What's hair got to do with it?
I cut my hair a week before my new year. Not really a resolution, rather a build up of frustration from dealing with a transitioning mane. I hadn't used chemicals or heat on my hair for three months and I was starting to feel the heat (excuse the pun). My hair consisted of two textures and handling both was like trying to get water and oil to blend. So I jumped, I had my bc (big chop) - naturalists have their own vocabulary.
I have what some will call 'steel wool' hair. It doesn't grow easily and it's as hard as rock when you try to comb it. All my mom knew to do with it was add chemicals to make it manageable, all my dad knew to do was chop it off...hence I look like a boy in a majority of my childhood photos. So my bc was dejavu, and the feelings that came along with it...you're a little less pretty, a little less girly, without big hair.
That got me thinking of the contribution hair has to a woman's beauty. We'd obviously have to first define beauty. It's non-debatable that true beauty is more internal than it is external, but the fact that beauty has to do with appearance is also undeniable. But what matters most to me is what informs this. No one just feels ugly, they're made to feel and believe that, and sometimes even by people who aren't there.
Page through a magazine, consider the popular faces of TV, walk through the toys isle in a store and take a look at the dolls. No one is saying it, but you are made to feel what is acceptable, what is liked, what is considered beautiful. Once you have curves, you fall out, once you hair is short and coily, you fail to meet the standard, I don't have to tell you about where you stand when your skin breaks out.
Why is it that people around me never asked when I braided my hair, but only flooded compliments? But I cannot tell you how many times I've had to explain 'why' I cut my hair for the past month. Those are the things that inform your feelings, you immediately feel something isn't right, you don't meet the standard.
I believe the saying 'beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder' but at the same time, I don't agree with the idea that beauty needs another to identify or confirm it. It is true in the sense that I will see beauty in what was not deemed beautiful by society once I get to look inside more instead of out, but it doesn't mean I stand to judge what is beautiful and what is not just on the basis of what I see.
Hair doesn't define femininity, as much as shape and size don't. It's then interesting to learn what God sees as beautiful.
"Your beauty should not come from elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." 1 Peter 3:3-4
This text doesn't deny women from enhancing their appearance, instead it emphasizes that beauty should radiate from the inside out. I'll dress better, take care of my body better once I feel worth it on the inside.
I have what some will call 'steel wool' hair. It doesn't grow easily and it's as hard as rock when you try to comb it. All my mom knew to do with it was add chemicals to make it manageable, all my dad knew to do was chop it off...hence I look like a boy in a majority of my childhood photos. So my bc was dejavu, and the feelings that came along with it...you're a little less pretty, a little less girly, without big hair.
That got me thinking of the contribution hair has to a woman's beauty. We'd obviously have to first define beauty. It's non-debatable that true beauty is more internal than it is external, but the fact that beauty has to do with appearance is also undeniable. But what matters most to me is what informs this. No one just feels ugly, they're made to feel and believe that, and sometimes even by people who aren't there.
Page through a magazine, consider the popular faces of TV, walk through the toys isle in a store and take a look at the dolls. No one is saying it, but you are made to feel what is acceptable, what is liked, what is considered beautiful. Once you have curves, you fall out, once you hair is short and coily, you fail to meet the standard, I don't have to tell you about where you stand when your skin breaks out.
Why is it that people around me never asked when I braided my hair, but only flooded compliments? But I cannot tell you how many times I've had to explain 'why' I cut my hair for the past month. Those are the things that inform your feelings, you immediately feel something isn't right, you don't meet the standard.
I believe the saying 'beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder' but at the same time, I don't agree with the idea that beauty needs another to identify or confirm it. It is true in the sense that I will see beauty in what was not deemed beautiful by society once I get to look inside more instead of out, but it doesn't mean I stand to judge what is beautiful and what is not just on the basis of what I see.
Hair doesn't define femininity, as much as shape and size don't. It's then interesting to learn what God sees as beautiful.
"Your beauty should not come from elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." 1 Peter 3:3-4
This text doesn't deny women from enhancing their appearance, instead it emphasizes that beauty should radiate from the inside out. I'll dress better, take care of my body better once I feel worth it on the inside.
.png)
Comments
Post a Comment