“So we won’t wash our hair for a whole month?!” I asked my friend and squad-mate Anna. The idea seemed insane.
She had just finished telling me about a “no wash” challenge, in which you don’t wash your hair for a month and then (supposedly) the natural oils in your hair begin to act like shampoo. You rinse it out with water every other day and brush it once a week. I was pretty interested in doing something crazy like this, something that I probably would never do back home in the states.
“I’ll do it if you do!!” Anna said. So we agreed to do this weird and gross challenge together.
We started the no-wash challenge at the beginning of October. It is now November, and we still haven’t shampooed our hair.
My initial reason for doing this challenge was very prideful…I wanted to prove myself and have some sort of bragging rights for doing something many others would never try. Well, it wasn’t a coincidence that I was so intrigued with the idea to begin with, because God is using this to teach me a lesson.
My hair feels like hay. It’s tangled. It’s smelly. It’s full of volcanic ash and dirt. It’s ugly and unattractive. Pieces of it are clumped together, and I’m beginning to have some sort of undesired dreadlocks. Some rich businessman might look my way and turn up his nose with a disgusted face. I don’t have the combed out, styled, shiny, soft, hair-sprayed look any longer. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if a bird confused my hair for its nest and decided to take a nap atop my head.
1 Peter 3:3-4 “Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.”
God is stripping away my focus on outward appearance and helping me concentrate on the beauty from within…desiring more of the “gentle and quiet spirit” that God loves so much. Yes we should shower (when possible) and look presentable. But that shouldn’t be our focus. Our focus should be to please God, not people. And God finds me attractive because of His son Jesus.
I’ve always put so much emphasis on how I appear to people. Before doing the World Race, I wouldn’t pose for a picture before applying lipstick. I would use my hair as a security blanket, hiding behind it, hoping people wouldn’t see the real “me” because my long blonde hair was enough for them to look at. I would settle for shallow relationships as “Barbie” instead of deep relationships as “Rachel.” Not washing my hair for a month has revealed to me more of who I really am…who God my Father says I am, which is His beautiful and loved daughter. I’m ready to embrace my full identity in Him and dive into deeper relationships.
Proverbs 31:30 “Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears The Lord will be greatly praised.”
My challenge for you isn’t to try the no-wash challenge (seriously, don’t…It’s disgusting haha) but to take the lesson I learned from it and apply it to yourself. Check your motivations. An easy way to do this is to ask yourself why you are doing something. For example, if you want to lose weight, ask yourself “why do I want to do this?” And then once you answer the first “why,” ask “why” again. So if your reason to lose weight is to be more healthy, then why do you want to be more healthy. If it’s to please people in any way, ask God to reveal this to you and show you how to please Him instead. Make sure your aim is to please God and not people.
1 Thessalonians 2:4 “…Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts.”
Galatians 1:10 “Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.”
*Side note: I wrote this blog a few days ago, and yesterday I finally washed my hair. It felt very good, but the lesson I learned remains 🙂
