My Hair by Susan

I stopped coloring my hair a couple of years ago. I got a lot of compliments from friends and co-workers.But consistently, I got very strong negative reactions from Persian women of my own age or older. None hid their shock and dismay when they saw me after a long absence.  None held back from letting me know exactly what they thought. It ranged from you are too young to let your hair go gray (I am 55, I got my first gray hair at 21) to why would you want to let the whole world know that you have all this gray hair.  Politely, I responded that I have never been good at keeping up with coloring my hair and who am I trying to kid any way? This is me, the real me.

It seems like everyone has something to say about women’s hair. If it’s too long or too short, if it’s natural or colored, straightened or left curly.  Even my husband who is usually clueless about women’s physical appearance, has expressed a preference for longer, darker hair.  When our second daughter was being born, his first comment was:  “She has brown hair!”

Women’s hair can also be political.  In early twentieth century, Reza Shah banned women from covering their hair in an attempt to modernize Iran.  In the twenty first century, Iranian women are forced to cover their hair to show modesty and uphold morality. In 1978 women willingly put on scarves and covered their hair in Iran as a protest against the Shah. Today, after 40 years of the Islamic Republic, they are taking their scarves off and standing in public to protest that regime’s repression. 

Women of African descent are criticized if they wear their hair natural or relaxed, if they put it in braids or choose to shave it off.

Hair is precious! No wonder globally we spent 85 billion dollars on hair in 2017. It‘s amazing when you learn that hair is dead once it leaves your scalp.  It’s protein and it’s dead.  But isn’t it beautiful?  Hasn’t God given us this wonderful gift, this crown for our heads to adorn our faces? Isn’t it amazing - all the different colors and textures? And isn't it a blessing and a privilege to be able to wear this crown however you want it?