Good Hair and a Pretty Face Made Me Afraid of My Own Fatness

I was barely more than a toddler the first time I cut my own hair. I had a doll, you see, whose hair would “grow back” when you “cut” it, and I thought in my 4 year-old wisdom that the same would be true for me. I wasn’t wrong, per se, but the thing I didn’t understand was that human hair doesn’t grow back magically, or even quickly. It grows at an average rate of 6” per year, which is a lot of length when you’re very small.

My grandmother was furious — not at me, but at my mom. I only cut half o...