I was in 4th grade, my mother did something completely different with my hair ; she made braids with only my natural hair. I was so anxious about going to school, because I knew how people would react to me having these frizzy short hair. I tried to convince my mom to let me stay at home, I just could not imagine myself exposing my authentic hair, and explaining to the entire school what were these “things” on top of my head. Even at this young age,I understood the stigma attached to black hair and how people find it so repulsive yet so “interesting”.