Alterning between love and hate. That’s how I would define the relationship I have with my hair. I am happy because it ‘s versatile and I can do whatever I want with it but I have to admit that it is also a part of me I don’t really know how to handle.
As a kid, I very quickly decided to style my hair myself as my mother, who has a completely different hair type than mine didn’t really know how to take car eof it. However, I never felt like relaxing it – liking it or not, I had a particular type of hair on my head and accepting it wasn’t an option.
I wouldn’t say that I suffered from having curly hair but I can say that people’s behaviour towards it tend to annoy me.
Why would you come and touch it or keep defining it as « interesting » or « funny » ?
Once on holiday in Florida, people kept telling me how great my hair looked. It was obviousy a compliment, but it’s also reflective of the fact that people still aren’t facing enough diversity. If they were, they wouldn’t be dazzled by something as common as curly hair…
However such lack of diversity and representation didn’t impact me at all when I grew up. It might have to do with the fact that I come from a big family, with many people looking like me, having similar features or hair.
I knew I was part of a community and thanks to this I could see myself represented, not on magazine covers or ads, but within my own little world, and that was more than enough.