When I was growing up there was a woman at church who always dressed beautifully. She never followed fashion trends. She wore long full skirts when short skirts were in style. She wore knee high boots when ankle boots were all the rage. And yet all of her clothes blended together into one beautiful whole. She was classy and I admired her for that. I decided I wanted to be like that. I want to be someone who always looks classy without looking trendy.
Recently I’ve come to express this with my hair. It has grown long. Right now it reaches the middle of my back, which is as long as it has ever been. I’m hoping it grows even longer. But just having really long hair isn’t enough. For me, the point of having long hair is the fun hairstyles I can do. Because of this, and because I can’t stand my hair getting in the way, I usually braid my hair and pin it up. This is easy for me to do, and probably takes less time than the blowdrying and styling that other women do, but it looks really impressive. I frequently get comments asking me if I do my hair myself. I love that, because it means I’ve succeded. Putting my hair up for the day makes me feel a connection to generations of women before me who did the same. Short hair on women has only been acceptable for about 90 years.
In short, I feel myself becoming the person I dreamed of being. That makes me glad. And maybe at church there is another young girl who will watch me and make similar decisions for herself, but express them in her own way. That would make me glad too.
This was very nice to read. I’m coming to try to do the same thing, though for different reasons. My figure is very much not suited to today’s fashions, so rather than wear dresses that don’t fit right and look awkward on me, I’ve started to have my husband make more medieval style dresses for me. (Poor guy-I’ve started talking about having him make pants for me. At this rate, it’s only a matter of time before he’s making all my clothes for me. 😉 While at this point, I feel a bit out of place because what I’m wearing is so different, it looks so much better on me that there’s no way I’m going back to try to follow trends even as little as I did. Far better to find a personal style, hair, clothing, whatever, and look nice and modesst and yourself.
I think I’ve wandered a bit away from where your post was going, but oh well. 🙂
This was very nice to read. I’m coming to try to do the same thing, though for different reasons. My figure is very much not suited to today’s fashions, so rather than wear dresses that don’t fit right and look awkward on me, I’ve started to have my husband make more medieval style dresses for me. (Poor guy-I’ve started talking about having him make pants for me. At this rate, it’s only a matter of time before he’s making all my clothes for me. 😉 While at this point, I feel a bit out of place because what I’m wearing is so different, it looks so much better on me that there’s no way I’m going back to try to follow trends even as little as I did. Far better to find a personal style, hair, clothing, whatever, and look nice and modesst and yourself.
I think I’ve wandered a bit away from where your post was going, but oh well. 🙂
How cool! So many times women don’t like the way they look in the current fashion trend and decide to change their bodies rather than their clothes. If the clothing looks great on you no one will notice that it isn’t trendy.
How cool! So many times women don’t like the way they look in the current fashion trend and decide to change their bodies rather than their clothes. If the clothing looks great on you no one will notice that it isn’t trendy.
VIVE LE REVOLUTION!
VIVE LE REVOLUTION!
hair and the rituals associated therewith
the image I have of my mother always includes long heir. She hasn’t worn it longer than shoulder-length in a good 25 years, but one forms these images when one is young. So that’s how I remember her.
Her hair had been hip-length before I was born, but that became impractical. 😉 So when she got it cut off, she had a hairpiece made from it so that when she went to church or to special events, she could still wear it up in any number of interesting ways.
My six-year-old daughter and I have a ritual after her baths – I braid her hair (which is now halfway down her back – it would be longer but for an unfortunate glue incident in preschool). she thinks I do it better than her mother does. Which is odd, because my wife used to wear her hair long and braided (long before I met her, but I’ve seen pictures) and I’d never braided anyone’s hair before.
hair and the rituals associated therewith
the image I have of my mother always includes long heir. She hasn’t worn it longer than shoulder-length in a good 25 years, but one forms these images when one is young. So that’s how I remember her.
Her hair had been hip-length before I was born, but that became impractical. 😉 So when she got it cut off, she had a hairpiece made from it so that when she went to church or to special events, she could still wear it up in any number of interesting ways.
My six-year-old daughter and I have a ritual after her baths – I braid her hair (which is now halfway down her back – it would be longer but for an unfortunate glue incident in preschool). she thinks I do it better than her mother does. Which is odd, because my wife used to wear her hair long and braided (long before I met her, but I’ve seen pictures) and I’d never braided anyone’s hair before.