00:00Well, you know, professionally, I'll be honest, and I'm sure so many of you can relate out there, for us as black people, I mean, you know, it's the concept of assimilation has been something that's so deeply rooted in the workspace, where wearing our hair is doggone near been seen as a crime.
00:14So now we have things like the Crown Act that actually support our ability to go in there with our hair as it is.
00:21So my relationship has changed because of those realizations.
00:24You know, when I was younger, again, I love wigs, weaves, everything.
00:28It's all great, but it's different when the intention is I have to do this in order to belong, and I'm doing this because it's easy and it's what I want to do.
00:36And so that's been the transition.
00:38When I was younger, I felt like, okay, this is defining me in a way that's starting to weigh heavy.
00:43And so then I cut my hair off.
00:45I went completely bald, you know, and I was, like, letting my hair grow back.
00:49I was playing with color.
00:50I was falling back in love with my hair the way that I did as a kid in Chicago in my grandmama's bathroom.
00:56You know, honestly, with Cream of Nature, you know, blowing it out, blowing it dry straight, getting into it, you know, doing braids, doing all these different things.
01:04And then I started to realize what my relationship with my hair was turning into was actually a representation of my self-love and my self-acceptance.
01:11And that's what I needed to get back to, to be able to then have the fun that I had previously or try different things.
01:17And so that's the spirit that I feel with my hair now, is that whatever I do do, it's not a necessity.
01:23It's coming from a place of joy, not from a place of survival.
01:26It's coming from a place of expression, not because I need to prove or show something, but because, hey, I want to express who I am differently.
01:34It's coming from a place of autonomy.
01:35And I think that's important.
01:37That's power.
01:38All right.
01:39All right.
01:39All right.
01:39All right.
01:47All right.
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