I can't believe the year is almost over; too many things have happened and yet I feel like nothing has happened, ha ha! I know it looks like I'm not serious about blogging or writing stories anymore but guess what, I am actually planning to open a new Instagram page for my blog for next year so that I can upload more stories much more frequently. Trust me this time, I hope you will continue to follow and read :)
So to make up for my absence, I have written 2 blog posts - Christmas bonus, yay! The first one is below and the next one is here. f you have not, don't forget to check out my previous post here too as these three make up the series so far. Enjoy and please leave your comments below.
THE ANNOUCEMENT
Officially a year and 6 months have passed since I
chopped of my hair, almost spontaneously (see previous post, part 1 here). I
think back to the very day it happened; after the barber had finished his work,
I had looked at my face in the large mirror, moving my head from side to side.
I didn’t look bad, I thought to myself. The moment I got back home, I rushed
into the bathroom to take a shower. Summer had just begun and the temperatures
were as high as 35 degrees Celsius. I had been sweating and feeling dehydrated
ever since I moved into the new city, so a lukewarm shower was much
appreciated. For the first time in many years, I could feel the drops of water
on my scalp within seconds of running the shower. Every drop on my head running
down easily to my hooked nose, every touch of air filling up my scalp pores; it
was worth it! I dried my hair quickly with a towel, just the way I used to see men
do it. Like every millennial, the first thing I did was take a selfie, striking
different poses to get different views of my head shape. My head did not appear
big, I did not have an ogoo (no big
bump sticking out of my skull), there were no bald spots, and I did not look
like a boy; thus I was pleased with what I saw.
The next step was to break the news; starting with my
family and friends. So I sent a couple of pictures to my mother first and then
my younger sister. I knew it would not be my mother’s preferred look but I
hoped that she would not dislike it. She responded on WhatsApp in her usual
manner: “You’re looking fine”, while my sister said I was brave. Those were
good enough for me. Next I called some of my friends one by one on video-chat,
all their expressions were similar – from looks of shock, to squinting, to
smiling, and then saying that I looked good. My new colleagues were next in
line. I went into the office the next day and greeted the secretary at the
reception, whom I had met a few times the week before. She responded:
“Hi, how can I help you?”
“It’s me, Vivian.”
“Vivian! What happened to your hair?!”
I burst out laughing; for sure I had expected some
surprise but not a complete lack of recognition. From there, the news spread
around, colleagues expressed interest in my hair and my new supervisor was able
to recognise me with less difficulty than
in the past. I say this because before I started working with him, I had
met him a few times before at conferences and each time I had to re-introduce
myself to him. It was until one day I realised that the issue was my continuous
change of hairstyles, so I gave him a great tip “Never try to recognise a black woman by her hair.” This time around, I think it worked; he had a
little smirk on his face when he saw my new haircut and said “Hi Vivian”.
Finally, I put up my photo on social media and then
the whole world knew I had cut my hair. Contrasting comments were written under
my post, some expressing pleasure, others displeasure, but for me, I felt
relieved. The shock was over, my job was done.
Continue here for part 3.
Thank you for reading. Feel free to share with others and follow me on instagram @ugochiukah and twitter @vivio_gogo for more updates.
Cheers. X
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