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  • A New Year...A Clean Slate.

    Photo by Michelle Alexander

    There is something to be said about a clean slate...a fresh start.  With the beginning of a new year, comes the promise of a fresh start. This year, as with many years, I began this year with a fresh haircut...a clean buzz. This wouldn't be that remarkable except this year, I've also moved to Washington DC where the air is considerably cooler than the balmy Los Angeles weather I'm use to or the mild Atlanta winter I most recently left behind. The hawk is out and circling over my exposed scalp.  I keep her covered but I embrace, as I do every year, the love for a new cut...a clean slate...a fresh start.

    This new year rings in 2014 with a new home, a fiancee who will be my wife later in the year, and a new opportunity to share my writings on a great blog; "Hair as Identity". Created by my college friend, Dr. Tina Opie, "Hair as Identity" will be an outlet for me to explore the power and pretty of hair...despite rarely having any.  What does it say to wear your hair cut close or cleanly shaven? What happens when you have no choice in whether you get to keep your hair, losing it to illness or age? I'll also address hair in other regions of the body and examine the beauty and politics of hair...there. Let's play!

    SO...here's my introduction to you and Happy New Year!




     






































    #53
    Color: Fuzzy Wuzzy
    March 20, 2011
    Song: "I Am Not My Hair" India.Aire feat. Akon



    Things I usually hear after a new hair cut clean:

    "Oh...you MUST be from the EAST coast. I don't see too many West coast women doing...that."
    - Guys who think they know ALL West coast women.

    "Sir...?"
    - Oh...and it won't matter that I'm wearing large hoop earrings and rockin' a 40 DD!

    "Why?"
    - Typically from Mom...lol...but always with love...and a chuckle.

    "What did you DO to your hair?"
    - I usually want to respond, "What did YOU do to yours?!"

    "Can I touch it?"
    - White women at the club.

    "Can I rub it?"
    - Black women at the club.

    "Well, at least you have a good head for that..."
    - Women WANTING to make a change but afraid...too worried they may have, in their own opinion, an odd shaped head...or a hook...or something.

    "Don't you miss your hair?"
    - My reply is usually, "It's just hair. It'll grow back." If they rebut, and they usually do, "What if it doesn't?" Then I follow, "Well then, I guess I'm happy. No more trips to the barber FOR THE SAME LOOK I CHOSE TO HAVE!"

    Buzz of the clipper
    Take away
    History catch kink
    Wipe the slate clean
    And start again
    I can't be weighted down
    At the top
    From the top
    With bad choice
    Wrong voices
    And ill taken turns
    I have to wash it away
    Let the strays fall
    Into the drain
    And start again
    For me
    Again.

    I'm not locked to my locks.
    I'm not locked to my look.
    I'm not locked to your look.
    I'm not locked to locked ideas of beauty.
    I am free to do me...clean.

    And yes, I have a great head
    for this...
    and everything else I choose.


  • 1 comment:

    1. Thanks for inviting me. I wish that my mother had been as accepting of my choices when I went into the bathroom two weeks from my high school graduation with hair down to there...and came back out with not too much longer than you're rocking here. I simply loved it. The only reason why I wear my hair so long now is because most people see that women over 50 should never wear long hair. I have always been partial to breaking the rules. You're rocking it, in touch with your inner African goddess and she's FIERCE!!

      ReplyDelete

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