The notes below were typed on Saturday, June 12th as I was traveling through NC and had a stop in Rocky Mount, NC

It probably has to be one of life’s strangest feelings, to look at one’s reflection and not recognize who is standing on the other side of the mirror. I looked again and tried to find some similar resemblance to what I remember I look like.

My scalp was bare, naked and hairless, my messy curly hair was no longer there, but as I started eyeing down my reflection I found some familiar friends: my two thick eyebrows were still there and I also found my eyes, my ears and my lips were still there. More importantly, my facial hair was still there too! I sighed in relief, I had finally done it, and there it was in all its splendor.

Last Thursday, June 10th, I decided to shave my head. This was a long time coming. After suffering a traumatic road accident that had put me into a two-month-long coma in 2013, I had been awarded with a set of scars all over my head as a complimentary reward for my survival.

Oftentimes, due to what these scars reminded me of, I had been excessively self-conscious of them, for the questions or possible conversations exhibiting these scars in public may trigger.

But when I started planning for this trip, I thought it would be the best idea. You see, when you plan to spend 24 days traveling around your adoptive country, without the assurance that you will have a working shower at each stop, decisions like these make sense, since the less you carry with you, the less you have to worry about. Growing up in a society that often ridicules curly hair, comparing it to pubic hair, I involuntarily worry too much about hair.

And as my friend Keiner arrived in my apartment, took out his buzzer and I sat on the chair, I felt ready, it was the time to have these scars out. And this is how it started.