Anyway, I wanted to spend a little time talking about appearance after my curly hair experience last night. I woke up this morning, and the right side of my hair looked good. This is not surprising because it looks better than the left side in the picture anyway. My sister and I determined that I could just touch up the back and left side and it would be acceptable. I did this, but then I didn't feel so great about it and my mom said the style was too "messy" for her taste. Personally, I think that if I had been going to school or just out with friends it would have been an okay look, but I think she's right that it's too messy for work. So, I hopped in the shower and washed my hair. Let me tell you, mousse does not like to come out.
Still determined to do something somewhat interesting to my hair, I dried it with the diffuser (which I used on it last night also because it's supposed to help). I didn't really expect this to do anything, but a diffuser is sort of magical! While it takes FOREVER (probably 6-7 minutes instead of my regular 2-4) to dry my hair this way, it is so much straighter and shinier when I do. I was happily surprised. After this, I took a small section of my hair at the front of my part and braided it. In my mind the braid would look good on its own but it fell down in front of my face and was awkward. So, I took two bobby pins and pinned it back. It was very simple and very cute! Success! Now I just need to find many other things like this I can do. Hopefully I will find the patience and talent to learn to efficiently (and effectively) curl my hair. We will see.
I don't think it will become a regular thing for me to blog about my hair experiences every day, but I have been thinking about appearance a lot lately. Like I said last night (I think) I have never put much effort into my appearance. I am lucky enough that I can just blowdry my hair and it looks good. This is really a very good thing because otherwise my hair would be socially unacceptable every day. I honestly don't know what I would do if I were one of those people who had to straighten their hair every day. I guess you get used to it but I think it would drive me crazy. So like I said: lucky. But because of never having to do anything, I have never really learned. I go through periods where I think I'm going to start curling my hair every day so it "learns" the shape. This lasts 3-4 days at most.
I also have days where I think I'm going to start doing my makeup. This happens 1 day at most because it makes me nervous. This year, I wore foundation a lot and I sometimes did mascara too. But that's the extent of my routine. (And it has completely died this summer. Gone.) Again, this is partially because I never have cared that much about doing my makeup and partially because all the different products and brands and techniques intimidate me. Like my mom said, I lack the girl gene.
However, as I get older I need to start putting more effort into my appearance. Not that I need to become obsessed with it, but that it is important to appear professional and put-together.
This morning, I woke up 25 minutes before my alarm went off. So as I had a little extra time, I thought I'd read a couple posts one a Baha'i blog I follow. I don't read this blog every day, but I have subscribed to its RSS feed on my Apple Mail so all the new posts pop up there. I haven't read it for a while, so I was scrolling through posts and saw one labeled "Appearances," which interested me because of my current hair predicament. Now, most of the blog post is about things being different than they appear, but near the end he wrote these two paragraphs:
But on a different level, the Master gives a lot of importance to appearances. He said that Baha'i cemeteries should be extremely beautiful, and "that the graves should not be joined together but that each one should have a flower bed around its four sides." He changed His shirt a few times a day so as to never have stained clothing. Baha'u'llah, Himself, in the Kitab-i-Aqdas, has laws about our physical appearance. He even states, "Should the garb of anyone be visibly sullied, his prayers shall not ascend to God, and the celestial Concourse will turn away from him." This is how important appearances are. (Wow. I guess I should wash those pants of mine with the grass stains.)
In terms of our daily life, we are even told that we should not do things that give the appearance of prejudice, or infidelity, or other sorts of immoral behaviour. Note that not only shouldn't we do these things, but we shouldn't even give the appearance of doing them.
Now, the second paragraph is one I want to talk about later in regards to alcohol, but I thought the line "Should the garb of anyone be visibly sullied, his prayers shall not ascend to God, and the celestial Concourse will turn away from him" very interesting. I guess it is the same idea as when people say that everything you do should glorify God. If you truly love God and want to glorify Him, everything you do should be in his honor meaning that you should put your best effort into everything. I am having a hard time articulating exactly what I want to say, but I think that the basis is that, through seeing you, other non-believers would see His glory in you and that is a way of finding God. I hope that makes sense.
Anyway, what started off as innocent musings about doing my hair has turned into something much deeper. Maybe I am taking it too far. Or, maybe I really should put more effort into curling my hair!
Caitlin
EDIT (6/28 at 8.56pm):
I wanted to add pictures of what I actually did with my hair today cause I like it.
When I started doing my workout and needed a ponytail, it worked for that too which was great.
Like I said, super simple. No one other than me will be impressed with it, but that's okay.
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