When I was served a few weeks ago I was completely devastated. I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to move their child from her beautiful home where she has her own bedroom  and big playground (in a great part of town) to the hood where she would be sharing a room with her father just so he wouldn’t have to pay me child support. After calling a good friend to cry and to vent, he gave me some of the best advice I had ever heard in my life. “You’re a queen and this pettiness is beneath you. Even without a regular nine to five or child support you’re still maintaining and you’re a great mother. Why would anyone take Khloe from your care when he isn’t even fully capable of caring for himself?”  I pondered on his words even long after we said our goodbyes because although I knew what he had said was true I just didn’t feel as confident as I should have about it.

As I was on my way to go print out my response to his petition, I saw a salon and decided to drop in for a haircut. After receiving my first edge up and chopping off multiple inches of my hair for my desired style I felt better. My problems didn’t disappear but it gave me a little relief.  I had always kind of hid behind my hair wigs, or extensions and I felt so much better to be more confident without someone else’s hair on my head. I liked my Rihanna inspired pixie cut, but a couple weeks later I felt confident enough to make a bolder statement. This time around I made the decision to have my hair cut with clippers instead of scissors and I didn’t care what anyone thought about the drastic decision I was making.

While my barber was prepping me for my hair cut,  a gentlemen in the barber shop practically pleaded with me to reconsider my decision. “You’re just too pretty to have such a low haircut, so you really shouldn’t do this. Why would you want to shave off all of that pretty hair?” I instantly thought back to my ex who would tell me something similar whenever I would share my thoughts of shaving my hair off to him. “I like my women with long hair only,” would be his response when I would tell him that I was finally going to cut it all off. It was at that moment that any little bit of doubt I had about shaving my hair off completely disappeared.

Even though I had been told by multiple people that cutting off all of my hair would take away from my femininity, I actually never felt freer or more feminine! I went home and put on some six inch heels and red lipstick and felt more fabulous then I have ever felt in my entire life!

Moral of the Story: Life is not a popularity contest! Stop living to please anyone but yourself and never get caught up in someone else’s perception of beauty. Do what makes YOU happy because YOU are the one that has to live with the decisions.