Is a woman's hair her beauty?

I am one of those women who was raised to believe I am beautiful and that good character should surpass good looks. I have always been a free spirit, creative and spontaneous and as I moved from childhood to adult hood, that persona stayed with me. It extended from my play school and concerts of one to my clothing and hair. I never felt restricted in my self-expression. I felt my personality made me a woman and not my hair.

 I have done it all from jerri curl, relaxer, afro, cornrows, weaves, wigs,dyes. You name it, I have done it. I never saw myself as unsure of who I was or not knowing my worth as a woman, just like a painter paints on a canvas or a fashion designer puts his art in gowns, my hair was my creative signature.

Then came the day I went to the barber and cut it all off.
Medication had weakened my hair and thus the constant pressure of styling left my strands damaged, so why not chop and start again? Besides, I always wanted to try a mohawk.

I was quite alarmed when two men in the barber shop broke into conversation that they hated to see a woman with low cut or no hair and how it was the most ugly thing in the world. Why would God, they went on, give a woman long natural beautiful hair and she chop it all off?

I didn't notice them as they rambled on. One went on to say he had a girlfriend who cut her hair one day and he kicked her out. "She shouldn't be looking like no man."
"A woman's hair is her beauty, she loses it she loses that." the other agreed.
It was funny to me, for God gave men hair too, didn't he? So why did they cut theirs? Who set the standard that men should have hair cuts and not women? He gave them beards too, why didn't they let them grow?  And did these two men stop to consider that I (God forbid) may have had a medical condition that forced me to remove my hair before they started getting all upset over something that was not their business or in their control?

But it did make me think and do some research, to indeed find out that many men believed that theory of a woman's beauty being in her hair. So what if cancer takes her hair? would she no longer be the same woman? Would her value and character now diminish? Would she now be undesirable?

If a man lost an arm or leg, would he no longer be a man?

I am surprised to see the number of men that constantly complain women are materialistic and superficial when many men are the same. Women are being fed these ideals and living with low self worth due to their intent on pleasing men who only see them as trophies to be conquered and not a character, a spirit and a soul to be cherished.

When my cut was done I made a big show of myself, oohing and aahing in the mirror while they made disgusted faces.



No one sets the standard for me but ME.
Anyone who thinks I am ugly, that's their problem, I have enough of my own.
 What attracts one person will surely repel another, but at the end of the day, a real man should seek character in a woman above all else. 
If he doesn't - he ain't grown.

Hair or no hair, ladies, you are beautiful, and if you don't believe you can be - just ask Amber Rose and Chrisette Michelle (and I could go on and on and on).