What's in a Look?

We all spend so much time getting caught up in our looks especially as we get older. We notice the simplest little things even though quite frankly they may have been there all along. My latest dilemma has been my hair. I really like the R & B artist India Arie but I am certainly not at the level of spiritual clarity that I could proclaimed such thoughts as “I am not my hair". Over the past year I have lost a lot of my hair it basically went from shoulder length to just below my ear. I really miss it. It was a combination of the stress of getting my MBA full-time along with managing a graduate assistant position, running my company, dealing with the fact that my mom just had a stroke, managing a long-term relationship on the brink topped with a dash of over-processing.

Being in fashion I feel that it's important for me to have my own look, something that defines me and my style. I finally felt that I had gotten to a point of doing that with my hair but now, it's all gone. Last week Saturday, I met a friend for tea and we were talking about my hair challenges; shedding versus heathly, natural compared to permed, style versus no style and I realized how much the whole thing was affecting me. It has literally pierced my spirit. It's not that I think that long hair is better than short or visa versa. It's that I never made the choice to actually change my look. But I guess that's what happens as time goes on, we change our looks, our personality and even our friendships and often times without making the choice but by reacting to something that has already happened.

This incident has taught me among many things, to be flexible and adapt to change because you never know when it's coming. I'm sure over the next few weeks; I'll figure out a new look that works and that I'll be just as happy with at least until it all grows back. But I know for sure my hair is a part of my fashion, my style, and my personality. And while I am not my hair, my hair is surely a significant part of me. What's in a look? Well, I guess it's whatever the parts are that define you. Ultimately, you can choose. What's in your look?