Maya is a YouTube star, involuntary curly hair guru, and an overall inspiring woman whom, we’ll just come out and say it, we girl crush on pretty hard in the NaturallyCurly offices.
This is the third in a three-part series that Maya is writing for us, in which she shares the reasoning, the experience, and the reaction to shaving her curly hair off.
To read the first part of this series (and a before picture!”>, click here. To watch her shave her head, click here.
Maya’s Experience
This buzz is truly a liberating experience. You get to experience who you are on a different level. I am so much more confident in my own skin and have a deeper level of self-respect because of it.
Oddly enough, I get the same attention if not more with the buzz. Now instead of hearing “nice hair”, I’m hearing “nice cut” and sometimes still “nice hair”. My friends and family have been very supportive with the exception of my mother who called me freaking out despite my telling her 6 months ahead of the actual date with constant reminders up until the day. My mom is super religious and old school but she’s now used to it.
Because I have a YouTube channel and viewers are free to express their opinions I’ve been blown away by the overwhelming amount of positive support. It turns out there are a lot of people both women and men who have considered shaving their hair off only to not due to fear. It’s also so amazing to hear from women who are going through hair loss due to chemotherapy and that my act has given them strength. I also hear from young women who have a family member going through chemotherapy and they now want to shave their hair to go through the emotional journey for their friends and family. I’ve even heard from balding men who have a new found sense of confidence. It’s amazing how many more diverse a people I’ve connected with because of this act. It’s helped to reinforce that we are more than our hair, skin, features, education, we are energies and spirits that are capable of so much.
As for my hair routine when it was still freshly shaven it was use my same body wash soap by Dr. Bronner’s for my hair as well and it’s awesome being about to scrub with my finger nails! The best is when it’s too low to do anything to it, no brushing or product required. It’s grown in up to ½ inch at which point I need to wear du-rags and style with shea butter for hold and sometimes coconut oil for shine. If I don’t my hair resembles crushed velvet.
Going from long curly hair to buzz cut low is an amazing experience I think everyone curly, straight or wavy, male and female should experience at least once in their life. #beshameless and #doyouboo!
