My hair differentiates me from other people and is a representation of my identity.
It’s funny when you think that in secondary school I genuinely hated it! In my opinion, my hair was too much and was adding up to the fact that I was already much taller and thinner than the average.
I was already very noticeable and didn't want to be even more.
From primary school, there was also this idea at the back of my mind that I didn’t want to look like my mother.
I hated her frizzy hair and struggled to find her beautiful because of it. And above all, I was listening to people who were saying that my mother wasn’t beautiful.
One day, I came home, hid under the living room table, looked at my mum and said: ‘you’re ugly, you’re dark skinned and you have curly hair’.
This sentence sheds light on the conflictual relationship the younger me had with curly hair, and shows what I would associate curls with.
Luckily, it didn’t last forever and I can now look at my mother and see how beautiful she is.
She was obviously very hurt by this, but despite these painful words she succeeded to tell me that in life you are who you are and can be whoever you want to be, no matter what people say.
This was a real life lesson and something that the younger me desperately needed to hear.