...but who braided your hair tho?

So it all started waaaaay before UCLA. Only it didn’t become a big deal until I got there. Apparently, it’s not common for people to braid hair. In fact, it’s not something that many people can do well. And…you can actually make a living braiding hair.

What?!

My mother owes me back pay for like 10 years – at least! I’m working on her invoices as we speak! #childlaborlaws #theinterestonittho #ShesNotEvenGoing2PayMeAnyAttentionButIWillStillTry

I could say that it was coincidence that I was a student at the height of the grow your hair out and cornrows are a serious thing movement at UCLA. …and that my cousin from Southern California would be part of that movement and the Football Team. …and that many of my friends would not only be athletes, but my residents. …and among the lot of us, I would be the only one that could braid the 3 centimeters of hair they finally grew after painstaking patience and savings on weekly haircuts.

Some call it coincidence. I call it providence. *lowers Morpheous shades*

Add like 600 more beads, and well...Us!

I never thought braiding was a big deal. Especially cornrows. All of the time it took my mother to do our hair? No thanks! We would vie to be the first victim in her chair, because at least you knew that after you took a nap from the migraine she braided on top of your head and decorated with every bead God made in the cosmos, there would be at least 15 minutes left of sunlight to play in before the street lights curfew’d you home. Otherwise, you weren’t waking up from that coma till the next day… It’s Sunday? But I wanted to go play…

I honestly began braiding my hair out of, well, poverty. What first year college student living in a triple in a residence hall has um, $150 to get their hair braided? Ain’t enough financial aid in the world to keep up with the inflation of braiding pricing… And I have to bring my own hair? Naw pimp, not the kid. I’ll walk around this piece with some coulda-been-great braids before I drop that kind of cash.

And I did. Only…those braids were great! Because I knew how to braid hair.

This dude. I had to stay 1 step ahead of him. LOL

It became an empire quickly because, well, I make friends really easy. Also, my cousin told just about everyone on the Football team that I could braid hair. So there was that. Turned into the Basketball Team. Men’s & Women’s Track. Even a couple Tennis players. There were some outlier sports too because athletes stick together. Pretty much, if you wanted to get top of the line braids in the City of Westwood, you had to come through me.

It was like runnin’ the mob, yo. You HAD to know people who knew people because there was no social media, cell phones weren’t exactly a thing, and campus was huge. There would be messages on my voicemail from people, who got my number from someone who knew someone that heard about me. They would be free ANYTIME I was available, because they just HAD to have me personally do their hair. Because TJ Cummings had is name and number braided in the back of his head at the game last night, and they just needed to get their hair done by the person responsible for that. #YesWeWon #GoBruins #8Clap #YoureWelcome.

I sometimes front like I was a broke college student, but my struggle wasn’t as real as some of your struggles. I mean, some days, I would have so much money on me (in cash) that I would be nervous. Not because I thought I would be victim of a crime, but because, if I ever got stopped, how would I explain having $500 on my person in the most random collection of bills? What’s funnier is that I didn’t even think anything was wrong with that until the day the Playstation came out. I wanted one, so I went to Best Buy and bought one. I started pulling all the money out of my pocket to pay for it. The cashier gave me a look…and I realized that maybe this wasn’t the best way to do this. But they still took my money though, so there’s that.

So people knew me, but they really didn’t know me. On a campus of 35,000 people, how can you really know anyone? Even the popular students or the athletes. The probability of you running into them is not high. It’s lower if you aren’t in the same major. #TheNorthSouthCampusDivide. But word got around. Eventually, in my 4^th year at UCLA they caught up with me.

*phone rings*

     Hello? #IsItMeYoureLookingFor #LionelForALifeTime

My name is [whatever it was]. I’m a writer with the Daily Bruin. I hear you are the person who braids everyone’s hair. I was hoping I could talk to you…

    

Y’all need to quit playin on my phone! I’m not falling for this!!! *hangs up phone*

*phone rings again*

     Um, hello?

I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you or anything. I got your name from [friend I’m going to hurt badly] and they told me that you braid hair. Is this the wrong person?

    

Oh. My. *dear sweet baby Jesus* Lord. I am so sorry. I totally thought you were one of my friends playing around. We were just joking about this in Covel last week. *awkward silence* Hi! Your name again?

So this interested character came to my suite and watched me braid hair. I thought it was the oddest thing a person would ever want to do. We talk about the most random things. It’s either stupid early because the boys are traveling or really late because they are leaving study hall. I’m either in my pajamas or my duty polo. The Best Damn Sports Show Period is probably on though. Remember that fight on the show though?

He asked me questions in between parts, attempting to not disturb me. Only he didn’t know that multitasking is an important part of braiding hair. Eventually he came up with this article published in The Daily Bruin on that fateful day.

I did not know that the article had been published the particular day in which it went to print. Unfortunately, I was the only person on campus unaware that this article was in the newspaper. As in, in the newspaper in my hand, that I am currently walking around campus with. I walked into the lecture hall in the Life Science building eager to learn. Seriously…I was excited about going to class, taking notes and getting all smart and -ish. A friend near the podium looked up just as I was walking in. She came rushing towards me with the paper in her hand.

     Did you know that you were in the paper?! OMG!

Oh, yea, this guy came to interview me, but it wasn’t a big deal. I don’t even think he was all that interested in it. He seemed kinda bored.

Um, *looking strangely at me* you should flip to the back of your paper…

*whispers next to us* OMG…I think that’s her! I think she’s the one that braids hair!!

That’s when I realized that most of the people I passed in Kerkhoff Hall reading the paper were talking about me. Only, I was too busy listening to my latest playlist on my sony discman to notice that people were trying to figure out Who. SHE. Was?!

I never once thought about fame. I, up until actually reading the article in print, thought that this was a cleverly composed ruse by some of the worst funniest friends a person could have. I only went along with it because he was so damn believable!

But much to Lupita's position, the thought of charging my friends for something that I get so much more from, seems criminal. I met some of the best people on the planet in those weekly 45 minute sessions. People like Poli who never refused my endless need for hugs or pictures. Or BFletch to share music and rides to Church with. Smoke? I mean c’mon, his mother made me a sweet potato pie! Or the UCLA sprinter’s at the time who ran up to Saxon Suites when they saw this dude I was talking to with another chick in Sproul Turnaround. Boy was he surprised when he got up the hill later that night! He obviously was unaware that they were National Champion level runners #OhOkay. I could not believe that I could run, and those women…each one of them…made me feel, whole, beautiful, and part of their championship team. I once confided in JBell about this resident that was making my life misery in Delta Terrace. It was really just to vent to someone unrelated to ResLife. The subject of my vent happened to walk by us. I pointed him out and continued to talk. JBell turned around to catch up with him and have a conversation (eeeeeek!) – I stopped him though #theyareprotective #hewants4braidscausethat’sgangsta #LongBeach. And my very little really tall brother TJ. Oh how we loved me! Even my best friend. It was at one of his regular appointments that he began to peel back his layers and reveal just who he was.

How can you ask a person pay for that? All the love, the laughter, the secrets, the hopes, the wishes for our unknown futures, the plans…all of the tender memories exchanged freely in those moments. I know things about these people that they probably haven’t told anyone else. The words flowed effortlessly because that was a safe space. All of that has absolutely no price. And even if it did, the only thing that would have done me any good was the love. And I am still reaping the residuals of that love today.

And me. I remember finding me in those moments too.

...and, there was that one time where they helped me with me homework...you know, they did kind of let me take pictures of their braids, me braiding their hair and whatnot for the African American Art class that I took. (Remember that Anna?!) So there's that.