What I lost in the Fire

by Kenya
(Upper Marlboro, Maryland)

I always get a little upset when I tell this story but sharing it helps me get my frustration out.

I am mixed with Filipino and African American so my hair is will at least was very soft,wavy and long. In fact it flowed down my back. Well one day when were over my mom's friend house(I was going to the fourth grade) I was entertaining my self by coloring.

My mom told me to go get a paper she had left on the table. I was really hyper and ran over to the table I then spun around to give the paper to her. During this whole process I didn't notice a candle on the table which during my spin around my hair had went on. I turned in horror to see my hair on fire. I begin to scream and jumping frantically(so much for the stop drop and roll move)

My mom looked over to where I was and yelled "OH MY GOD KENYA" she grabbed a blanket I couldn't really tell what she was doing cause I was just panicking but some how she put out my fire in my hair.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD WERE YOU DOING" she yelled. At this point I was in tears terrified at what just happened "It's over now don't cry" she then said. She told me to go in the bathroom and clean my self up while she called my dad to come pick us up.

I was so relived that the fire was out that I wasn't even thinking about my hair. Until I looked in the mirror. The left side of my hair was now shoulder length and the ends and some of the right side was damaged and burnt. This made me start crying again. My mom didn't know whether to rinse my hair,wash it,etc.

So she took me to the a nearby hair salon. The looks on people's faces were horrified when I walked in "omg what happen" many people asked. My mom simply replied we had a little accident like this sort of thing happens to everyone. When the hair stylist saw my hair she simply said we're going to have to cut it. The tears began to start up again. "It's already really short" I sobbed. She began to explain all this technical stuff about how the fire had badly damaged my hair and how cutting it will make it healthy again. She cut it to just above my ears.

When I returned to school everyone had a shocked look on their face and all said the same thing "What happened" "Why did you cut your hair" "I liked your long hair better"

My mom figured getting a relaxer would make my hair more manageable. All this did was cause the texture of my hair to change. My once long silky hair was now barely chin length choppy and extremely dry and brittle.

Ever since that day I have been very self-conscious about my hair, even my image all together. My hair is still badly damaged and the stylist said the only way to fix it is to cut it completely off and start over but I'm worried that even after doing this my hair won't grow back since it hasn't after all this time.

What makes it worse is all my siblings and my mom have this beautiful Filipino hair so my friends and just random people often ask how come you don't have pretty hair like them.