I am someone who doesn’t like a lot of attention. I like to stay low-key so whenever I do something that will draw a bit of attention, anxiety starts to creep up and I get uncomfortable. This is exactly what wearing wigs* used to do to me. I call it wig*-xiety.
Over 5 years ago, in college, I would rock weaves and wigs* quite frequently. I think it was something about the atmosphere that let me feel free enough to do so. I went to an extremely large university, and when I switched up my style of course I got compliments but not too much attention to make me cringe.
It wasn’t until I got out into the real world and into corporate America that I found myself wearing the same hairstyle every day. Most of it has been that I’ve been the only African American woman at my companies so that alone was enough. Whenever I would do something as simple as getting box braids for a couple of months the “OMG you changed your hair” or “How did they do that?” comments and questions would come rolling in exponentially.
I found myself recently wanting to switch it up and wear wigs. I recently purchased this cute wavy bob wig and another straight bob wig and figured they are perfect for the summer. So one day I decided to be bold and show up to work with it.
I walked in boldly and confident and of course soon as I hit the door the stares and compliments came rolling in. The good thing about it was that no one said anything negative or I didn’t get any bad stares, they loved it!
Since then I’ve learned to be bold in myself and that a little attention is okay. I’ve let go of my wig*-xiety and if I want to try a completely different look I’ll do it! The key was becoming confident in myself and knowing that its okay to switch up my style.