I recently cut my hair on my birthday and decided to get a buzz cut , something I thought was called a brush cut until I was looking for hairstyles on the internet.
I've always thought that all women should try to have short hair at least once in their lives after the age of 20. I think it is great for your confidence and forces you to be more creative and to go out in to the world fearless. It's great not to depend on your hair for beauty and to cover up your imperfections be they zits or a big forehead. Everyday I wake up I think "here I am , this is me and I look great". On top of all this it is easy to take care of , cheap and it is feels amazing to be able to come from a run and have your head under the shower while not worrying about shrinkage or how long it will take to dry.
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Not me but look at her style and elegance
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Over the last three years I have been trying to go natural and every time my hair had grown enough to make an impressive afro something happened to make me swing off the main course. The first time my mother lured me into relaxing it and as soon as I stepped out of the hair salon a street vendor who had seen me go in commented on how I had messed up and said I had looked better before. This brought a lump to my throat for a few days cause I knew he was right. I let the relaxed hair grow out and I cut my hair bit by bit until I was left with just the natural hair and by May this year I was an expert at organic hair treatments and even braiding my own hair. I then went to visit a friend who was getting married and decided to get my hair straightened and to protect it from the heat I told them to put Keratin, which they did generously before blow drying it and then using a flat iron on my luscious afro hair. For the night of the wedding I walked around with so much pride in my shiny straight hair believing it was great to be able to easily alternate between big hair on one day and slick straight hair on another. Unfortunately after washing my hair for a week my hair still smelt like burnt popcorn and I resembled a wet chicken cause some of it was kinky while a few chunks simply refused to curl back.
After a few months of braids and cornrows with the futile hope that my organic afro would be restored I concluded it was time to do the big chop. It wasn't difficult to go though and after a day I had adapted to my new look. The difficult part was walking into my classes with short hair and meeting people I knew, keeping in mind that the last time they saw me I had big black curls with blond highlights. I tried to keep a straight face like nothing was different but it is a drastic change and you think that everyone is thinking "what the hell happened!". On the positive side with the help of Tyra Banks and America's next top model I have been strutting my fearless look. I have had so many comments , well 4!, from people of no colour (ha ha ha) from Swedish people, saying I look great with my new cut, And unfortunately my mum and a few other people of colour were horrified when they heard or saw that I had cut my hair. The ticket man in the tvarbanan who is originally from Nigeria greeted me today as he always does and then went on to say he hadn't recognised me because of my hair. Straight after that he said, sounding very wise as all Nigerians do "You know what they say, a women's hair is her beauty. But your head has a good shape anyway".
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| Noémi Lenoir
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So as much as I have had 'many' great comments
and stares, I have also had some negative feedback. I hope that women can learn to start feeling comfortable with their natural hair and short hair too. I always felt like I would look like a boy or poor and rural if I had my hair natural or short but I have come to feel that it looks unique, sophisticated, elegant, ethnic and cool. It's great to be versatile in any case, learn to work the weave and learn to strut that bald head, A Woman's Lack of Hair is a Powerful and Inspiring Beauty.
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| Me, going for full on bold next time |
