00:04What I really thought when I shaved my head that I was going to look in the
00:07mirror and really see myself for the first time and that did happen. But then
00:11after a while I realized you're never really going to see your true self in
00:14the mirror. It's always going to come out from the inside. It's never going to be
00:19from the outside.
00:25I've been asking myself that the question of you know why is hair such a
00:29big deal to women. It's something that we see all the time. We have ever since we
00:33were little girls commercials with women with like really long beautiful hair.
00:38I struggled with an eating disorder for a little bit and that was based more on
00:43self-confidence and looking in magazines and then wanting to be these women.
00:47So I was always the pretty black girl like you're pretty for a black girl you
00:51have nice hair for a black girl and I hated that comment that would always
00:54follow any compliment I received. Not only was I being objectified by men, by
00:59that I was being fetishized by my friends and I didn't appreciate it.
01:02I was very attached to my hair and I started to do a little more soul
01:07searching and realizing that my hair didn't define who I was.
01:12The feedback I got was a lot of like wow that's really great but like you're
01:16gonna grow it out now right because girls shouldn't have short hair. And so
01:19there's a lot of back and forth between me and like myself and being like but I
01:23feel beautiful. When I have short hair I'm not hiding behind anything I'm just
01:28expressing like my truest nature. My intention was never to wow anyone or do
01:37anything for anyone else it was more just kind of shed for lack of a better term.
01:41My mom's reaction wasn't great because I think she was associating cutting all your hair
01:48off with like something traumatizing happening but it was actually just one
01:53of the most empowering moments I've ever had. It also helped me grow in my
01:59confidence I was able to embrace more of who I am. I didn't do it and say like hey
02:06I'm a feminist I did this and say hey I'm an independent person and I don't need
02:10anyone to tell me that I look good because I know that I'm a decent person on
02:14the inside. The journey of finding my self-confidence I guess and finding the
02:19beauty that I found from a short head I couldn't really anticipate it. It's about
02:24defining yourself and not letting the society or the world of things around you
02:29define you.
