There’s just one problem, though, and everyone wants to know: what is she going to do with her hair?
Let me explain.
My little sister, Kate, has always been the good daughter. I was the rebellious one, the one who gave our mother grey hair. Kate, on the other hand, was always very agreeable. The most she ever did was dye her blonde hair brown and grow her nails out long. She was the type of person who worried about entering through the exit door. Especially at Wal-Mart.
Later, at 20-years-old, she moved out of Mom and Dad’s house. She got a tattoo of angel wings on her back, which our parents didn’t find out about until months later. Then she met the guy of her dreams, and they moved in together. Our mom began worrying about what her mom would think about Kate “living in sin” so blatantly.
But things really took a turn to the wild side when Kate decided to shave her head. I’ll never forget the day she called me and asked me to do it for her. For whatever reason, I started crying and begging her not to do it. Her hair was so beautiful, I didn’t understand why she would want to get rid of it!
Although I did my best to talk her out of it, Kate’s mind was made up. I secretly hoped she’d get scared and back out at the last second, but the next time I saw my sister, she took her hat off, pointed at her bald head and asked, “Want to touch it?”It was weird, but I got used to it. After awhile, I even thought she looked good. When Kate finally told our parents what she had done, my mom called me regularly to check on her mental health. My dad, from what I’ve heard, gave the same face as he did when he found out I pierced my tongue six years ago. It wasn’t a good expression.
As Kate went through all the awkward growing-out stages with her hair, she shared with me the lessons she had learned from the experience. She told me about all the ways people treated her differently when she had no hair, most of it extremely negative. She had lost a job offer, high school boys called her a lesbian and threw things at her, and a woman who had cancer lectured her about the importance of being beautiful while she was still young. Worst of all, people who Kate thought were her friends began to say mean things about her behind her back. All of it was really tough for her, but somehow, her self-confidence grew immensely.
By the time she accepted her boyfriend’s proposal, she knew he was “the one” after he stayed with her through it all.
Now that the wedding is coming up, people who stuck with Kate through her “one and only rebellious stage” will be coming together to celebrate one of the most important days of her life. Those who didn’t support her are obviously not invited.
They’ll miss out on seeing her gorgeous dress, the homemade wedding cake and the massive diamond ring.
They’ll also miss out on the drama surrounding Kate’s wedding hair.
It’s shoulder length and looks good as is, but everyone keeps pointing out that she had beautiful waist-length hair before. They also point out the tattoo on her back, left exposed by her shorter hair style.
“I just might shave it again so they shut up,” Kate told me the other night over cosmopolitans. We laughed about it for a while before she told me she had ordered hair extensions online.
“I didn’t want to be fake for my wedding, and I don’t want to be bald,” she said. “But seriously – I don’t want anyone asking me about my hair anymore. I just want to get married.”
