Monday, January 27, 2014

hidden bobby pins.

This may not make sense at first, but I promise there's a good point if you stick with me....

Ive been growing my hair out. It's very difficult to go from short & spikey to long. You basically have to put up with mullets of varying degrees for 9-12 months. Let's just say I own more bobby pins, headbands, and hats than anyone I know. 

Today as I was braiding my hair, I was marveling anew at the fact that with a pack of bobby pins, a good hairspray, and some clever manipulation, you can make hair do almost anything you want. As a cosmetologist, my truest passion with hair is up-dos and styling.  I hate cutting. I'm not crazy about coloring. Perming is torture. But up-dos!........ I drool over someone with long hair and the possibilities that begin floating through my mind when I look at it. I love doing hair for weddings, proms, quinces, photo shoots. I'm always noticing and critiquing hair in movies and on models. In cosmo school I learned all the secrets to the trade. How to weave in anything from extentions to feathers to string to material. And I love knowing how to hide all the tools within the hair as I create a style.  

This morning I was thinking about the way one does that. The careful work that goes into it. Even today-my hair is braided and you wouldn't know that there are bobby pins woven throughout to hide the stray layers of hair still short and growing. I often get told by people that they love the wrap or headband that I have around my braids. That they wish they could do cute things like that but they'd have a thousand bobby pins keeping it on and how in the world do I do it without any? The answer? I don't!! I have a ton of bobby pins too. I just know how to hide them so that they're not visible.  That's all. 

As I styled my hair today, I was thinking about the industry.  All it is is a bunch of people "hiding their bobby pins" so to speak. Creating models, pictures, movies that are nothing but cleverly hidden secrets of the trade. And while that's not always a bad thing (Who doesn't love looking at that braid on Catniss, a stunning and glowing bride, or the feathers and color woven into a crazy modern photoshoot?), I wonder how much it's trickled down into everyday life. I wonder if because of all our social media, we sometimes see it so much that we begin thinking everyday life needs to look this perfect. So we pick up tricks. We watch. We learn how to hide OUR bobby pins. And we begin to present our lives to others as something it really isn't short of a lot of clever manipulation, "hair spray", clever lighting, and instagram filtering. 

The funny thing? Regardless of the number of followers I have or what we may see of each other, I often feel like I don't have good solid relationships with anyone. Like something has changed in the last years in how we do things. Like maybe we need to get more diligent about our interactions with one another. I wonder what would happen if we all ripped out our hidden bobby pins and let things fly. Let them be a bit more honest and messy. Showing how we really are. It's hard. It goes against all of the current "normal".  But I believe people used to be much better connected and I want to get back to that. I want to write letters in the mail. Just between me and that person. Talk about real things and not just a picture I took of Downtown Houston or even the kid I was playing with in Kenya. I want to discuss this world and the beautiful and ugly parts of it. Have adventures with people. Make memories that don't involve stopping to post a picture every 5 minutes. And dream. Big. Out loud. With Kindred Spirits. About Jesus. Changing this world. And being more than our society tells us we can be.  

Here's to ripping out some of those hidden pieces and finding the beauty in the mess that shows up. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post! Real relationships do seem mythological at times. Consistent, open and accepting connection is a desire of my heart also. The answer is...time. FaceTime is the key. Therein lies the challenge in all good relationships.

Macaroo42 said...

Really good stuff, girly. (And great picture for it.) you've crafted an excellent analogy.