Hair

Yasir Thomas

Systems Essay

Growing and maintaining my hair has always been a struggle for me. Every day I would think about what I would want to do with my hair and how it would turn out later. I’ve been on a long journey with my hair. I hated it, loved it, cut it, and grew it. I’ve also been through many different styles. It’s crazy to think about how many different styles I had over the course of a few years.

I was in fourth grade when I first began growing my hair out. It was longer than it currently is. I let it grow out because my father had cancer and all of his fell out. I would grow it out for him because he asked and I thought that it would inspire him to continue with the therapy, but trying to maintain my hair was always a struggle. I was tender headed and every little thing that happened to hair, even when it wasn’t braided it was still hard to deal with. After a while, my mom would always ask me when I would get it cut.

Once I reached fifth grade, I got a haircut. I felt like a new person. I could feel the wind brushing against my head and the sun beaming down on it. It has been a while since I felt the feeling. When I walked into class, no one recognized me, and when they did, they were surprised. Being nearly bald felt amazing until I realized how much I missed my hair and the feeling of the just having something there and playing with it. I started missing my long hair and thought about growing it back.

The summer before 8th grade, I began to grow out my hair again without even realizing. I came back to school with a mini afro and once again, I looked like a new person. 8th grade was the time that I struggled the most to keep up with my hair. Everyone would say, “I love your hair! Can I touch it?” When someone asks if they could touch my hair I would usually think that they meant to feel the texture, but they would play in it, pull it, and just mess up my hair completely. I used to put a lot of effort into making my afro look good. In the middle of the school year, I decided to get braids because I tired of everyone ruining my hair. My hair was growing but it wasn’t as long as I wanted it to be.

My freshman year here I started off with braids for a week or two. Then I took my braids out every other week and had a messy afro. I would also have designed cornrows and other types of styles. One of my favorite styles that I had was a braided mohawk, I felt like it was amazing because I didn’t think that it would look right. Soon after, I wanted a haircut but not a full one. Soon after I a drop-fade (the hairstyle I currently have). Right after I got my fade, I was filled with joy since it finally happened. When I walked into school everyone was overly excited and wanted to touch my hair. I felt like a brand new person because it was new and exciting. It's easier to take care of since I have half as much hair.

Looking at the amount of hair that I have now, I regret cutting off all my hair when I was younger. It’s probably one of the biggest regrets that I have. I miss having a lot of hair and being able to do a lot of things with it. Now, I’m just experimenting with my hair seeing what things I like and what things would look good on me. The next few things that I would try doing with my hair are curls, hair dye, and another type of braids.