“We all have the option of how we want to express ourselves through our life, hair, style or whatever we decide. We shouldn’t be pigeonholed into any one category.”
- Solange Knowles

We Wear Our Hair The Way We Feel

part of My Black Hair Stories by Sue-Ann Bel

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We wear our hair the way we feel
We can choose to wear our hairstyle for a day, maybe a month, or sometimes years,
It just depends on what we feel like or what the world asks of us
We go from weave to bantu knots
From cornrows to lacewigs
From crochet to marley twists
From afro to headwrap
We are those real ninjas

We watch Do-it-yourselfs via social media and we give eachother our secrets
We learn by reading the ingredients unfindable at the drugstore but findable in our local black hair stores We try a KwiKwiBa for the first time
First time cornrows, headwraps, twists
We dream and save our money for future hairdos
We sleep with tides or Satin bonnets on our heads to let the oils do their work during the night
We know the pain of the first night sleeping with fresh new braids
But also the relaxation in your head cause your hair looks fresh again
It’s the confident look in the mirror cause you look fine as ****
You know how to look gorgeous sis

We know our insecurities
Or we get to know them
We see that we need to look for each other
So we can help each other
I remember the days that my hairstyle 'failed' me
Because the shrinkage was real

I have days when I look at my hair and think I'm really ugly.
Those are the days when my partner is sweet enough to keep repeating that I'm beautiful
The words don't come in, on days like that they just don't

We have so much different possibilities through the past
Hairstyles that have arisen from wanting to achieve a beauty standard
Hairstyles that have transcended the beauty standard
An endless amount of options to choose from
With our hair and our hairstyles, we carry multiple persons within us
We
We are more than just one person

Want to know more about Sue-Ann Bel? Click here to read more.