My First Time Wearing a Weave (Writing 101: Day 6)

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Last night was awful!  I couldn’t sleep.  Maybe I drifted off for a few hours, but I woke up this morning still feeling tired.  Today is the first day of 6^th grade at my new Middle School and I will not know anyone there.  All of my friends from elementary school went to Westmoore, but I was placed in another school since my teachers thought I would do better at an alternative school.  No one asked me what I thought though.

I carefully picked my outfit for the first day of school to make sure it did not show too much of my awkward body.  Over the summer, I grew about 6 inches but it seemed only in my torso.  My legs remained short and stocky which made me so insecure that I refused to wear anything that revealed my thighs.  So, I wore baggy jeans and a long t-shirt with my favorite band on the front.

My outfit was fine, but what I really worried about was my hair.  I kept my hair in braids throughout the summer and when I took them out, I had a lot of breakage.  My hair was so dry, and brittle I didn’t know what to do about it.  I was so confused.  Braids were supposed to help your hair grow, so how did it do the opposite to me?  I was so embarrassed about how terrible my hair was that I could not walk through the doors of my new school like this.  I had to do something.

I spent most of my summer getting lost reading novels at the library.  Once I made my way through the teen fiction section, I decided to read some magazines.  I had never noticed it before but there was a magazine called Essence that had a beautiful Black woman on the cover.  I picked it up and one of the cover stories read, 5 Ways to Get Sexy and Sultry Hair.  It was exactly what I needed.

I opened the magazine and skimmed through everything until I got to the article on hair.  It showed some pretty hairstyles, but one of them was specifically for hair with breakage and damage.  The style was called a weave.  The model’s hair was so beautiful – long, wavy, flowing down her shoulders.  I so completely wanted to have hair like that!  I just knew it would solve all my hair issues and give me back my confidence.  I knew a weave would make me beautiful again.

The next day I called a few friends and found a hairstylist who could do the style I wanted.  I went to the beauty supply store to get the hair supplies I needed for the weave, got cash out of my savings account, and within a few days, made my way to the salon.  After about 3 hours at the salon, I finally looked like the model in the magazine.  My confidence slowly came back each time I looked in the mirror at my new 12 inches of Deep Wave #5.  Now I was ready for school!

Even with my weave inspired self-esteem, I still felt out of place and afraid on the drive to school.  Would people know it was a weave?  Will people like my new hair?  What will they say about it?  Will they make fun of me?  I felt my confidence slipping away.

As my Mom pulled to the front of the school, I realized there was no going back now.

It was early so classes had not started yet.  I was told to go in the school auditorium to wait for first period.  When I looked inside, I saw that the room was full and very few chairs were left open.  I took a deep breath and walked down the center aisle in the auditorium to find a seat.  I hadn’t made it to the middle of the aisle before someone yelled out, “WEAVE!”  My stomach dropped into my ankles, and I stopped walking for just a second but immediately kept moving forward.  I could hear a few people laughing as I took a seat near the front row of chairs.  I barely moved the rest of the time until the bell rang for first period.  I thought to myself, “This year is going to SUCK!”

[Writing 101 Challenge – Day 6: A Character – Building Experience] 

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