SWC #66: Revealing My Real Hair

In the past, Cindy did everything she could do to make her hair look thicker, but today she has something new to celebrate and to share... Watch the video to hear more.

Here’s My Story

For those of you who are wondering what this is all about, I want to tell you a story… Because you might not know the whole thing. It’s a story about feeling right exactly the way you are. I was born into a family of women who genetically have very fine, very thin, very wispy hair. And I never felt right about mine. My entire childhood I was told thick hair is good. And I always thought mine was too thin. Not thick enough, not wavy enough, not rich enough, not velvety enough. So I always felt like my hair was defective, that my hair was wrong... And I tried every product that came out to beef it up.

Right At Every Age

You’ve heard me say it before: From the day you’re born until the day you die, every age brings another kind of beauty. But I’ve been wearing extensions for the past 14 years because I didn’t have it that my hair was also beautiful, and wonderful, and something to celebrate. I hid behind the fact that I was a model and all the hairdressers wanted me to have fuller hair to style and play with. Well, that was true to some extent. 

And in the beginning...

...14 years ago, when I first started modeling—I had fun with it! I got to experience that luxurious, long, thick, throw-it-in-a-pony tail kind of hair where I could walk into a room and know that the hairdressers would have a blast with it. But when I developed BOOM! and I really started spearheading the Pro-Age Movement, there was a little piece of me deep down inside that felt like a fraud. I told everyone I wore extensions because I didn’t want people to believe that it was really my hair.

But I knew that with all these pictures of me out there in the world, that there must be women out there with fine, wispy hair like mine who didn’t know I wore extensions. And these women were seeing me with this long, luxurious silver hair and probably feeling like: “Hmm, I’d feel better about my hair, if only I could look like that...”

Well I’m coming out of the closet!

I had so many friends tell me, “Take that curtain off your head! You’re going to look great with short hair.” And I knew that my hair would be short and stay short, because it was so damaged and broken off from the extensions. I knew that, and still I went through with it. So here I am: this is me. This is it—I’m really telling you the truth about my hair.

And you know what? I love it! I really love it. I have a small head, so it finally looks in proportion because with the extensions it made my head look bigger. So now I have this fine, wispy hair—and it’s a lot of fun!

Oh! And... The world of earrings has opened up to me! People could never see my earrings with all that hair hanging down. Now I wear a new pair every day. It’s also changed the way I dress, because I can do more things with the lines of my clothing and my hair doesn’t fight with anymore. There are these new sources of fun I hadn’t even considered.

So do I look at those women with long, thick, luscious hair and envy them?

No. I appreciate them, and I love them. I love them all: The women with really tight, fine curls in an afro; the women who have chosen to shave their heads; the women who have chosen to just love and appreciate and enjoy their hair; and the women who say “No way, José, I’m wearing extensions. I’m chainging the color. I’m going to play!” Because when I started wearing extensions I had so much fun with them, too. I really did. But over the course of 14 years, they really started to weigh my head down. They stopped feeling right for me. And professionally, I couldn’t show up to a modeling job with short hair that I booked with my extensions. So by the time I walked into my hairdressers today with my girlfriends and my husband, I was feeling trapped by them.

And after it was cut... I cried.

I cried out of joy. I cried out of relief that it looked better than I thought.

I thought I was going to have big holes, that my hair wasn’t going to grow back—there was a lot of fear there. And I have so much compassion for women who are dealing with that. If you have alopecia, if you have gone through chemotherapy, if your hair has become thinner and thinner throughout your life, I feel you girl. I get it. And you know what? You are beautiful. You are sweet. You are lovely. And you do whatever you need to do to feel really good about yourself.

So thank you all for watching this very special Saturdays with Cindy.

For all my friends, fans and customers who come to watch and visit with me every week, and those of you who may not have a clue who I am, thank you for sharing a little of your afternoon with me. I’ll see you on the next Saturdays with Cindy.