I started business school in 2009 and I remember having to learn how to dress, eat, and speak.
As young girl who grew up on the south side of Chicago, much of this felt unnatural to me.
No one in my family had ever had a career in business or entrepreneurship.
In business school, I was overwhelmed, there was so much.
Pencil skirts, eating with certain forks, trying to enunciate and pronounce all of my words...it was a challenge for me to say the least.
I felt like I was doing everything wrong.
I used to talk CRAZY FAST and I didn't even own a professional outfit until my Freshman year.
One day, I remember my Marketing Professor pulling me into her office one day and telling me I was “rough around the edges”.
Ouch, I know.
As a lil ghetto girl (I say this with love for myself and the word ghetto), perhaps, she was right.
Maybe I was rough around the edges.
But I know in that moment that I didn’t want to be smooth lol.
I didn’t care to fit into a box, and I didn’t even wear my hair natural then.
That's right, my hair was relaxed and I still wasn't "good enough".
You can imagine the looks I got when I chopped it all off and went natural the following year.
I eventually got a corporate job and it didn't last very long.
Sometimes I wish I could have stuck it out longer.
I left corporate America because I couldn't play the game.
I really hated having to change who I was to fit in.
I hated code switching.
I know every woman with curly, coily, kinky hair can't quit their jobs, but maybe you can rock your natural hair to work.
Make sure they know that the way your hair grows is indeed professional.
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I left corporate office after my 1st child was born and did not return for 16 years after all my children went to school. I knew things had changed so I went t school too. During that time I had become a natural woman. So when it was time for me to return my first thought was to press my hair, at this point it was its naturally curly self. I had learned about wash, crème and go, but I was not sure if this had changed so I took a hot comb through my hair. Problem was my hair did not cooperate. It had been natural so long, by the time I’d press a section start the next, it began to frizz out.
My job interview was a couple of hours away, I did not own a wig. So, I braved up and said this is my hair, I washed it out and made 4 twists in the top, two on the sides and creatively wrap the twists into a hair style and went on my interview thinking they should want to know what’s in my head not what’s on it.
The interviewer was impressed that I took the time to learn about what’s new in corporate while being away so long. Anyway felt I did well and I got the job, and 15 years later, will tell you so glad I’m there, been there and don’t want me to leave. We’ve worked hard and well and I hope to remain until I choose to retire in a few years.
My hair has never been an issue, oh I’ve had the stares, the curiosity , even asked “can I touch it” when my twist were longer and pretty. I learned how to care for it, it took me about two years and many products after the big chop, but I accept the way it grows out of my head, I guess they are use to it too. I just recently colored it and trimmed it shorter, wish I hadn’t, but this will give way for new styles.
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