OZ

Age: 18-29

Occupation: College student

OZ’s hair is, in a word, cool. She keeps it short and faded. While she loves her hair today, it has been a journey.

Her hair used to be very long and thick, typical 4C hair, and as a child, she wore it in twists with beads at the ends. When she became sick in the seventh grade, she cut off all of her hair. It grew back thinner and wavier, and she has not grown her hair very long since then. She mainly keeps her hair short for convenience and comfort. In college, OZ found her style, and she is most confident in how it looks now.

OZ often takes inspiration from men’s hairstyles because she likes how they look. While watching television, if she sees a man’s hair she likes, she will find his Instagram page, show it to her barber, and have her hair cut in a similar way. Unfortunately, many people misgender her due to assumptions and preconceived notions about her hairstyle.

“I definitely get misgendered a lot because my hair is short. A lot of people think I’m a little boy. I get a lot of ‘sirs’, a lot of ‘hes’. It’s just kind of annoying sometimes,” OZ said. “Why do you assume just because I have short hair that I’m a boy?”

Despite this, OZ loves her hairstyle and, if anything, it bolsters her self-confidence.

“It just feels like me,” she said. “I like my short hair, and I like it faded because it looks bomb.”