Finding freedom with my natural hair

 

I found a treasure in my drawer. A picture of my mother and grandma.  I stopped and starred at it for a long time. I love them so much for all what they are to me.  What strikes  me about the picture is how natural they look physically. I know their inside is even better but my focus was on the first look.

( my mother and grandma picture, was taken in 1976. Before the slavery of the straight hair bondage).


This picture was taken when black women had other life challenges( not hair) to worry about. The straight hair bondage was not an addiction.  Men learned to love women for their character and inner spirit. They were taught that "Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised" (Proverbs 31:30 NIV)

 Families had very little but were content with what they hard. Lasting relationships where found based on character not looks. Spending hundreds of dollars on hair was not an option.

Then the bondage of straight long hair creeped in. Brown girls caught in modern times self inflicted slavery. The era of deceiving physical beauty.  Surface beauty portrayed more than what really matters, " the gentle and quiet spirit of the heart". 

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as 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 NIV)


Brown girls brought up to know their hair is bad hair and can't be manageable. Low self esteem and the feeling of rejection due to false physical appearance. I call it "brown girls in hair bondage".


 I was one of them but now I'm free, i cut off my permed hair and gained control of my life. My hair does not define who I am and all the restrictions of permed hair are over. I can run in the rain without worrying about how much I spent to do my hair. I can swim with my hair and don't have to worry. I don't have to spend thousands of dollars to get human hair in my lifetime. I'm human for crying out loud and have hair. I was blessed with the hair I have and I've embraced it. 

I'm different and it is okay to be different. The God of heaven is dynamic and shows us this in the human race and all of creation.


I can exercise and wash my hair everyday without a problem. I don't need to have what society calls perfect hair because I'm not perfect anyways. I can step out of the house with confidence in kinky hair at any given time. It is okay to have all the strange looks because of how my hair looks. That is who I am. God created me and did not make a mistake.


(100% natural. I cut my permed hair when my first daughter was 11 months. I want them to see and know that kinky hair is beautiful.) To free them from the slavery of straight hair bondage majority of brown women are in.


My girls will grow up to see that their hair is like their mom's and it is okay. They will grow to know kinky hair is beautiful hair. I'm their first role model in life.

They become what they see and most importantly what God has planned for them. They will learn how to manage their hair and accept the way they look in it. They won't have all the chemicals in perms in their system. They will know beauty is more than the physical appearance.  They won't have to worry about beauty sleeps all the time for fear of messing up relaxed hair.

It will be their choice to pay a fortune for hair and not due to ignorance.


Like the picture of my mother and grandma, my girls and I are free from the hair bondage. We are not held captive because of the self inflicted hair slavery. 

 I found freedom in Christ Jesus who loves me for me. 

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1 NIV)

All what he created was and is beautiful. Brown girls are part of His creations  which implies kinky hair is beautiful. 

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good...(Genesis 1:31 NIV)


Christ freed me from the punishment of my sins on the cross when I repented. It was total freedom. I choose to be free because  he opened my eyes to the hair bondage women are in. I have freedom because he first loved me and now I love the image of Him in me.
 
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27 NIV)

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