0AN UNOFFICAL DISERTATION OF THE HAIR
Hair has always played a big role in our lives. As women we learn the standard of beauty at a very young age based on hair. How long it is, how shiny, how we choose to style it. Not all of these ideals are good, or healthy, but nonetheless, we know that hair is never just hair.
In my house as a child, hair was what bonded mother and daughter. Every Sunday morning my mother would blow dry and press my hair for church. I would wake up an hour earlier than my brother would have too. My room getting all smoky from the hair food cooking in my roots.
My mother’s mother would come over to our house regularly and all the granddaughters took turns combing her thick, wavy hair and it was during that time, with that intimate act, where she would divulge to us secrets of life. It was during one of these combing sessions of story telling that my grandmother told me that the crowning glory of a women is in her hair.
Society, family members, media, trends. All have something to say about the strands that grow on our heads. Each generation of women had to fight away some stigma about their hair. There was a time in history that red heads were thought of as witches and blondes has had to deal with the stereotype of being quote, un quote, stupid. Women of colour had to fight societies idea of beauty when their hair didn’t lay flat and defied gravity. Highschool years of frustration of finding ways to style your hair, boys in the playground ruining your freshly washed locks with sandpit dirt.
We know that it’s not just hair, for it was we wouldn’t cry when our doesn’t turn out the way we want it to (even after you watch the YouTube tutorial). Or when we have to get it cut off. Hair is not just hair when we spend hundreds of dollars on it on special occasions and maintenance. The beauty industry wouldn’t be selling miracle hair gels and thousand-dollar hair equipment and we certainly wouldn’t be buying it, if it wasn’t more than that.
At the end of the day we can recognise that the hair on a women’s head is the first thing you notice, and it tells a story. It tells you this woman loves herself; it can tell you that she has had a bad day. It can tell us that she is creative and colourful and outgoing. It can tell you that she is independent and focused. Hair is a story, a journey, a movement and a timeline. You can mark a women’s important days in her history by the hairstyles she’s had.
So, in essence it is important for us as women to be kind to our hair, and to the hair of others. Treat it with respect and love as you would any other part of your wonderful body. Feed it, hydrate it. Speak positively about it.
Even though it has a history that is vast and grand. It also is just as simple as a child. It needs love and affection. Food and water. Patience and protection. So, I encourage you friend, spend time with her, listen to what she wants, build relationship with her. She will reflect the care you put into her out into the world and let your crowning glory shine.
Jacinta Caleb.
