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I’ve had long(ish) hair for as long as I can remember. Whether layered or one-length or updated with bangs, it’s always been below my shoulder. My long hair is simply part of who I am. So you can imagine my hesitation when I visited one of the top stylists in the city and he said, unflinchingly, “Sweetie, it’s time for a change.”

I tried to put up a fight, I really did. But he’s one of those people who wouldn’t take no for an answer. Seemingly fed up with my thinly-veiled misgivings, he finally said he’d leave me alone for a minute to think about it. The one-two punch was delivered when his assistant seized this opportunity to pull me aside and said, “Darling, he’s not just any stylist. He’s an artiste (emphasis on the e). Mess with his creativity and he’ll mess with your hair.”

Defeated at last, I pretended to read the magazine in front of me but I was all-too-aware of the snip-snip-snipping away near my nape. Scissors have never been that close to that part of my neck ever. With sickening unease, I realized he was aiming for chin length. The last time my hair was that short was in third grade.

For the next week or so, my every waking thought was how much I missed my long, straight, black hair. But then I remembered that I’m one of those girls who looked forward to makeover day on America’s Next Top Model and rolled their eyes at girls who cried like they were dying when their hair’s chopped off. I thought “That’s just hair, it’ll grow back.” Admittedly, not all of Tyra’s makeovers are phenomenal, some are truly disastrous and some models are better off with pre-makeover hair. But what separated the true winners from the sore losers is that the former embraced the change, never mind that it made them look more like a guy and less like a model. The winners worked with it and never complained. Or if they did, they never showed it.

I don’t hate or love my hair, I can only say that it’s different. But you know what they say about faking it until you make it? I have decided to own it until I grow it.