The Massachusetts congresswoman shares why her hair was such a crucial part of her identity and why she's now speaking out
The Root
When Pressley decided to get a Senegalese twist about four years ago, she says felt like she met herself “fully for the first time.” And her bond with her culture and her supporters grew stronger, too, she says. The progressive representative received an outpouring of acceptance and affirmation for her new hairstyle, receiving letters from all over the world about her twists and had young girls coming up to her in public wearing t-shirts that read, “My congresswoman wears braids.”But when alopecia began causing bald patches in her hair, Pressley said she not only felt personally betrayed — but also guilt that she was betraying her own culture.
“The reality is that I’m black. And I’m a black woman. And I’m a black woman in politics,” Pressley tellsShe knew she needed to go public with her condition in order to come to terms with what she describes as the “new normal” for herself — as well as for the young girls who look up to her. “I’m ready now because I want to be freed form the secret and the shame that this secret carries with it,” Pressley explains. “I’m not here just to occupy space, I’m here to create it.”
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