Crown Talks 003
Little Pockets of Magic
Being a young Black woman is to be tugged to and fro...kind of like getting your hair done. So, in the way that there's a 50/50 chance your stylist would take creative freedom with your inspo in my young salon-visiting days, I spent most of my childhood doing a parent-remixed version of what I really wanted. I don't have too much on my mom, though. That's my girl. But my girl made the hair decisions for the most part, so I never really developed that loving attachment to it like other girls my age.
When I could, I experimented with my hair recklessly, applying heat like I was invincible, mixing products, and *yikes* perming my own hair. I’m pretty sure lots of us lived that life, much to our caretaker’s chagrin. But fast forward…and you reach the day where I finally felt like I was ready to let go of it all: the day I graduated college.
My history of making reckless hair decisions on graduation days dates back to high school when I dyed my bangs manic panic red before taking a school band trip to see The Mouse™️. My college graduation hair alteration was much more drastic than the red bangs because I decided to shave it off completely.
I cycled through varying levels of baldness in the years before graduating so it wasn't America's Next Top Model drastic, but the message was huge. Black women's feminity has long been the subject of question, and hair is a big part of that.
Conversations around shrinkage bring length supremacy into the equation, and the decision to get rid of all my hair — my ticket through the world as a feminine woman — grew in complexity. I was steadfast, though.
Thinking back now, going bald stands to be my favorite memory so far in my 30 years of life. It's the day I took control of my presentation, and by proxy, the way the world views me. Suddenly, I was that bald, Black woman. And I loved every moment of it.
See— going bald made hair click for me. This was the point. I finally understood why the ever-changing hairstyles of Black people like me everywhere seemed like little pockets of magic. Because they are.
And now, since I've grown my hair natural, shaved it off again, and since started to grow it out again (mullet 2025, fingers crossed!)... I'm ready to make a little more magic.
- Micah Gause