Day 45- The Last One

Easter Sunday is tomorrow, the day when we rejoice the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, and celebrate forgiveness. The day that Lent finishes. But I know that my journey does not end with Lent. I have learnt so much over the last 45 days. There have been good days and there have been bad days, but I suppose that’s the point. You need the bad days to appreciate the good ones, and when the bad days get too much, that’s when you need to ask for help.

I have learnt that when you have a buzzcut, it is of paramount importance to only use a tiny bit of shampoo, otherwise the suds get in your eyes and it stings SO MUCH. I have learnt that a dramatic haircut can leave you feeling constantly cold, especially if you happen to live on the fringe of the Arctic circle and it’s the middle of winter (dipstick.). I have learnt that humans are extremely tactile, and love to touch new hair. And that short hair is INCREDIBLY easy (I’m talking 1 minute to wash and dry your hair people!). I have also learnt that what my body can do is so much more important than what it looks like.

I have learnt how many associations society has with certain hairstyles, and how damaging it is that we have those associations. I have learnt that as a woman, society has forced upon me a very strange relationship with hair, and that I needed to breakdown this relationship and start again by pushing myself outside of my comfort zone. I have learnt that perfection is a dangerous, unfair concept, and that Jesus was the only perfect human. And that being gracious matters more than being graceful.

I have learnt that the majority of the time when I feel judged, it’s all in my head because I project my negativity. I need to stop judging people in order to stop feeling judged. I have learnt that contentment and love is the key to all of this, and that it is our differences that unite us as humanity. This unity and love has shown me that I can depend on people, and that they fuel my own love and strength.

Most importantly, I have learnt that I am more than just my hair. My worth does not lie in what I look like. I have more self-confidence and strength than I could ever have imagined. My worth lies in the fact that God loved me so much that He died for me. That’s amazing. And that fact leaves me with a never-ending capacity to love, and an assured hope that He has a plan so there is nothing to be afraid of.

I suppose I kind of already knew all of this one some level really. It just required some reflection, thought and a bit of an extreme change to realise that I knew it.

So there we have it. That’s the story of the year that I gave up my hair for Lent. I’m kind of worried now though, because how will my next Lenten sacrifice EVER live up to this?!

Day 44- Back to the start

I figured that since tomorrow marks the last day of Lent, my post today will be a list of the articles and videos that I read and watched before I cut my hair. My original inspirations.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amisha-ghadiali/the-big-give-41-things-i-have-learnt-f_b_2247908.html

http://www.refinery29.com/getting-a-buzzcut

What Happens When A Girl Shaves Her Head

http://mic.com/articles/128026/women-speak-out-on-why-shaving-their-heads-was-one-of-their-most-inspired-moments#.1jyZCf1tB

https://www.osv.com/Article/TabId/493/ArtMID/13569/ArticleID/14239/Here%E2%80%99s-an-idea-Give-up-your-hair-for-Lent.aspx

 

 

Day 43- You’re gonna grow it back now right?

Truthfully, I don’t know yet. I can definitely see myself growing it long and shaving it for charity for the rest of my life, but whether I’m going to keep it short for a while now, I haven’t decided yet. I’m just going to roll with it for a bit.

What I love now though, is that when I look in the mirror, I see so much more than what is there staring back at me. I don’t just see a reflection like Mulan, because I know that the way I look is not who I am. Now, when I look in the mirror, I see someone whose confidence and ability to love has grown exponentially over the last few weeks. I see someone who has started questioning why we think in the way that we do, and looking into why these thought processes need to be changed. I see someone who is free, and pursuing a life where she tries not judge others and tries not to mind when others judge her. I see someone who is working towards total contentment. I see a feminine young woman. I see more of myself than I have ever seen before.

I’ve learnt to accept compliments, and ignore insults, but to not put too much weight into either because ultimately the way that we look genuinely does not matter. The way we feel affects the way we look, and the way that we feel is just so much more important. And right now, I can honestly say that I have never felt more comfortable in my own skin.

I shaved my head for me. I shaved my head so that I could learn about where my self-worth lies and how I define myself. I shaved my head so that I could learn to depend on God. Today, right now, I feel that I have definitely been successful in all of these things, and at the moment I love my shaved head because it reminds me of this every single day.

Day 42-Mulan

Mulan is my favourite Disney film for two reasons. Number one…the absolute choon that is “I’ll Make A Man Out Of You. Number two…the incredible theme throughout the film and the song “My Reflection” about the struggle between who you are, who you want to be and how you are perceived. It is a film about coming to terms with who you are, celebrating who you are, and not being afraid to be the “true you”.

When will my reflection show, who I am, inside?

I have FINALLY realised that it won’t. I can’t look to the mirror to find out who I am. I need to look to my friends, my actions.  I need to look into myself. I need to look to God.

Day 41- Fear

When I think back to deciding to cut my hair, fear was the thing that would have held me back. Fear of what people would think, fear of what I would look like, fear of how I would feel. Cutting my hair has helped me to let go of my fear for four reasons:

1. People are generally nicer than we think or give them credit for. The media wants us to believe that “catty women” and “spiteful men” are always tearing each other down, and I’m not naive enough to think that this doesn’t happen. However, this is NOT the rule. If I assume judgement and unkindness, these things become true for me and how I interpret others’ actions, and thus can even become self-fulfilling prophecies. However, if I assume love, kindness and acceptance of others, then I approach people differently and that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
2. People are going to make assumptions of me based on how I look, and that’s ok, because I make assumptions of people too. But I need to work to breakdown my assumptions, and that will in turn help others breakdown their assumptions. I know that these assumptions aren’t true, and I have become confident and secure enough with how I look that I don’t mind if people make assumptions because they don’t define me. How I feel affects how I look, but how I look should not affect how I feel, because how I look (and the length of my hair) does not change who I am.
3. Not many people know this, but I suffered from depression a few years ago. I underwent treatment, and made it through. But I was TERRIFIED that shaving my head might send me back there. It hasn’t. Yes, there were bad days, but the good days far outweighed them. And more importantly, I made it through those bad days. It has proven to me that it is definitely possible to beat depression, and that I don’t need to live my life in fear of it, because if it does come back, I can make it through again.
4. I have an amazing network of people and a phenomenal God on who I can totally, entirely and utterly depend. I am not on my own because I am loved and because I love.

Day 40- Everybody’s Doing It

When I first decided to give up my hair for lent, the original plan was to keep it buzzed for all 46 days. Unfortunately, the cold has made this impossible.

People keep asking now, as Lent comes to an end, if I plan on keeping my hair short. The truth is that I’m not sure yet. What I do know is that this journey has changed my view of hair, and now I just see it as a resource, a resource that I happen to have an awful lot of and can continue to grow and donate for the rest of my life.

It’s so fun seeing it like that, because it honestly feels liberating. I feel like I can try different styles, and not be stagnant, and constantly be changing and growing for the rest of my life! This is why I think that everyone  should shave their head, and why everyone should work to break down their associations with certain hairstyles. That way everyone of all genders would be able to try different hairstyles all the time, which really is the way it should be. And people would also be able to constantly keep the same hairstyle if they wanted, and that would be ok too.

What’s kinda cool, is that a friend of mine has decided to shave her head soon! You can read more about her story here!

 

Day 39- Trust

Since it’s Palm Sunday, today at church the sermon was about the Easter story. And the thing from the sermon and the bible reading (John 18 v1-11) that stood out to me most was that God was in entire control that whole time. Even during the darkest times when it might have seemed like His plan was going wrong, He was totally in control. It was all in His wonderful plan for humanity.

It made me realise the change in myself. Learning to trust God throughout this whole process for me has been quite the experience- trusting that shaving my head was the right decision to make at the time, going through with it and starting this journey. It’s so easy to tell myself that God is in control, to repeat the mantra that it will all be alright in the end, and don’t worry because it is in God’s hands. But to truly believe that and live it out is difficult. It’s silly because I should spend my time marvelling at the fact that I am able to leave all my worries with God, but instead I have always spent my time stressing about the future, and what people think of me, and whether I’m doing the right thing.

As I’m nearing the end of my degree I have so many questions about what is to come next in my life- where will I live, what will I do, who will be my friends. And I don’t doubt that I will have these questions for a long time to come. The difference is that I now have the assured confidence that I will have the strength and know-how to get through whatever comes my way. Over the last 39 days I have begun to appreciate God’s sovereignty within my own life, and with that has come a great sense of peace. His plan is more amazing than anything I could imagine, so what do I have to be anxious over? I have learnt to place my worries in his hands, and to just live and love.

Day 38-Bone Structure

People keep saying that I’m lucky that I have the bone structure to carry this haircut. But the truth is that everyone must be able to carry short hair because it is our natural state! We should all have the confidence to shave our heads and discover our “natural states”. We should all stop judging each other so that we can have the confidence to do it.

Day 37- Hair in the media

Do you know how often articles about celebrities hair is in the media? ALL the time. Like I have never seen the sidebar of shame without an article about someones hair. We are a society obsessed.

Day 36-I woke up like this

My hair has started to do this weird quiff thing that I had no idea it could. I quite like it.