Where do I begin! When I was a baby I was born bald with two knobs on the side of my had. I have the baby picture to prove it and since far as I can remember my mom confirmed that to be true. I convinced myself that these knobs still existed since birth, to discover four decades later that I have a well rounded shape head. This got me wondering, what other believes I’m still living by that is no longer true.

Four months ago I was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer. Tumor has been removed and I am in remission now. I’ve recently started Chemotherapy Treatment so that the cancer will not come back. About a year prior to being diagnosed, I felt a deep sense to let go of my hair. I was “raised” in a time when society was very clear on what was considered to be beautiful. I thought in order to get rid of these so called norms, I had to go natural with my hair. Stop with the straightening, colouring and chemical treatments. This might be the first step I had to take, but not necessary the only way to go. The ideal way to go natural was to do the “big chop”. The big chop is the act of cutting off your relaxed or chemically processed hair therefore revealing your true natural hair texture. The big chop is the quickest way to become 100% natural. To be honest, I was not mentally prepared to do this. I gradually went shorter. The big chop off happened for me two weeks after my first chemo session. I do not believe in coincidences, and choose to believe that everything and everyone are connected in some way or another, no matter how small or big it may be.

If you had to asked me a week ago my opinion, I would have told you the only way to go, is natural. I no longer believe that to be true. We are not our hair, skin colour or the shape of our bodies. Our looks are merely an expression of who we are. And I chose to express myself through the different beauty that exists within myself. Whether it be with going bald, wearing a wig or dying my hair. As long as I can be honest with myself that I’m not pretending to be someone I’m not. “Life is not about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself”. We are creative beings. So go and be yourself!