I Wish I Didn’t Care So Much About Defying Racial Stereotypes

My internal battle with wearing wigs and hair extensions

Photo by Mike Von on Unsplash

I’ve wanted to wear hair extensions for most of my teen years. I just loved the way they looked and the versatility of the styles.

I finally gathered the courage to try clip-ins for the first time my freshman year of high school. My damaged hair was transitioning from relaxed to natural and I wanted to try something different from my regular, tight buns. So I went to the beauty supply store, purchased these long, brown, curly bundles, sewed in my own clips then wore the voluminous hair to school the next Monday.

But I took them out after about a week. I got a lot of stares and felt uncomfortable wearing them again.

I revisited hair extensions later in my high school years and my entire first year at university was spent rocking hair that didn’t grow out of my scalp. By this point in my natural hair journey, my hair had grown out and was becoming more healthy. But styling it became time-consuming. So hair extensions were my go-to.

In uni, when people asked about my hair, I explained that it was just too much work for me to style my natural hair everyday. “This is a protective style,” I would say. “I’m just giving my hair a break.” And this was…