I have a confession…

Okay, so it’s Wednesday night and I’ll be flying to Atlanta first thing in the morning for a job interview. I’m going through my checklist, and I can’t help but to notice that I’m totally distracted. There are a million things that I could be thinking about at this point: God please don’t let me oversleep… Oh my gosh! What if my dream guy sits next to me on the plane?! (That could happen, right?)… I wonder what the weather will be like… I hope they like me… Chelsea, remember to remember to be yourself… And so on, and so forth… Well, believe it or not, the only thing that kept coming across my mind was –HOW SHOULD I WEAR MY HAIR???

I’ve watched video after video on women discussing natural hair in the workplace. I’ve scoffed at anyone who suggests that the hair I had been so graciously blessed with could even possibly be considered anything less than professional. That is until I was put in the situation. All of the sudden their stories had become my reality.

In all honesty, I was borderline ashamed of myself. I couldn’t help but feel terrible that this thought was even crossing my mind. It was beyond me that as much as I love my hairstyles, I couldn’t help but wonder if a misstep in my final selection could lead to a possible distraction during my interview. More importantly, I had less than 12 hours to decide what to do with my most favorite accessory. Do I go with my staple style? (A big billowy pompadour) Or maybe a twistout? Or maybe I should flat iron it? –No! That’s taking too far.

So there I am, filtering through this crazy assortment of emotions, and it hits me. As much as I promote natural beauty and self-love, there I was having a full-blown debate standing over my suitcase about whether or not my sense of style would fit the status quo for corporate America.

In an effort to avoid going on a rant, I’ll put it this way, within two seconds of that realization, my anxiety switched to an outright sense of defiance and entitlement. My hair and my endearment towards it is intrinsically intertwined with the essence of what makes me me. I snapped out of my lapse of self-doubt, proudly pinned up my Bantu twistout and headed out the door.

Are you ready for this? I get to the Atlanta office, and the first person who greets me is a fabulous natural sister with a bomb blonde afro.

Hey America, welcome to the new status quo. ;-)

Chelsea

image source: static02