I once heard someone say that a black woman’s biggest worry is her hair. Long, short, natural, pressed or weaved: while there’s no wrong way to style our hair, there’s definitely a right way. And we learn pretty early on what’s the right way – ask any African-American woman in the Army, she’ll tell you. My constant quest for follicular perfection has led me to cut, curl, relax, braid and weave mine. I am definitely not a morning person and yet I’ve gotten up at the ungodly hour that is 8am every Saturday morning for the past forever to go to my weekly appointment at the hair salon. I’ve had to say no to way too many brunch offers because I never know when I’ll actually get off my stylist’s chair. And yesterday, I let her convince me that I shouldn’t to the gym as I had planned because it would ruin her work! I sometimes have fantasies of pulling a Lupita and shaving all my hair off, just so I can have my Saturday mornings back… and a bit of my sanity. Not likely to happen, but daydreaming does make time go faster when you’re trapped in your stylist’s chair.

Doin’ Time by Kevin “WAK” Williams