God Gave Us Go(o)d Hair: So that we may understand and be aware
Our hair is our glory because in its maintenance we are actively developing our fruits of the spirit, those gift that we’re called to perfect in this life.
Galatians 5:22-24 22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (23) gentleness and self-control.Against such things there is no law. (24) Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
The first, and I’d argue most important, fruit of the spirit that the Lord wants us to practice with each other is love. The importance of loving thy neighbor is repeated several times throughout the new testament and when asked what the most important commandment is Jesus plainly answers, “Love thy neighbor”. Our hair teaches us true love because love is an action, not an infatuation. Love requires patience and in further explanation of the fruits of the spirit we can see how love is unraveled and made up of several other characteristics. Characteristics that we are also trained to perfect as a result of maintaining our hair. I love my hair, it took me many years to come to that conclusion but I can confidently say today that there is no other physical aspect of myself that I love more. Love is birthed through many channels, one of which being pain and the journey towards loving my hair was a painful process. On the other side of it all was joy. When I was young I had a relaxer, the process of chemically straightening my curls and that made me happy until my hair began to suffer, it broke off inch by inch until there was barely any left for me to style with satisfaction. My journey towards loving my hair began with cutting it all off, losing the relaxer and re-educating myself about what beauty looked like on me when there were no examples to follow. I found the joy in my natural hair quickly once I discovered its versatility. When my hair is done to my satisfaction this brings me great joy. I feel myself rise to another level of wonder when I try a new style, especially because I do my own hair. Because of this, I’m always excited to see the finished product of my good work.
This next trait is tricky, but kindness also required in order for us to keep good, healthy hair on our heads. We must be kind to our hair, although it has a mind of its own and sometimes disobeys our commands. We can see our hair’s independence in the way it stands on its own, defying gravity, and in the way it changes it’s shape as it pleases. On days I want my hair to lay flat it poofs and there are many moments when my hair will make me angry, whether it’s because it’s frizzing due to the humidity in the air or because a single strand knot turned into a giant tangle, my hair makes me angry and therefore it requires kindness. On this same strand (lol pun intended), our hair requires goodness. We must be good to our hair in order for it to be good to us in return. As apart of being good, like with any relationship, we must listen to our hair and pay attention to the way it likes to be treated from the products it likes to when it prefers to be washed, our hair is unique in its demands and to be good we must listen and pay attention.
A very essential skill to develop in our walk as heirs to the royal kingdom is faithfulness. Faithfulness is all you may have in a situation where you don’t know what the future holds and this is a trait we practice regularly, especially in the styling of our hair. Whether one is depending on the experience of a stylist or their own skills faith is a power we must practice when doing our hair faith that they style will meet our expectations and improve (or maintain) the health of our hair. In addition to this gentleness, while in ties into patience, is not the same. We must be gentle with the touch on our hair. Being gentle is dependent on being patient because being gentle is easier when you are patient. While taking our time we must be sure to be soft and tender with our hands so as not to pull out any hair unnecessarily. In practicing being gentle with our hair we learn how being gentle is essential in our relationships, we must be gentle with those we love even in anger, we must practice gentles. This last fruit of the spirit heavily relates, self-control, practicing patience in one’s emotional outputs. Self control is one of the ultimate gifts that God attempts to develop within us through the required maintenance of our crown. We must have self-control while wearing our protective styles. I have to practice self-control in not taking my hair down to early (from impatience) or too late (from laziness). I had these particular twists in for almost 8 weeks, there were several moments throughout the time span when I wanted to take my hair down just to see how long it was getting, but instead of doing that I had to develop my self-control, redirect my focus on the goal of keeping my style in for at least 6 weeks, no more than 8. I had to set an initial goal and be steadfast in keeping with that goal. This is why I am a lover of natural hair because to have maintained long, healthy natural hair illustrates the mastering of these traits and other positive characteristics, is points to having a healthy lifestyle. Through the maintenance of our hair we are forced to connect with God.
