Now before I start about this topic, I will state that this is not a dig to those who chose to style their hair in any particular way:

I am just speaking to encourage women to go outside the standards of beauty. A lot of us are scared to do just that because we care what other people think, more so if you are a women. Being beautiful sometimes is the only ideal of being a woman especially of colour. What is usually attached to beauty?

Our hair.

Yes, I have no hair, right now I am bald because that was my choice, but some don’t have that privilege in making a decision that may seem minuscule to some, and a big deal to others.

Articles on being a bald women (or female identifying) are slim to none, majority of the time it is usually actresses cutting of their tresses all in part for a movie which means that this is all temporary, a trend that at times prove that women will go back to the long flowing hair eventually because it is not normal to have no hair. You see we to an extent, look up to celebrities (I try to steer clear from trends), especially when younger. I can speak to being a little girl and only seeing commercials of women who didn’t look like me, or seeing the typical token black girl who usually adorned a wig that was long, flowing, straight to the bone, no curls to arise. She was usually ‘sassy’, loud, had no back story, not the main character in a major film screen, and basically had no depth to her character whatsoever, just a stereotype. But I always observed the hair because I knew for a fact that it did not resemble mine.

I can go on and on about blaming society in particular for how black women are viewed, but sometimes it becomes ingrained in some, not all… of our conscience.  We worry whether or not we will get that job based on our looks, and yes it is important to look the part ( I can’t stress that enough), but when you go against the grain of what beauty looks like… that can be daunting.

When you cut off your hair, this is a process, externally and internally. Yes, you have literally have nothing to hide but your face, but you are cutting off way more then just hair. There is baggage where all that hair came from. From the time you are just a kid to becoming a young adult, the baggage women carry in terms of attaining beauty standards become enormous and ridiculous at times. We all fall into that trap whether we want to admit that, whether we like it… or not. The constant need to looking a certain way because this is the way it should be can be detrimental to anyone’s self esteem. So yes I do believe that shaving off your hair can be brave but to an extent.

Are you brave enough to maintain the look? Even when you get the questionable stares, creeps who have bald fetishes or older women who will put you down and ask why you are still bald when they don’t even know you well enough… can you handle that? Kids will stare at you, that is in their nature and you can’t blame them, they are sponges that will absorb anything. Or if a guy tells you that he likes his women with hair, or even requests that you grow your hair back because again this is to appease him and his own insecurity… can you handle that? Can you even handle going into a barber shop with a bunch of men there while you’re the only woman in the whole shop?

I know some can’t.

But I also know that all above those ignorant comments, there are people who will admire you for the look, including older women. I point this out because there has always been a stigma surrounding bald women. The standards of beauty has been around for years, decades, centuries and beyond that. I don’t even get offended when someone states that they can never shave off their hair because I have been in that position, I usually ask them why they feel such a way and I encourage them to just do it. A lot will say it’s because their head it not as smooth, or that they are not pretty enough which breaks my heart when I hear that. Again… beauty always comes to surface. I love a good compliment on my look, what women doesn’t like being called beautiful? But, I will never understand when women for example, will call you beautiful for having no hair, then put themselves down at the same time. I will never get that, this is one of the reasons why I am writing this post. If you want to cut it all off, all the baggage, all of the bullshit attached to what a woman should look like, I say go for it. Yes, some people who you don’t even know will ask you if you have Cancer, or if you are a Lesbian (nothing wrong with this), hate men, shaved it for Cancer awareness (which is a great cause) or trying to look like Eve of Amber Rose.  Some can’t picture a woman cutting their hair just for the reason that they wanted to do it. That’s on them. People who judge you for being different in whatever way will say horrible things to you because they are shedding their insecurities on you, not the other way around…remember that.

Being a bald woman will intimidate some, weed out all of the haters and attract the right people in your life. If that manager didn’t want to hire you for a position based on you being a baldie, well it’s their loss and why on earth would you want to work for an organization that discriminates a person based on their appearance? On that note, when you are bald (both men and women), you are as groomed as one can be… clean cut. So I will never understand to whole double standards towards a woman’s appearance compared to a man’s. Being a bald women will encourage other women to do it, or to just be themselves because in itself if a hard feature. We as women need to encourage and uplift other women… period. You never know who you will inspire, it could just be that woman who was going through chemo, ready to come out to her family and friends, or the one who is scared of what her husband might say about her new look, or even men will be inspired by this.  Some just can’t grow their hair out, which is Alopecia, I just can’t imagine that frustration.

You see, there is power in the baldness of a woman. The power in not giving shit on what others think about you. The power of being yourself knowing that you matter in this world. The power to uplift, inspire and encourage. The power to question what is beautiful and challenge that notion that one standard is the standard of all standards, well that is courage.

That’s the power of being bald.