Wild Hair, Wild Personality

“Her messy hair is a visible attribute of her stubborn spirit. As she shakes it free, she smiles knowing wild is her favorite color.”

I stumbled upon this quote a few years back and it just stuck with me ever since. Have you noticed some attributes about your physical body that kind of resemble your characteristics or how you behave as a person? My hair is definitely a character. Like for real, it is its own person with a whole mind of its own. It don’t listen to me sometimes!

I remember when I was younger, in high school especially; I would hate how messy and wild my hair was. It didn’t look like everyone else’s and I certainly stood out like an eyesore. I literally didn’t know how to handle curly hair and my mom wasn’t really any help since she always straightened her own. I would have this thick ponytail and classmates would make fun of how stiff it was and how I could hide things inside it. Some of them sat behind me in class and threw tiny paper balls and paper clips without me noticing. So I started to constantly straighten my hair. People would tell me how the straight hair looked much better and it got to me. A simple compliment made me want to change it entirely. I would continuously try to tame it with treatments and products. The hardest part of straightening my hair was always the roots. They were too curly and would not stay fully straight, for long. My roots refused to change. (If you zoom in closely you can see some fly-aways… please don’t zoom in closely)

Now, I’m not saying that just because you change your hair you are doing something wrong. I’m simply saying that for me personally, I let the opinions of others allow me to tame my spirit (in a sense). I desperately wanted to change the very thing that made me unique and different (physically).

However, I have finally learned to fully embrace my wild mane. It’s become my trademark. It made me Moana lol (not just cause she loves the ocean but she literally has my hair). When people look for me, they look for the wild curly hair. I stand out again, and this time I like it. I’ve shaken it free and shook off the perceptions that had been attached. The wilder it looks, the better it is for me! I still like to straighten it every once in a while. Just for fun. But this time just to try something different rather than the desire to be different.

Whether literally or figuratively, go shake your mane and embrace that wild personality that you wear so well. I’m learning to do just that.