As women, I know we are already bombarded with immeasurable beauty standards from the media, and the futile, but constant quest to be perfect. However, poll a group of women on what they think is the beauty ideal, or what constitutes perfect hair, body, or aesthetic beauty, and you will be overwhelmed with diverse data. This weekend I was out with my girlfriend who loves thick, bountiful natural hair. Sometimes, I like the hair under admiration, sometimes I don't. But it got me thinking that as women, we often want what we do not have. And our journey to self acceptance is a constant rhetoric of self sabotage and admiration of what we perceive we are not blessed with. I remember my days of feeling insecure. Walking by men was the hardest thing for me to do b/c I was so body conscious. In regards to my hair, I remember those days when I would wish it was a little bit longer, a little bit softer, whatever! However, in the past few years I sorta gave up the hair focus. I started thinking about what it means to have someone else's hair. My neighbor from childhood had ridiculously thick hair and I remembered how long it took to get her hair styled. Then I have a friend with curly, soft, long hair and I remembered her complaining about it getting tangled all the time. Then I remember the friend with the fast growing hair that complained about the inability to keep a short hairstyle past 2 months b/c her hair grows back too quickly.....it became an investment in chopping. What did I learn?I learned that we just have to love the hair we got! God gave it to us for a reason and it is beautiful in its own right....in fact, it should be beautiful for you. While we can admire the beauty of someone else's hair, as I mentioned previously, our admiration is usually one sided.....an obsession with the pros. How often do we think of the shortcomings? I for one have hung up that hair battle, I admire from afar, but dag......I took a damn long time to figure out how to work with what I got.....ain't got no time to learn another.
Above and below are some of my friends (and I) with different natural hair types and styles, and to me all the hair is gorgeous! However, I am sure each person has a complaint that she can share with you about her hair. Just goes to show, you only understand the package until you've got it!
Ladies, I hope this spoke to you in some way. I am just saying what you have is enough and surely beautiful ;)
After writing this I am going to watch Chris Rock's "Good Hair" documentary ;)
Rae~
(Thank you girls for supporting my blog and allowing me to use your photos ;)
