Two nights ago, I had my head shaved.

Now, this is something I NEVER thought I’d do. I’d seen people do the “big chop” and thought how brave of them, or that it looked great on them, but that I couldn’t pull it off. I had already transitioned and had been team natural for about a year, but my hair wasn’t in the best condition, as I took a very, shall we say, Solange approach to my hair (with much different results).

Whenever I considered cutting off my hair, I would shoot it down. When I transitioned, I had grown out my relaxer and then cut off the relaxed ends, so I never did anything even remotely close to a big chop. I had gotten my hair cut shortish in the past, but that was because I’d asked for a Rihanna cut without being on top of the fact that she’d since cut her hair from a bob to a reverse mullet/pixie…big mistake on my part. People said it looked great but I just wanted it to hurry up and grow out.

I cried every morning for months.

So when the school that I work at held a fundraiser for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, my manfriend thought I was crazy when I told him that I wanted to be a shavee and go completely bald. He reminded me of how I’d hated my hair being really short and did not want to go through months of my misery.  Got to love him! He even came and took pictures.

But this was different and for a really great cause. No tears, and it makes me happy to know that I stood (well sat) in solidarity with children who don’t get to make the choice to have or not to have hair. So I did it. And I’d do it again.

Conquer childhood cancer.