Monday, December 14, 2009

2 Important Questions

This past month two people asked me the two questions that I feel I will be asked a lot through my loc journey. I know I'll especially get these questions when I go home for the Christmas break because no one from home has seen my locs yet (except for my parents and the one picture I have of myself on Facebook).



The first question was...
How do you think Corporate America will accept your ethnic hair do?

My response:
That's a good question for any natural hairstyle.

I refuse to continue to project a European standard of beauty. Using excessive heat and/or chemicals on my body is nowhere near healthy. Why must I emulate physical characteristics of someone else? Why must I compromise my health and physically harm myself and my hair to do so? Frankly, I don't think corporate America's acceptance is worth my health. What's so wrong with how my hair naturally grows from my head? Why not be who I am? It's not as if I'm not presentable and my hair isn't neat so what's the problem with it? Once more I also locced my hair for some personal spiritual reasons, so that job would not only be rejecting my naturalness, but my beliefs as well.
So, to sum this up, when it comes to Corporate America, I know my work can speak for itself. I wouldn't want to work for any person or company that would ignore my work and go against me, my culture, and my beliefs. I refuse to compromise either of those parts of who I am.


This led to the second question...
How are your locs spiritual?

My Response:
Their growth is representative of my spiritual growth; they're a tangible extension of my spirituality.

Though these days most people seem to wear them for nothing more than a hair style, historically they were worn by many different religions.

It's not much different than Jews that don't shave, Arabic religions that believe it is sinful to cut their hair, or even Buddhists that shave their head. Rastafarians view their locs as a symbol of their fight against Babylon, non-violence, non-conformity, communalism and solidarity. These are just a few of many that recognize hair as being spiritually significant.

Most of these religions followed one of two schools of thought. First, some grow/shave their hair as sacrifice (like some Christians would fast or take part in lent). Second, others would grow/shave their hair as a reminder of obstacles that they have overcome through their faith. While I feel that I relate to both schools of thought, I more so grow mine for the latter.

Over the past year or so I have gone through quite a bit, prior to which I've begun to fall off my faith; for a little while I felt like Job. I believe the only thing that brought me through was the little faith I was able to hold on to and the faith of my family. I came through it by the grace of God and faith the size of a mustard seed.

    Matthew 17:19-20 "Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, 'Why could we not cast it out?' He said to them, 'Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you."


These are just my beginning stages...I expect to hear these two questions much more often. Bottom line is, my locs are my testimony. It is by God's grace that I am where I am now in my life and I will continue to leave my future in God's will.
I'm still working on myself and I'm trying to fall out of some old habits, but as I work on myself, my spirituality will grow and so will my locs.