What exactly is “good” hair? I wish I knew. People often tell me that I have “good” hair. I beg to differ. It’s thick, curly, and extremely hard to manage. For a period of time, I hated my hair. I begged and begged my parents to let me permanently straighten it. My mom said that I was going to hate it being straight all the time. A lot of people tried talking me out of it. They said that people with curly hair want straight hair, and people with straight hair want it to be curly. I thought straight hair would make me prettier, because all the girls I saw with straight hair seemed prettier than me. However, in the end, I didn’t end up doing it.

Fast forward to a few years later when I had an epiphany and I thought “Why change myself?” I am who I am for a reason. Changing my hair wasn’t going to help my life in any way. It wouldn’t make me smarter, healthier, or even prettier. I would still be the same girl. I learned to embrace my natural beauty and accept myself for who I am. Nowadays, I’ll use a flat iron and straighten my hair for a week or so just for a different look and something easy to manage, but with one drop of water, it will go back to being curly again.

The reason I decided to write this blog isn’t because of my hair. It just so happened that my hair is what made me understand the importance of self-confidence and beauty. Every person is beautiful in their own unique way. It’s important to love yourself for who you are, because if you don’t, nobody else will. “Beautiful” doesn’t describe one type of person; it can be used to describe everyone. In my opinion, everybody has “good” hair and everyone is beautiful. Once you believe in yourself, people around you will start to believe in you as well. Just because everybody around you looks a certain way doesn’t mean you should too. It’s okay to be and look different. One last thing−I’m a firm believer that the best beauty is natural beauty.

-Kerrin