Why I Cut My Hair: Black Girl Magic

When I decided to cut my hair two years ago, on October 3, 2014, the shortest I’d ever gone at the time, it was due to the excessive shedding I was experiencing. I was also looking forward to having a new look. I’d had the same style for the last decade and desperately wanted a change. I also wasn’t happy with the growing, and visible, specks of gray at the crown of my head.

Since cutting my hair, however, the versatility and self-awareness that came with it, gave me a sense of confidence that I’d never known before.

With the cut went the notion that a Black woman with little to no hair couldn’t still be beautiful and feminine at the same time. I know not everyone believes that, but growing up in a world where your beauty is defined by European standards, your sense of self can be non-existent.

Cutting my hair freed me of such a notion. For the first time, I began to see ME! The real me, what was under the hair. As my confidence grew, I became more playful and experimental with makeup and various short crops, highlights, whether curly, straight, natural and everything in between to accentuate my natural features. The standards that I’d grown to know as normal began to subside. I felt beautiful. Authentically beautiful. Just as I am and there was/is beauty in that.

I recently shared the above image with my Instagram followers with this statement:

“I use to think that having long hair was a beauty feature. Especially as a Black girl seeing perpetuated ideals of what it means to be beautiful. And to be considered a beautiful Black woman. Ironically I’ve never felt more beautiful after cutting all my hair off and going nearly bald. The best thing you can do for yourself is reject society’s definition of what’s beauty and find it in you. You already have everything in you. Imo short hair gives you versatility. And a big chop normally represents new birth/a new phase in your life. I’m ready ❤️”

To my surprise, there were many brown faces on my feed sharing their own thoughts on the matter, and expressing much of the same sentiments.

When I re-read that message, I recall the days in elementary school wanting my hair to be long and down my back like some of the other girls in my class. And along with it, lighter features: fairer skin and a straighter nose.

I don’t know how young or at what age I began to acquire these standards, and internalizing them as my own, but I am sure that they are the same ideals passed down from my mother, sister, grandmother, aunts, cousins, and friends. And it’s important for me now to break that cycle, so that I can pass down better messaging to my future daughter. To own her beauty and feel confident and enjoy every bit of this black girl magic.

What I also hope this message does for others, like myself, is help them in eradicating beauty standards that aren’t ideal or natural or maintainable. It’s important to understand that beauty comes in all forms, shapes, sizes and colors and, honestly, it starts with each one of us.

They say a woman who cuts her hair is getting ready to change her life. For me, that is exactly what happened. I changed my perspective and it reflected externally.

You won’t begin to see your physical beauty until you’ve tapped into your inner beauty, what makes you so unique, different and special. Loving you trumps any social standard of what you should look like and who you should be.

By: Antoinette “Ms. Toni” Warren
Ms. Toni is a Digital Media Influencer, Content Marketer and Founder of cottenkandi.com.
Twitter: @i_am_mstoni
IG: @iammstoni
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