I big chopped a year ago but still struggle to take care of my natural hair and see the results I want to see.
In spite of this difficulty, I am very happy I took this decision. This "new hair" is nothing but me!
I can't explain why I decided to do a big chop. Relaxing my hair constantly wasn't doing me any good. I was tired of it and needed a change.
On social media, women testimonials about their own big chop encouraged me even more.
Trimming my ends has always been an ordeal for me. I would avoid this moment as much as I could so imagine how hard it was to go to the hairdresser to chop it all off.
Even though I am very happy now, having my natural hair hasn’t always been easy, as I could notice a difference in the way people were looking at me.
Microaggressions also became quite common, characterised by the typical "can I touch your hair?" question (do I need to mention that people generally don’t wait for the answer to put their hands in it ?).
A strong lack of representation might be one of the biggest causes. The French media landscape doesn’t really showcase women fiercely wearing their natural hair, black women even less.
When wandering in Paris, what you can see is a diversity of profiles, skin tones, ethnicities and hair types.
How can’t the media be a clear representation of such a multifaceted society?