The Big Day
Kira stood with bated breath and awaited the announcement. What a journey it had been. A few weeks ago she never imagined she would be standing here.
Everyone’s eyes were on her but it all felt different this time. For once, she relished the attention. She could not believe how much her life had changed. Just like her hair, her life was unrecognizable now.
A Troubled Past
Kira Mason had been a shy and nervous child and her upbringing had been a strange one. As a child, Kira’s hair grew into fine golden brown locks.
Her father loved her hair but often made her feel uncomfortable about it. It started off as a strange rule. Unfortunately, his obsession with long hair and his weird rules would leave Kira scarred as much as her father’s own childhood had scarred him.
Mistaken For Beauty
Every time Kira thought of cutting her hair, she wasn’t allowed to. Her father’s craze over long hair was rooted in the strange ideals that he was brought up with.
To Allan Mason, long hair was synonymous with beauty. In his own weird way, he felt that not allowing his daughter to cut her was a way of expressing how much he loved her.
Things Changed
As Kira grew, her father was taken from her suddenly. While this finally meant Kira was able to salvage something of a normal childhood, she also missed him greatly.
In many other ways, Allan Mason had been a good man and a loving father. Kira was able to now live a relatively normal life. It was only when she reached her teens that Kira realized just how deep her scars went.
Entangled
Kira’s subconscious issues with her hair and how it correlated with beauty would resurface throughout her life. All she knew at the time was that she constantly experienced different phases.
One was being completely normal. The other was an obsessive need to grow her hair or face intense anxiety about cutting it. She wouldn’t realize until much later that was actually a pattern to when these periods of life affected her most.
The Good Phase
As she neared adulthood, Kira went through a long period of relative peace and happiness. She met a man, fell in love, started a career, and soon fell pregnant.
After giving birth to her first child, Kira began to notice cracks in her relationship. When she unexpectedly fell pregnant again in her early twenties, the worst possible outcome came true.
He Bailed
Her partner at the time, Glen Johnson, up and abandoned her and the kids. Kira was devastated. While happy, she had lived a relatively ordinary life.
Now severely depressed, for the first time in her adult life, she began obsessively growing her hair again. Kira was a beautiful woman but her depression and the resultant psychological trauma it rekindled was beginning to hide that beauty far away.
A Shining Knight
Kira had pretty much given up on love when Jesse Stevens entered her life. After getting to know each other, Stevens made Kira feel whole again.
He was only ever able to see inner beauty, raised her girls like there were his own, and filled a deep void within Kira. She was in love again and it soon began to show.
A Period Of Hope
The years passed and Kira was happier than ever. Kira began cutting her hair again and life was back to normal. One day, out of the blue, Jesse proposed and Kira ecstatically accepted. Kira began growing her hair again.
That’s when her anxiety set in again. Kira found herself obsessing and fearing that Jesse would abandon them as Glen had. Soon after, Kira began growing her hair yet again. This time, her anxiety reached a fever pitch and she really couldn’t stop.
Things Went Downhill
In a few months, Kira’s secret anxieties left her hair long, overgrown, and more unkempt than ever. The worst part was that with the wedding date getting closer, time was running out to remedy it.
Jesse stayed as understanding as ever and never put any pressure on her but Kira faced a lot of inner turmoil. She knew she had to do something. Luckily for her, that was when she met another special man.
A Special Team
Living in a gated community, another resident had noticed Kira more than others. Jason was the owner of a sleek, trendy salon, and could tell that Kira needed help with her hair.
After hearing her story, Jason assured her that his salon team would help get her ready for the wedding. Jason even went a step further and invited her to take part in a makeover competition where she would get the chance to model on a runway.
The Transformation
Despite all her anxieties, Kira decided to be courageous and take up Jason’s offer. When the big night arrived, Kira had to sit through a 7-hour makeover.
When she emerged on the runway, she had been so radically transformed that even Jesse could not recognize her. Not only was her hair cut, but she also looked amazing and completely stole the show. The night completely changed her life and she also knew now that she had to seek long-term help.
The Breakthrough
Kira’s amazing transformation showed her that beauty took many forms. She had one of the most wonderful nights of her life and even won the best make-over award at the show.
Kira began regularly seeing a therapist who helped her unpack her childhood issues. They soon made a breakthrough and realized her father’s well-meaning but strange obsession with long hair equating to beauty, had left Kira with a skewed reality.
Taking Control Again
Heightened periods of stress made growing her hair an anchor point that helped Kira feel normal. Her father’s belief that long-haired girls were more beautiful made Kira feel a sense of comfort in having long hair but also afraid to cut it.
Now that she better understood herself, Kira began to embrace her new look and live a more healthy lifestyle. In time, she naturally began to feel less anxious and more confident about herself, even with short hair. It was finally time to live.
A New Start
Kira also used her therapy sessions to work past the hurt and abandonment issues she and her girls had been left with when Glen walked out. It made her realize that she had found an amazing person in Jesse and needed to embrace her new life with him.
Kira made it to her wedding day a happy and beautiful bride. She and her girls were finally ready to start their new life and move forward. Strangely enough, it had all truly started with a makeover.