Emma

Im Emma and I’m an Air Force ROTC cadet at Virginia Tech. This is me without makeup just after chopping off almost 12 inches of curly hair (its flat-ironed here) for the Pantene Beautiful Lengths project. For a long time I felt like my physical beauty was very much central to my hair, so I knew it was going to be a personal struggle and feat to finally cut it all off. Knowing it was going to be difficult, I figured I might as well go all out and wear no makeup of any kind, not even Chapstick, to kind of prove to myself that the real beauty was found in the act of service I wanted to do and the people I was doing it for. One of my best friends just began his third and worst bout with a rare form of cancer that had already caused him the loss of an eye and that has now settled in his spinal cord. I did this for him. If he can live with such a positive and vibrant attitude and go without an eye, I think giving up hair and makeup is definitely worth it, and the least I can do.