My life changed the day I shaved my head. I almost cried as I saw my almost armpit length hair fall to the floor. My hair dresser insisted that I face away from the mirror until the end, so as to prevent my freaking out.
But when I saw myself, truly bare and naked in a way, I couldn’t help but smile. I saw my personal beauty reflected back at me. I saw my strong jawline, and the bump in my nose, and all of my features for the first time without any adornments, and I LOVED it. I realized that “this is me.” Maybe not a traditional beauty, or maybe not even something that other people saw as beautiful, but it was MY beauty.
That day I realized a number of things: one, that if I could see myself without hair, and love what I saw, nothing should stand in the way of me loving myself to the core. As much as other women have, and even though I “knew better,” I ingested all of the standards of beauty that the world threw at me, and then felt bad about myself because I fell short of all of those standards. But here I was, the complete opposite of long, luscious, straight hair, and I saw BEAUTY. And I realized that that’s all that should matter, what I saw, not what others saw or wanted to see.
I also realized that I was stronger than I gave myself credit. I knew that a lot of people would react negatively to my new hair style. After all I lived in an extremely conservative town in West Michigan, and came from a culture that (although it doesn’t want to admit it) loves all things white washed (think Sammy Sosa). And I did find a number of neutral or flat out negative reactions, but I didn’t care. And I realized that if I could face every one I knew being the barest me I could be, and not care about their opinion because I knew I was doing something good for me, then I was in some ways stronger than I imagined.
Lastly, shaving my head was a turning point in my life because it marked the beginning of my path towards living the best life I can live. It paved the way towards me becoming the confident woman I am today, and therefore it was definitely one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life.
keep up with Yissri on her blog– the naturaliste
Yirssi, you are beautiful. Thank you for sharing your story. You are an absolute natural inspiration. Keep up the great job and please keep posting your hair updates. I have been completely natural for a year and love reading stories such as yours.
Thank you again! I really appreciate the kind words. The funny thing is that it took me FOREVER to go natural because I was so afraid of what people would think, and now I can't imagine myself without my curls.
I've found that a lot of other naturals feel the same way.
Anon @ 4:52, Thank you. I've been natural two years next month. I only trim it every 6 months or so.
Beautiful! You look stunning with the low cut look!
Your hair is beautiful!How long have you been a natural? How long did it take you to grow your hair out ?
Thank you so much ladies!
Anon @ 4:12 PM, I wish I could tell you a specific way to achieve this, but to be honest that's just how my hair looks after about an hour of steping out of the shower (if I don't put any products on it).
Beautiful and inspirational story. Your face compliments any length of hair. Would you please share how you achieved the look in the second to last pic?
Wow! Beautiful journey! Your hair looks amazing Yirssi!
Beautiful, from BC to big, gorgeous fluffy hair!
I seriously love one shoulder tops on natural women!