God's Design: Naturally Curly, Highly Textured Hair

Naturally, Curly Hair.

It is a revolution/movement that brings joy to my heart. One that I find will last for a very long time. I love that many African and African-American women are choosing to allow their hair to grow without chemically altering it. With many choosing the natural route, there are still others who believe that their natural hair is not pretty enough or even “appropriate” to wear. That thought alone saddens me and I pray that this blog will become a source of inspiration to those who are on the fence of choosing to wear their natural hair or even those who do have natural hair but are ‘afraid’ to reveal their hair to the world.

I know of many who feel that their texture of hair is not soft enough, attractive, or consider it ‘nappy.’ The word ‘nappy’ is a word that I actually find derogatory. To me, it is an equivalent to the ‘N’ word and it too, happen to begin with the letter ‘N’. I consider natural hair as tightly coiled or highly textured and curly. The word ‘kinky’ is a tricky one as well. According to www.dictionary.com, although the definition for the word ‘kinky’ refers to hair, it also gives an additional meaning of “Involving or given to unusual sexual behavior.” Now, I don’t know how I feel about associating that definition with hair. Therefore, I will not be using that adjective for natural hair along with the word ‘nappy’.

I just want to share an insight from scriptures concerning natural hair. To those of us who don’t appreciate our tightly coiled, curly textured hair, let us take a trip in the Bible and examine the book of Genesis. In Genesis chapter 1 verse 31 it says “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.“ As you may know, the book of Genesis speaks of creation and how God created heaven and earth and all that is within. Along with creation created God our hair. Referring back to Genesis 1v31, everything that God created was not only good but VERY good!

Check this out: we are all different and that will never change. And with our physical and innate differences include our various hair texture. With whatever texture of hair God has given us, we should love it because it is very good! That is what His Word says. To me, for one to choose to chemically alter their hair is like a slap in the face to God; we basically tell Him that His creation is not valued and that it falls short to our human standard–which denies His greatness and totally contradicts Genesis 1v31.

I don’t know of you, but I know that I have at least once in my life wished that I had a “better” texture of hair just because I felt it is harder to manage in comparison to other textures of hair. Now, however, after learning how to take care of my hair, and knowing that it is good, in fact VERY good, I have a renewed appreciation for what God has given me. I love God and my hair with every fiber of my being and I will not trade that for anything. With this new love, I want to assist other women to love God and their hair and appreciate their hair for what it is and not dwell upon what they wish it was.

Moral of the story: If you love God, you must love ALL that He has given you because God created all things and all things are GOOD–that is also inclusive of your hair. YOUR HAIR IS BEAUTIFUL; whether you accept it or not. No matter who says what, always remember Genesis 1v31 and thank God for awarding you your texture of hair; because truly, it is a gift. Our Highly-textured hair helps us practice ‘patience‘–an attribute of life, but most importantly of true Christian life.