An 18 year old Japanese girl is suing her local government of Osaka after being forced by her school to dye her naturally brown hair to black. Her name has not been released to the public for privacy reasons. Kaifukan High School’s rule is that everyone has black hair. She was told she would have to leave the school near Osaka if she didn’t dye her hair.

She did not want to leave the school and all her friends so she ended up repeatedly dying her hair causing damage to her hair and scalp. According to Time Magazine, she has not attended school since last September because of irritation from the dye on the scalp.

“Kaifukan High said they had this rule in place to prevent students from dyeing their hair different colors”, BBC News reports. The girl’s mother told the school that she was just born with brown hair, but the school did not listen. The school would even force blond foreign students to dye their hair black, the Japan Times reports.

According to BBC News, the girl is asking for $19,300 in damages and the school is asking to reject the claim altogether. This situation is fairly common in Japan as many schools have strict rules about hair color, the use of makeup, and skirt length. According to Business Insider, A survey was taken revealing that 57% of Public High schools require kids to prove that their hair color is natural.