Divine Femininity

There are liminal spaces where time holds no meaning or power, spaces where the hours float by unbound, just out of your grip. The hair salon five minutes away from my house was one of such places. In JSS 2, After a year of transitioning from permed to natural hair, I decided it was time to cut off the perm. It was a hard decision; getting perms every few months made my hair ‘manageable’ and ‘pretty’ but here I was running into unchartered territory. I remember a feeling of dread when I woke up that morning, but over the course of the day, it was replaced by awe. 

As soon I as walked into the salon, the smell of hair products surrounded me, heavy and rich like incense. The hairdressers acted as high priests, standing by each chair, hands weaving rituals only they knew. In one corner, I saw water cascading over someone’s hair like baptism and in the background, the sound of chatter harmonized and rose like prayer. Every woman present was a deity in her own right. I don’t remember much of the process, but I remember the feeling of the ceremony as they passed me from one pair of eager hands to the other. By the time they were done, my hair sat in a curly updo resembling a halo. I looked into the mirror and I had never felt as beautiful as I did in that moment.

In the years to come, I would hear the phrase ‘divine femininity’ used often and it would always make me think back to that day. It was my own decolonization in a way. After years of being told that my hair was ‘nappy’ and ‘ugly’, I could finally see its beauty, and I drew power from that. I questioned the way I was taught to think, speak, and even dress. For the first time, I found myself appreciating who I was as opposed to who I was told to be. This self-realization led me to champion a natural hair movement in my secondary school where natural hair was heavily policed.  

When people refer to natural hair, they call it a journey, but for me, it is a homecoming.  I have kept my hair natural for a total of six years now, And while I don’t go to salons very often anymore, I still feel the aura of liminality and divinity every time I try a new hairstyle.