Soft pleasures that come on little cat feet
Thinking of yesterday’s wonderfully sensuous embodiment…
As I was getting dressed the other morning, something lightly tickled against my hip. Since I’ve been letting my hair grow, I’ve gotten used to the delicate sensation of the occasional shed hair falling, so without thinking I absently brushed away the tickle. For the first time when doing so, however, I felt a light yank on my head. It took me a second to register, in my surprise: my hair has actually grown such that the longest straggling strands are finally reaching my hips!
This was a pleasant surprise, especially since those longest parts were only just brushing my waist six months ago. Since then the mass of my hair has filled out so that most of my hair, when unbound, easily reaches my waist. Woohoo! Hips now — past the derriere someday soon! :)
A friend asked me why this was such a big deal to me. After some thought I mentioned that I’d never before had really long hair in my life. My mother’s hair is extremely curly, so she’s always kept it in an attractive short swirl about her face. My father wanted us to have short hair because, if I’m remembering rightly, he thought women who let their hair hang in their face — in order to appear sexy and seductive? — simply looked messy. Consequently when we did have longer hair, my sister and I were required to keep it tied well back. As a young girl, I was acutely embarrassed by what a “peanut-head” (thank you, Claudia Christian, for that wonderful phrasing!) I looked like with my hair tied so sternly back.
I’ve still got an intense dislike of hair dangling in and tickling my face, in fact. Of course, thinking about it now, it’s equally possible that simple pragmatism is the basis of this dislike. Hair flying about in the wind and whipping your face while you’re trying to ride a horse is an incredible annoyance! For much of my life, in fact, I could have joined the Marines — if the only criterion for joining were the length of one’s hair. :)
In college for the first time, I let my hair grow again, but I had no real idea how to take care of it. At most I knew to tie it back in a pony tail, so when it inevitably tangled I’d yank my brush irritably through it — and so of course it frazzled and split like mad. The longest I ever got it to grow was about 6″ below the top of my shoulder. I had no idea that was my fault, so I just gave up on it and kept it shorter. However, I’ve recently realized there’s more to this hair-growing than I’d initially realized. For me, oddly enough, it has become a sort of personal marker of my spiritual journey.
This occurred because about four or five years ago now, two things happened: I started a Master’s program at Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (now known as Sofia University), and I stumbled across a website owned by a woman who consciously and deliberately defied social expectations. I can’t find the site any more now, unfortunately, but I remember she was a strong social liberal, a staunch gun owner, and had a few other wonderfully curious things about her — one of which was that she had exceptionally long hair. In the photos it reached to mid thigh on her, which impressed me. Further, she had simple instructions on her website on how to grow one’s hair, so on a whim I started to follow them. I still didn’t know what to do with my hair when it wasn’t neatly wound up in a bun, but what the heck… might as well try letting it grow again, you know?
So without really thinking about it, my hair started lengthening as I worked my way through the personally truly life-changing Women’s Spirituality Master’s program at ITP. Further, just before Winter Solstice of 2012 I finished two years of classes required before writing one’s dissertation. This was for the PhD in Women’s Spirituality at the California Institute of Integral Studies, though unfortunately I cannot recommend this program as unreservedly as I do the one at ITP. Nevertheless, slowly but surely I feel my personal understanding and spiritual growth continues to grow and enrich my life — as does the length and fullness of my hair. It’s a small thing… but it makes me happy. :)
I don’t know where the photo is, Lou! Re the kitty: don’t tempt me, guy! :)
What, no links to pictures? =)
I will also admit, when I read the title, I thought, “A kitty?”