What happens...

when I straighten (or attempt to straighten) my hair? I've tried it a few times (on very rare, random occasions) but today was the first time I actually got pictures. After washing my hair this morning I decided to try blow drying it and then taking the straightener to it (a process that took somewhere around half an hour -maybe a bit more - less time than I expected but more time than I like to spend on my hair). In the end I got it mostly straight for a very short time. These pictures were taken just a little while after I finished and as you can see my hair's not even completely straight here! It got curlier as time went on. :)

 

  

 

My mini Lilla Rose clip (lillarose.biz/CurlyFashion)

  For a long time there's been a question in my mind: why is it that so many girls with straight hair want curly hair so badly, and yet the majority of curly girls (at least those that I've seen) do everything they can to tame and straighten those beautiful curls that are the envy of every other girl out there? 

  When I was little I always wanted curly hair. When I was very little I didn't have curly hair, it was fine and straight. But it wasn't long before my hair became a frizzy, tangled, unmanageable mess.  I remember loving to twist my hair around my fingers so it would have a sort of curl, and wishing my hair were curly. Little did I know that it really was, which was why we had so much trouble brushing it out and getting to do what we wanted! Then my lovely oldest sister (who, btw, always had the hair that I loved!) read a book that changed my life - at least where it comes to hair: Lorraine Massey's "Curly Girl: the Handbook" (Disclaimer: the book in the link is a newer, updated version that I have yet to look through - though I'm hoping to get my hands on it one of these days). Fab Sis read the book and sent me an email telling me to read the book and try the things Lorraine said. I was 14 at the time and ready for my hair to be pretty, instead of such a mess. So I borrowed the book (either from the library or from my sister, I can't remember which) and started an experiment that turned into my every day routine.  So after about 14 years of wishing for beautiful hair instead of the frizzy hair I had, I found out how to wear it in a way that was beautiful, and the way God intended my hair to be! So why try to straighten it now? God created each of us special and unique and yet I look around and see so many girls and women trying to look like society says we should (which, btw, changed constantly!) instead of the way our Creator made us! Why? God made us beautiful! No one else looks like me! And I don't look like anybody else. I am Hannah Grace. I was created to serve and bring glory to my Creator. And the best way to do that is to accept the way He made me. Who am I to say "God, I don't like the way You made me. I'm going to change this or this about me."    

  "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well."  Psalm 139:14

  So my challenge to all of you who might be struggling with anything about your looks: accept how God made you and just be you! Don't look at the magazines and pictures of celebrities for the way you should look (those pictures are mostly edited anyway!). God made you perfect and beautiful as only He can! Don't try to change His creation!