short hair diaries

I decided one day to cut my hair and start all over. I looked up african young women who had tried and tessted that path like Nnandi Ngoma from South Africa and Tariro NeGitare who hails rights here in Zimbabwe .Upon having done the damned i began to realise that the struggle became real.

Yeah, short hair is good at the beginning ,what withe fresh faced look and youthfulness that comes with it. But when i started to grow out my hair,this bliss just took a left and turned into a nightmare. I was now fast running out of ideas on how best to style myself up. Plus with shorter hair it is a fashion crime to bare faced. With no make up you look like you got off the last chicken bus from my native Buhera. I couldn't risk going out there in public without my best face forward anyway, it means i would have to put on make up every other day. And that burns an illicit hole in your pocket i am  telling you. What with the well known brands of foundations and powders  costing a hefty catch, it did not make things any better. Mind you, one tip i dish out for free is that ...buy your cosmetics be it lipstick, foundation and powder from well renowned and established brand houses like Edgars, Truworths and of course you can trust pharmarcies. Chances of bumping it a fake or fong kong in those shops is nil.

Anyway back to the hair, i regretted it as soon as the barber had put down his machine. But contrary to what i believed most of the feedback i got from onlookers was that it suited me and i looked younger. What i couldn't grasp was why i felt far from confident with my natural short hair. It then dawned upon me like a light bulb that i had been socialized in such a way that short hair wasn't to be put in the same sentence with a woman. In Zimbabwe people now associate strutting with short hair as maybe being a sign that things are not going too well for you financially. Your financial disposition should be seen with the human hair or Brazilian or Peruvian  or Indian hair  plaited in your hair. 

The longer the hair ,the fatter your wallet ,so they say. Apparently, this hair gets expensive by the inch. So i have been putting on weaves since i was 19 years old and it had been close to ten years without having made a visit to the barber. It had slipped from me that an African woman could actually carry her crown proudly without any additives. Inasmuch as i was uncomfortable i had little choice but to bear the brunt of my not so clearly thought out decision. The English have an old adage that says " you make your bed, be prepared to lay in it" . This was now me laying in my bed so to speak.

 So i had to to do the best that i could with the little resources i had. Funny enough i embraced my new look in no time and everywhere i went people would be like "wow...how do you afford to be so confident without a single weft of a weave in your hair?" this gave my self confidence a boisterous boost and i became addicted to always trimming it up so that it looked phresh all the time. I was a barbers machine addict for a good four months straight and was loving it. however, i have decided to try and grow it out and maybe start plaiting it again. Not because i got negative feedback but because by nature i like to try out new things and am  a slave to change. Hence, my short hair era has sadly come to an end. But who knows... who is to say that maybe it will hit a comeback when i set my eyes on that barbers machine and the journey will begin...again. Nothing is set on stone except for the  Ten Commandments.