The Wildness of Hair

A woman who had been living outside for a good while asked for help with her hair.

The homeless outreach team from Street Angels knew her. They had brought her supplies and food for many months. But she had never talked about her hair before.

Her long blond hair was a wild, thick, tangled nightmare. Impossible to straighten out. impervious to a brush or shampoo or conditioner. It was a giant ball of frayed, gummy, webbed twine.

So, naturally, because Street Angels thinks this way, they found a hair salon that would deal with the blond woman’s hair. Two stylists spent six hours gently pulling and combing and untangling and, when they were done, they gave her beautiful straight hair a nice trim and she posed for pictures. She is smiling in the pictures – not a lot, just slightly. She is glad, that is the look on her face.

I thought this was the greatest thing I’d seen in years. I loved it so much.

I wanted this woman to wake up this morning and run her fingers through her hair. I wanted her to twirl her hair up on top of her head and fix it with a clip. Or pull it back in a ponytail that she could pull through a baseball cap. I wanted her to loop her long hair over her ears to get it out of the way. Fling her head back to give it a shake. I wanted her to look at herself when she walked past a McDonald’s window and see her mane of hair trailing behind her.

I wanted her to know she is beautiful. That she always was.