I chose my hair because I have natural hair, but growing up in Burundi I never got a chance to love my natural hair. So, I wanted to establish why I had to shave my head all the time. I remember more than once I was expelled from school because I wasn’t shaving it. But it was more of me trying to connect with that hair, trying to figure out how it grows. Also, I was kind of angry. We had mixed kids at school who weren’t told to shave their hair so they were allowed to let that hair grow and deep down I felt like if I relaxed my hair maybe they’d let me be. So, I remember relaxing my hair one day, going to school with my hair all straight and they expelled me for three days so my hair pushed me more and more to resist, but also to be aware of how white supremacy exists back in Burundi.
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