Hair Matters

Hair matters – it just does, doesn’t it?!

As the years have gone by, my hair styles have changed and so has my hair.  At one time I had masses of hair - a challenge to control. And at one time, it was a lovely healthy dark blonde.  At this point, the masses have thinned down and are still a challenge to control but in a different way. And dark blonde is giving way to gray, and no matter how much I try, I find it hard to think of it in terms of "silver threads among the gold"!  At the age of 3 my granddaughter said to me, “Grandma your hair is so pretty.  It's. ... it's. ... [searching for the right word..] ... it’s  gold!"  Sweet child, lovely sentiment, but unfortunately, wrong commodity!

And grey matters.  It starts early when we begin to fear greying, then there's the first couple strands we either pull out or try to pretend are blond, then we buy the hair color that promises to cover the grey….  And, well, you know….

However, how can I even start writing about it until I figure out ... ?

So of course I checked with Professor Google and came up with this…

When all else fails..

grAy is how it's spelled in America

grEy is how it's spelled in England

And in Canada???  We are influenced by both so I’ve used both! (Go ahead and check!)

I have a wonderful hairdresser - just spent an hour with her this week in fact - she does her best to make me look presentable.  And of course I have a bathroom cupboard full of "product", as well as curling irons, blow dryers, barrettes, clips, etc etc.  Remember sleeping on Velcro rollers? Or those foam ones with the plastic clip? Pincurls? Sitting under a portable at-home dryer with a long hose and plastic cap? Today there’s the flat iron – the more things change, the more they remain the same, right?!   I mean, did you ever iron your hair?  I gave myself and my hair a fright in my younger crazy years and decided it was best to stick with using it for it’s original purpose - to press clothes.  I think my mom even curled my hair with "rags" a few times.  I have never experienced it but Marcel waves were all the rage at one time and I think the gals on Downton Abbey looked the bees knees! 

This was me – you too?!

Once in a while I worry about what I will I do when my arms or shoulders cannot manage a blow dryer and curling iron? Perhaps wash and wear curls will be sensible after all!  When I was in my mid thirties, all the older women seemed to be wearing a tightly permed wash 'n wear do. I remember thinking, when I'm old, please don't make me!  In fact, once on a bus I observed a woman enter with beautiful gray hair in a short page boy style - not permy curly. I even remember commenting to my husband - look, she's got grey hair and a nice hairdo that is not curly permed! Why that brief encounter has stuck with me all these years I have no idea! These days there is a spectrum of things to do with our hair more than anyone could ever have imagined!  Colouring, painting, streaking, texturizing, waving, straightening, layering, wedging…. On and on….

As my patience to deal with my hair has gotten shorter, so has my hairdo, but I'm ok with that, in spite of this question recently from one of my oft mentioned granddaughters– “Grandma, why don’t you grow your hair out long like mine? Do you like it that short?” (emphasis and incredulity on the word "like")

We feel like a princess when our hair looks great and it's always a thrill when someone says, "your hair looks lovely". So it's not a stretch to consider it a crown, or our crowning glory, is it?  Aside from keeping our scalps protected from the elements it seems to me God has given us hair for ornamental reasons as part of each person's uniqueness, individuality and beauty.

Hair is mentioned in the Bible quite a few times:  long hair - short hair - covering of hair - gray hair - our hairs are numbered - braiding of hair - David said his iniquities were more than the hairs on his head - Nazarites were not allowed to cut their hair  - remember what happened to long-haired Samson with Delilah? - a woman wet Jesus’ feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair - Mary perfumed Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair....

Even to your old age and gray hairs
    I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;

    I will sustain you and I will rescue you.  Isa 46:4

Even when I am old and gray,
    do not forsake me, my God,
till I declare your power to the next generation,

    your mighty acts to all who are to come. Ps 41:18

The glory of young men [women] is their strength,

    gray hair the splendor of the old. Prov 20:28

Is not wisdom found among the aged?

    Does not long life bring understanding? Job 12:12

Gray hair is a crown of splendor;

    it is attained in the way of righteousness. Prov 16:31

What is visible on the outside is grey hair. 

 It doesn’t seem like “a crown of splendor”

when I look in the mirror

What is invisible is on the inside –

wisdom and understanding –

which others see in me

My hair has had as many ups and downs and changes and challenges as the rest of me.  The inner me and the outer me - we have attained a few years. Today it’s the inner “crown of splendor” that I crave as I approach being classified “among the aged”.  

 

You too?   Me too!