Stop asking if my hair’s real.
Michelle Ross,
Fort Worth, TX
I’ve always had really long hair and I attest it to my Native American heritage. But I’m so tired of the side comments like your hair is long for a black girl so you must be mixed. No way that’s yours it must be tracts or extensions. People would go to the extent of tugging on my hair to see if it was real. Growing up my mother did hair as a side hustle and she always instilled in us that even with wigs if it’s on their head than it’s there hair and also it’s really no one’s business if your hair is real or not. Over the years I’ve come to see that when people don’t have anything else to worry about they start worrying about other peoples business. When I was little I tried to cut my own hair I remember being 5 years old telling my ,other I didn’t ask for this. I also don’t like how in my culture people have coined that phrase “good hair” I don’t think there’s good hair or bad hair it’s just hair. I remember telling my mom when I was 15 cut it all off. The. I remember during the pandemic I cut it super short it was so freeing and my mom didn’t really care for the look and she promised me to never cut it again. I’ve kept my promise but I hope to never have long hair again because people never believed it was mine anyways.
