About Your Hair: 2020 Scholarship Winner–My Hair Has Taught Me This

By Dr. Linda Amerson
www.hairandscalpessentials.com

We are so excited to announce our 2020 Scholarship winner, Chloe Walker! This fall, she is attending Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA, majoring in dance and choreography. She’s a graduate of Booker T. Washington School of Performing Arts, Dallas, TX. This is our seventh year of giving a monetary donation to a youth 16-19, a high school graduate and pursuing a college education.

Growing up I’ve never truly loved my hair. It’s always felt like a burden-bearing down on my confidence. As a young black woman, it’s even more pressure for it to look presentable, having a tighter curl pattern doesn’t make it any easier. What I’ve learned from my hair journey is that you have to be patient to find the style that best suits you. Ever since I was 5 years old I’ve been taking dance classes as an extracurricular. In class, we’re required to wear leotards and tights pulling our hair back into a neat bun. Over time this repetition slowly started to wear down on my hair. I already had to flat iron my hair every two weeks just to make it manageable, pulling it back tight only added to the flames. Seeing that my hair curled up when I sweat, the edges of my hair soon became one of the main issues of my hair. Completely laying the front of part of my hair was difficult with my hair texture. I began to rely on wearing headbands to hide the problem. Slowly, the edges of my hair were wearing thin because of the repetitive combination of pulling my hair back, sweating it out and covering it with a headband. As the front of my hair thinned out further, it became harder to not wear a headband seeing that I only became more frustrated and embarrassed of my hair. 

As I grew older I found other styles that helped maintain the quality of my hair. Flat twist crowns and two braids became my go-to style. Still, it didn’t help the underlying issue. I simply didn’t like my hair. No matter the style it was in, there was always something that nagged me about it. Brushing with it, messing with it, or styling it only frustrated me more. I didn’t want to deal with it anymore. Cutting it off and starting over with a big chop was the only thing I wanted to do. Once I was finally old enough to do so, I began to fall in love with my hair again. No more attempts to style it every morning, and pulling it back for dance was no longer an option for me. I can look in the mirror and smile, knowing that no one can pull a short fro like me, Chloe Walker.

Dr. Linda Amerson, Board Certified Trichologist, LA’s Hair & Scalp Clinic, Arlington, TX 76013. 817-265-8854