| Novelist Imbolo Mbue. ‘I asked the barber to buzz it all off.’ Photograph: Flora Hanitijo/ |
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Imbolo Mbue
Saturday 4 February 2017
In the summer of 2002, I walked into a hair salon in New Jersey and asked a stylist to cut off all my hair. I was done having hair. Enough with the pain of straightening it with a chemical that scalded parts of my scalp and left others in blisters. Enough with the discomfort of braiding it – eight hours of tugging and wincing followed by painkillers to ease the soreness, or a full day of not being able fully to turn my head.