I recently received an email at work inviting me to participate in a social media campaign celebrating National CROWN Day. The movement raises awareness about the CROWN Act, a law that prohibits discrimination based on hair texture and protective styles including braids, twists and locs—styles predominantly worn by Black women.

My hair is natural, meaning I don’t chemically relax it, but I do use a hot comb and flat iron. I did the “big chop” about 5 years ago, then cut it even shorter a few years later. Now, I’ve spent the last year trying to get it to grow again so I can have some type of hairstyle. If you know this process, you know I want to cut it all off again! Little did the CROWN Movement know that I was already planning to transition to get braids —a style I’ve never worn as an adult.

I’m a Black woman, so of course I’ve had a lot of hair home runs and complete misses in my life: weaves, clip-on extensions, single braids, ponytails, and wigs. I’ve tried anything to make the process of getting my hair camera-ready easier. 

Imagine having bad hair days archived on national television. Viewers are not nice. People take time out of their day to write you and tell you what they don’t like. And this was before social media became our world. All of those comments were strictly phone calls and emails.

And it wasn’t just strangers. I started getting gray hair when I was a teenager. I’ve lived with it my entire adult life and as it goes, gray only keeps graying. I have to dye my hair every 3 weeks or sooner and, shortly after I arrived in Los Angeles, I was just tired of it. One day I decided that I was going to stop dying my hair for a while. This hair revolution just happened to align with the Grammy Awards.

I arrived on the red carpet in my cute sequin dress—and my gray hair. Guess what happened? My phone blew up because my producer in New York was on the line trying to reach me. She eventually asked if there was something I could do about my hair because it was too gray. I looked, dare she say, “older?” All while I’m on the red carpet at Staples Center! I always keep root touch up with me in my makeup bag so the issue had a quick resolution and I sprayed my roots. I was honestly a little nervous about how my hair would be received that night and felt kind of relieved to cover the gray. I was hoping taking a risk would pay off but I left annoyed that I folded to corporate demands. And just in case you’re wondering, I think you know that my producer wasn’t a sista.

I look back at that night and countless others and realize how many Black women in our generation and in the generations before me had to give up a piece of themselves to be palatable to a larger audience. It’s our on-going journey in corporate America. I always wonder if I am where I am today because of the “good” wigs, weaves, and relaxers I wore made everyone around me more comfortable. Who knows?

Today, I’m so happy to turn on my television and see Black and Brown women with curls, braids, afros, locs, and even bald (or close to it!) styles. Such freedom was unheard of as I was moving up in my career, but I’m encouraged by the way things are changing. So, now it’s my turn to jump in on the action. From now on, I’m leaving the root touch-up at home! How can you embrace who you are when it comes to your crown?

PS – I’m looking for any pointers from my ladies with braids. I can use them all!