About 6 weeks back I wrote about the technical process of dreading my hair.
Since then I have been sitting with what to write here, regarding the Soul Journey of locking my hair, not sure how to begin to articulate what has been a profound and multilayered experience. My last post got me started a bit and so here I am, diving a bit deeper.
Dreading my hair has always been a desire buried deep somewhere in the back of my mind. But for years, I would say 10 years at least, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. There was fear there I suppose. Fear of committing my hair to such a permanent style and fear of what others would say, and fear of what it would look like. But really more then any of those, was this sense of, "Who do you think you are?/Who does she think she is?"
Its fascinating to me now that these were the thoughts and feelings that would come up for me. So much time had passed between then and this last year. Really, my desire to dread my hair was no longer about my hair as much as it was an impulse to physically mark the deep shifts that were occuring in my soul.
In the realm of the energetic, hair is a potent part of our body, especially for women. Its our crown, the flow of our lives, and then that becomes our adornment. I have been cutting my own hair now for the last 10 years or so. Always waiting for the new moon, trimming away with intention and letting the moon imbue my mane with its power so that it would continue to grow strong and long and beautiful. This became such an integral ritual for me, that the thought of someone else cutting my hair made me uncomfortable, unless it was someone I was connected to and of course, unless it was a woman - a magical sister that understood the magic contained in our hair.
This is why when it came to dreading my hair I opted to do it myself. I was nervous about the process and had a consultation with someone that was amazing, but right before it came time to have him do my hair, I just couldn't.
The act of locking my hair was one of empowerment. A declaration of choice and of path to myself and the universe. Each lock, each hour that passed as I did my hair was a meditative spell. It was life altering in so many ways. It really brought to life the potency of ritual adornment, which is what this has become for me.
And whats interesting is that I know that its a symbol, a representation of the soul path I am on, but I don't really think about it or am conscious of it while I am out in the world. I had someone ask me if I had begun to experience others judgement or projections regarding what they think about people with locked hair. I said no. And as I sat there looking at her, the truth came forth for me in such a sweet way and I said, "I'm living in my world now."
I can't really articulate what this was for me. Such a liberating moment, where i realized that I wasn't even looking for approval or signs of disapproval, because I was now living IN my live. My world. So even if there is judgement coming at me, there is no opening in my consciousness for it to reach me anyway. This has been such a revelation for me... I'm still marinating in its significance.
And this is only the beginning of my dread lock journey. Just the beginning indeed.
