Yesterday was a walk down memory lane for me. I was at a meeting with a local hair stylist who wanted to take a look at my products and show her second chair what I was selling. While I know Nancy the owner and master stylist, it was my first time meeting her second chair stylist, and as always, i was nervous!
I always think the stylists can see that I am faking it and are going to "out" me as a wig wearer! WHATEVER! The truth of the matter... it's never happened in 20+ years of wearing hair ! And I certainly know that in my early days of wearing hair, the end result was nothing like it is now. It was much more wiggy and not at all natural looking! Yet not one person had the balls to say lord nice wig! Or is that a flipping wig?
I have certainly come a long way now! In fact, I have a friend of a friend who I often see when I am having drinks at my friends house. This woman is a stylist and I am pretty sure she still has not figured out that I wear wigs! Hairdressers/ stylists and barbers are all hair experts, but they see good and bad hair only. If you have a good hairpiece which you have made your own by shaping it and wearing it with confidence ... not even an expert can see the forest for the trees!
So back to my walk down memory lane... I was telling her how I came to wear hair and why I was folliclly challenged. Wow I have not really thought of that first week with hair in such a long time. I remember that a guy I went to college with knocked into us one night at a bar and he took the time to find a quite moment to tell me how brave he thought I was for getting hair! At the time I laughed at him and said "really? Brave? " I told him that wars were being fought on foreign soils and our troops were there overseas risking their lives for gods sakes ! This was just hair for goodness sakes! Brave pffft !
Ok so looking back now I guess I was a little hard on that guy! Not that I disagree with what I said at the time, but it's not untrue what he was getting at. Sometimes life is hard and to overcome those challenges with style and grace sometimes takes an act of bravery... a personal one.
That first day when it feels like you are wearing a neon sign on your head, it's not an easy task to hold your head up and not feel like this is the most ridiculous thing you have ever done! BUT here is the good news; most people are so wrapped up in their own lives and their own person they will not spend a lot of effort in figuring out what looks different about you! In some cases it's a drastic change and they just look you over give you an assessment and keep on their merry way!
Then there are those people who knew you before and are so distracted by trying to see a flaw or a part that is not real looking that they cannot make eye contact with you while you are speaking! Those are the worst! I still, to this day, meet a lady who I knew in passing years ago and she STILL stares right at my hairline for our entire conversation!
At some point you have to just say feckit and keep on living your life! Most days it takes a series of small acts of bravery to keep moving ahead! Everyone experiences this. It's not just reserved for the wig wearing women of the world!
I remember a Ted talk I watched once where athlete, actor and activist Aimee Mullins describes an experience where she was wearing a pair of prosthetic legs that made her taller. A friend looked at her and said, "well thats not fair ! " meaning that on any given night she could make herself and inch taller like a super model and that was an unfair advantage! HA! I love it ! Forget that she is an amputee... it's unfair that she can adjust her height based on her mood and outfit! Lmao!
Well girls that is us! We have the advantage! Wear beautiful hair everyday, long and luxurious one day short and sassy the next ! When you think of it ... we have an unfair advantage once we get over the worry and just get on with the living !!!!! 😜
I love reading this, thankyou! :)