I laced my braid with thumbtacks as a self defense tactic

I (f28) went to a party last night. Had my hair in box braids, which are just my go to. On the way there, I witnessed a woman being harassed and followed by a drunk man who was trying to get her to go back to his place. She was clearly very uncomfortable and trying to get away. I decided to help by fake distracting him in conversation and pretend to be his girlfriend who just arrived - which worked. I shamed him and got him to leave her alone. <br><br>The whole thing shook me up a bit and put me more on edge than usual. I decided to try and defend myself with what I had on hand. I borrowed thumbtacks from a fellow partygoer and wove them into my braids. I figured it would be a good way to keep sharp objects with me without anyone thinking anything of them with my hair like that. <br><br>Later in the night one of my friends was sloppy drunk and obviously needed to go home. Since she doesn’t drive and neither do I, we took an Uber. We both could tell the driver was acting off. He kept pulling over and asking our friends to get in, saying he’d drive them home too (he’d already accepted the ride for us and knew there were two passengers), refusing to continue driving until they got in. Then he started pulling over at random and opening the back passenger door nearest to me (I was sitting behind him). He would laugh and apologize when I shrieked at the door opening. I pressed the emergency assistance button in the app and was told help was on the way. <br><br>At this point I was starting to lose it, and I told the driver I was going to open my door and wave them down when the police arrived. He tried to lock the doors down but my friend managed to open her door and we both started screaming and pounding on the windows. At this point the driver tried to leap over his center console at me, and I whipped my head at him, tacks first. <br><br>He screamed and reeled back, holding his face, and the police got there pretty quickly after that. They stayed until an Uber came and picked us up. <br><br>I’m really glad I had thought ahead and had something to defend myself with, and it probably helped that ubers can be tracked so they knew exactly where we were. Shit could have gone so much worse and it probably would have if I hadn’t been put on high alert when I helped that other girl.