I Am My Hair

Inspired by the India Arie song, 'I am not my hair'. Enjoy.

I am me

And in being me

I am everything that defines me

All the different parts of me

I am my Nigerian father

I am my Malaysian mother

I am my British birth

I am my Christian faith

I am my laughter loud

I am my blackness proud

I am my poetry in my motion

I am my song

I am my long

Black, hair

I am my hair

Long because of my mum

Tough thanks to my dad

Wasn't conforming to others' perception of beauty by relaxing it

Simply needed a way to stop them from chopping it

All off

Which is what could've been

Because of the way I used to scream

When aunties combed, pulled,

greased and plaited

Now with the flick of hair

And an eyelash batted

I can exploit my feminine wiles

But I don't

My hair is an extension of me

It is my womanhood

When I take off clothes

And let my hair tumble down

And my soft locks caress my breasts

I feel like a woman

And when I walk down the street

Hair blowing in the breeze

I feel like a woman

And if my tresses were to be trimmed

Drastically

I think I might pull a Samson

And go weak

I don't hide behind my hair

But it's always there

Like some kind of support system

The ways in which I love it

I couldn't list them

"Bad hair days" aren't "bad hair days"

Because they're still "I have hair days"

Yes, I am my hair