When an individual is properly grounded in life, they shouldn’t have to look outside themselves for approval.

It’s a wild realization that had not yet occurred to me when deciding to cut off my 12-year-old dreadlocks on New Year’s Day.

Cutting my hair was a noticeable, hard reset on what I would consider being my culture, identity and the defining aspect of my personality.

I would categorize this entire experience as “The Great Cultural Shift of 2025.”

My hair transition was made easier thanks to the support of the Crenshaw Mall Swap Meet.

My barber, who also had locs as long as mine, was visibly reluctant. He gave me every opportunity to back out.

Cutting off shoulder-length locs is not for the faint-hearted. Weeks after my cut, I felt anxious as I brushed back hair that was no longer there.

Every journey to a mirror was intense, but I felt I was far more appealing to the eyes of fellow college students who were not accustomed to my alt-lifestyle hairdo.

Still, l couldn’t ignore the underlying facts: Students who wear historically black hairstyles, such as dreadlocks, are stigmatized in many institutions all over the world.

I read an article by Patricia A. Banks, sociology professor and co-editor-in-chief of Poetics at Mount Holyoke College, titled “No Dreadlocks Allowed: Race, Hairstyles and Cultural Exclusion in Schools.”

Banks details how dress policies limit opportunities for students who express themselves through these hairstyles.

“Dress code policies at the district and/or school level which dictate that students who wear these styles are subject to negative treatment, such as in-school suspension and banishment from extracurricular activities, are a form of structural discrimination,” Banks wrote in the article.

I was around the age of 12 or 13 in 2006.

My mother was driving me and my siblings to school, and she was playing India Arie Simpson, a powerful and feminine R&B and soul artist.

Her song “I Am Not My Hair” is an enchanting anthem about self-acceptance and reclaiming identity.

Simpson’s anthem challenges societal pressures to define a person by their skin color or their hair, particularly for women of color.

She also sings about how true worth comes from within, not external appearances.

Her overall message is that we as a society should challenge the notion that hairstyles dictate personality or worth, particularly within the Black community, where hair has often been the subject of cultural and racial pressure.

Black women should no longer need a press and curl to feel confident. Their confidence would ultimately come from within.

I can respect this sentiment, for I no longer need my locs to feel like a man.