I laced my braid with thumbtacks as a self defense tactic

This is from my early 20s, and other than my husband and mom I haven’t told anyone. <br><br>I had just started at a new job and on my third day one of the senior secretaries asked me if I had driven or taken public transportation that day. I said I had taken the bus (it was a 3 hour trip one way). <br><br>She told me the building I was in was not safe at night, and that there had been a number of rapes/assaults in the parking garage. <br><br>I didn’t have a permit for the garage (they were expensive) so I had to walk almost a mile from a public lot to get to the building where I worked. It was a new job and I was already super stressed about starting in an office environment (I came from tipped retail service), so this just really freaked me out. <br><br>I didn’t tell anyone at home about any of this, and just dealt with the anxiety (not thinking I could do anything about it). <br><br>One day I was walking to work from the lot, looking over my shoulder, and saw a guy following me. I picked up my pace, and he picked up his. I started to run, and he ran after me, until I ducked between two buildings. He continued on (maybe he was just messing with me? But I didn’t wait to find out). <br><br>I made it to the building where I worked, called my mom and cried in the bathroom. She told me to tell my supervisor and coworkers, and they were all shocked I didn’t say anything. The senior secretary who told me about the assaults was like “I told you this would happen!”. <br><br>The facilities manager gave me a free parking pass in a different lot that was more populated and better lit, and a few coworkers gave me pepper spray. <br><br>Here’s the confession: <br><br>I sewed thumbtacks into my braids. I would braid my long hair every morning, then discreetly put thumbtacks in among the hair. The idea was that if someone tried to grab me from behind, they would get a face full of potentially broken skin and thumbtacks. I never actually had to use this method of self defense, but I continued to do it every day until I left that job two years later. <br><br>After that job ended, I stopped doing this. But then again, I also didn’t have the same commute anymore.