I feel somewhat embarassed that I have given into the cultural notion that hair is something to be embarassed or proud of. It’s just dead protein shooting out from head after all. But I spent most of my life having to hide my head. Because of the mockery and shame that I experienced throughout my school experience, I have associated having hair with a sort of freedom, a freedom from having to hide, a freedom from being afraid that a bald spot might show when I go swimming or that I will not get a part in a theatrical production because the directors think my hair is not right for the part. In retrospect it is society that is flawed and not me in this regard. Society’s paradigms squish people’s confidence and lead them to believe that they aren’t worthy or good enough. But I am a memeber of this society and, like it or not, I am shaped by it. So the fact that my hair has grown longer does let me feel more free and more confident thanks to that freedom.

I might have gained confidence from this freedom, but I do not want my hair to define me. I do not want to have all my confidence rest on whether or not I have hair. I was a good person even when I did not have hair.

If there is one lesson that I can learn from this experience, this life long experience, it is to be aware of how the ideas that I was taught, that we were all taught, can hurt others. We cannot help the immediate judgements that we have of people, however we can always choose to not those immediate judgements be our lasting judgements. We can choose to not let those judgements unfairly shape our opinions of others. We fight back against unfair social paradigms by being kind, understanding, and open-minded to everyone and by being aware of our own biases.

In everything I learn, it seems that kindness is always the answer.