In today's world, a large percentage of the look, the trend and the culture of black women across America is, as it has been throughout time, about our hair. In the Black community, hair has been one of the most prominent topics of conversation and culture. Hair has been a powerful yet versatile weapon, as it has brought unity, been used as a stereotype, caused division, made others proud, caused insecurities, made some feel empowered - and this is just among the Black community. I'd like to take a brief look at a few key issues I have with hair in our community.
The not so incognito truth:
From flat ironing hair in the 50's, wigs in the 60's, to Afros loud and proud in the 70's, society has been able to cleverly label, classify and divide black women according to their style and texture of hair. The worst part about it, is that from childhood to adulthood, we Black women bought into it as well. Example: Not many of us in conservative America or in a predominantly Caucasian setting would ever ADMIT that we believe our hair is nappy and distasteful. However, we SHOW we believe it by never showing its natural state, but instead keeping it straightened to resemble and fit in with our straight haired peers... We have been convinced that our hair is ugly, usually comparatively speaking among other races of people, but it's crazy how we can feel the same way among other Black women!
Comparisons:
"My hair is nappy." "She's got good hair." "Does my hair look better than hers, or does her hair look better than mine?" "Is my hair longer than hers?" "How long is her hair or is that weave?".. These are all statements and questions that most of us have said or thought at the sight of another Black woman's hair. Why do we take so much thought about such foolishness? Chances are, if you have found yourself in this stream of comparative thought, you have fallen victim to hating your hair and most unfortunately, pay too much attention to hair. It's quite absurd that we have actually believed there is a such thing as good and bad hair, or better and worse hair - how ridiculous! The good hair/bad hair saga has been a great divider among us, instead of a varying quality to embrace and appreciate. Everything about our physical make up is fearfully (with reverence of significance and ease) and wonderfully (with excellence) made by God. And because God created our hair, its quite safe to say that your hair is without flaw or failure. There is however a good and bad paradigm about hair and those are the connotations that we (or others) put on hair texture and we believe it. Obviously, to prefer one hair type over another rears from an inner conflict of insecurity, jealousy, emptiness, and a lack of understanding.The inevitable competition:
The invisible point behind all this is that everyone, regardless of hair type, loses BECAUSE they are competing. Deep down, most of us want to look better than every other woman we come across. For some of you, much time and effort in the mirror goes into that competition. But why are we competing?! All that hard work and countless hours is misappropriated confidence. All women in general, have so much more worth, value, importance and significance that is beyond our hair, that we could be using to come together and do something meaningful and full of impact. The most impact we can make in this world would be shifting the focus from the vanity of ourselves and other women and aiming it at God. Learning who we are and abiding in the awesomeness of what HE created us to be, would take us further than our concern with hair. This reminds me of the overall body of Christ (the Church, which are the Believers, not the church building). There is MUCH more that we could be doing to help one another, but instead, all over this nation Christians have been led into the folly of being more focused on their Sunday swag and who's got the bigger and better church building. And because competing is the forefront of our mentality, we dismiss our work of Salvation and spend our lives trying to exalt our name and not His! In both scenarios, be it individual or corporate, we are still distracted with something that enables us to miss our purpose. How POWERFUL we could be coming together for the RIGHT reasons and not the vanity of hair and huge churches (just to name a few, obviously).
A scriptural look:
I brought to the table a few scriptures for prospective and to show how we have misappropriated what God has given us..
[1Corinthians 11:15- But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.]
Here we see the context for what our hair is for, it is A glory TO us and is a covering FOR us. Hair by itself does not make us glorious, nor beautiful, but rather an added feature or compound mixed together with all the other compounds God has given us, that are a beauty TO us. Much like an accessory. We may wear certain accessories to accentuate or bring out something else that's already there (this is what our hair is for!). That something beautiful that's already there is the God fearing wan you are (if you so be). The accessory is to accent US, never should we accent an accessory. But this tends to be the case when we esteem so highly our hair instead of He who created all things, including our hair. We diminish ourselves (which is easily done when we don't know who we are) and empower our lifeless hair - what a rip off!
[Proverbs 18:16- A man's gift makes room for him and brings him before great men.]
In the same way your hair spotlights you, so should your gift(s). We are to exalt the gift giver and only in Him is where we find our true identity. Look to Jesus Christ (Christ is not His last name, but the context of Jesus the Messiah - the Savior), find out who you are and what you were created for. Its okay if you don't know, no one knows until we go to Him and ask Him to reveal it to us. Find out how very precious you are to Him and the purpose you were created for. Trust Him, there is purpose in everything He does and in everything about you that He has created. To highlight certain features and exalt them instead of allowing those things to Glorify Him, is unprofitable for you. He wants to highlight all of you, yep, even that stuff too. The more of you He uses, the more He can be revealed :)
The mention of these scriptures is not to condemn anyone for talking about hair or interests in hair care. Just in case it wasn't clear earlier in this post, its not hair or interest in hair that's bad, but much like many things, what is done with it and the overindulgence of it, gives it negative connotations. Among Black women, hair is our primary focus, be it with ours or someone else. For that very reason, we miss the significant things about us which get regarded as obscelet. If I could attach a megaphone to this post, I would say, "Black women, WE ARE MORE THAN OUR HAIR! All women, WE ARE MORE THAN OUR HAIR! Regardless of what societal norms exist, they can't gage what God has created. You are beautiful the way God made you (only when you realize lasting beauty comes from within)!
