyle. Meanwhile, emoji updates roll out with new animals, ever-more specific hand gestures, and a suspiciously robust collection of hats.

This exclusion is even more baffling given that emojis have become a primary language of digital expression. A 2024 article critiques the so-called ‘diverse’ emoji update, noting that while skin tone modifiers were a step forward, they’re a lazy form of representation. It’s the emoji equivalent of ‘I don’t see color’ – an attempt to acknowledge diversity without engaging with its nuances.

The irony, of course, is that Black and brown communities are often the driving force behind internet culture. From viral slang to meme formats, these communities shape digital conversations – yet their representation in those same digital spaces remains an afterthought. And while emoji updates are often dismissed as trivial, they are anything but.

Unicode, the company which oversees the development and rollout of emojis and digital text, is notoriously slow and bureaucratic when it comes to updates. But that doesn’t mean the fight for more inclusive emojis isn’t worth it. Campaigns like Rise 365 have already sparked conversations, and with enough public demand, change is possible.

As Jasper Regan commented on an Impact post about the RISE 365 initiative, ‘people trivialise this but representation matters, so many young kids are using emojis and its messed up that a huge part of the population isn’t represented.’

They may just be silly little digital faces, but emojis are a core part of modern vernacular. They’re a reflection of the things we see in society, and crucially, they’re a form of communication. The emoji keyboard is a stark reminder of whose identities are considered default, and whose are still seen as optional.

Senior Remote Writer Brighton, UK

I’m Flo, (She/Her) a Senior Remote Writer at Thred. I recently completed a Masters in Visual Anthropology, and seek to interrogate the ways digital spaces can amplify marginalised voices in the arts and cultural sectors. Follow me on LinkedIn or ping me some feedback via email.

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