One of the first topics that I wanted to write about is my hair. Yessss, I am one of "those guys" who has a ponytail. BUT it is much more than what people think and I want to tell you about it. Over time I have realized that there are two main roots to why I have dedicated myself to keeping my hair long.
I think the first time that I grew my hair out longer than a few inches was in middle school. I was in 8th grade and I remember just wanting to grow it out because it was kind of "emo" and I thought it was cool. Not a very good reason to be honest but it I will say it did not look that great. It went down to my shoulders and it was just really flat and kind of looked like a long bowl cut. I was not happy with it to say the least and I had it cut in 9th grade (pictured left) The next time that I started to grow my hair out was in my junior year of high school. There were a few things going on in my life that I think aided me in keeping it long.
The first was that I had a friend who was sick with cancer and he was losing his hair. Him and I had very similar hair and I thought that maybe he would feel normal if he had his hair back (pictured right). Truthfully, I had already started to grow my hair out when I found out that he was sick but I had more motivation to keep after I heard the news about him. He was a good friend to me. He always had something funny but odd to say, he had this serious demeanor that you could never actually take seriously and you could tell he was comfortable with who he was. It was extremely surprising when we all found out that he lost his battle after some months of fighting. When he passed, I kept my hair for the other reason I wanted to grow it out.
Culture. Culture is extremely important to me and when I was a teenager, I struggled a lot more with my identity. This had a lot to do with my upbringing, my confidence in myself, and just being a teenager. My hair is part of my link to my indigenous identity. I feel it completes me and my connection to the earth and our people. I feel like I was a whole different person before I had my long hair. My hair shows others that I am not ashamed of who I am and who I want to be and I believe that it inspires others to feel the same. It is a constant reminder to stay true to myself, my family, my people, our cultures, our ideals and our histories. There was a time in history when Native Americans were sent to boarding schools and their hair was cut and I felt a connection to that. I keep my hair for the young boys that have their long braids and get teased in school now. As long as I had a choice, I would keep my hair for those that did not have that choice or are shamed.
Someone I met while finishing my college education saw my hair and started calling me "long hair don't care." The piece that rings true about this name or title is that no I don't care if people think negatively about my hair. And trust me when I say that there are people who do hold negative comments about it. My hair holds my essence and is more than just a style so I encourage you to remember that when you see another like me out in the world. And no, you can't touch my hair.
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