I examined what I'd been doing: trying to look less Jewish; trying, as perhaps my great-grandparents did, to assimilate. For the first time, I felt the violence in that choice. Jewish hair is not a monolith, but it has long been held against us.
Perhaps I inherited the urge to straighten: hide what you are or die. I started to hate my hair when I was going through puberty and it sprouted overnight like a plant in a time-lapse video.
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