Hair

If any of you have by accident seen the musical Hair, this post has nothing to do with it.

Fashion in hair has become a major part of fashion shows. Trends in new cuts and colours have given rise to many magazines being published. I think celebrities have set some of the trends, like Lady Diana (back in the 80's)

More recent trends were set by Victoria Beckham (OK, it's the first one that came to mind)

For a few more ideas...

If I look at a biblical perspective of hair, there are several passages that have often been taken at face value, not taking into consideration the cultural background they were written in. For example.... 1 Corinthians 11:6, 14 and 15, 1 Timothy 2:9 and 1 Peter 3:3. The references are about women mainly, and that hair is their crowning glory, except when she prays, then her head needs to be covered - according to the passage in Corinthians. Unfortunately / fortunately times have changed and we do not live under law, but under grace. I think verse 13 gives a good indication : Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? If we can judge for ourselves, then surely there is a place for the change of tradition and culture. For men, the rule is to let their hair be groomed - according to passages in Leviticus as well as uncovered when praying.

If our beauty is wrapped up in our hair, then 1 Peter 3 gives a great warning: be careful that your outward beauty does not consume you, but let your inner beauty shine.

Orange

This is more difficult than I thought. There are no matches for the word "Orange" in the Bible. But I think that there are some implied references just by the amount of sunsets and sunrises that are mentioned.

 

Also, one can link it up to "fire" of which there are a number of references. (437 in fact) 

Another aspect, I suppose is the fact that it refers to a fruit. Unfortunately, the orange is also linked with orange peel, which links it up with beauty and plastic surgery on a completely different level of interpretation.

Coming to orange fashion, it seems that orange is quite the colour this summer - although these trends will hit South Africa only next time around i.e. at the end of the year. Still, I think it is a very versatile colour and will suit most people's skin. 

Speaking of skin colour: the colouring of skin is divided according to seasons - so Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Each has their respective colour scheme that goes best with hair, skin and eyes. So, for Autumn (which I am), this is the basic palette: Taken from this website.

There are some greys and darker browns that will work just as well. If you want to have your own analysis done, go the website above and try it out.

After all that linking you had to do, let me summarise. Orange, like all the colours of the rainbow enriches our lives in that provides for more shades to be produced. It is part of God's creation and without it the world would be rather dull. Who can imagine a sunrise/sunset without it?

The life of a Fashion Designer

If you ever thought that the life of a fashion designer was glamorous, think again....
 While I'm doing this (fitting)

 and this: (finishing off hem and zip)

 This definitely does NOT get done:

I did not take a picture of all the threads on the floor, that might just be overkill, but you get the idea.

Yellow

After contemplating yellow for a while, I did a Bible search, thinking that the colour would be mentioned in relation to the sun or radiance, but quite the opposite was true. There are only four references actually, three of which were quite yukky. The fourth had to do one of the beasts of revelation and the yukky smell of sulphur.

Hmmmm

Why then is it that we think of the sun as yellow, when in biblical terms it is white and pure? Although, when the sun is mentioned, often it relates to harvest and growth as well as sunrises and sunsets as indications of time as well as heat. If you read Ecclesiastes, there is a lot about life "under the sun", meaning life on earth without considering God.

This still does not have anything to do with yellow, right? Correct. Perhaps I read too much into the colour, and thought it had positive connotations, but even, according to Wikipedia, the colour used to be associated with cowardice and jaundice, caution (as on traffic lights) and aging - so not the most pleasing in any way. Also, sulfur is yellow, and we all know what that smells like....

So, fashionistas, for inspiration you can go to Wikipedia and get loads of colour inspiration for the future, although I'm not sure how the colour "Olive" wound up there, is that not a shade of green? Perhaps I also forgot that often yellow is used instead of gold. Now we are getting to positive connotations. The colour also often is associated with happiness, and isn't this what we all want fashion to give us? After all, isn't the Happy Face yellow and a fashion statement at that?

Not sure what else to say. I then did a search for yellow in fashion, and this yielded a few more results, but not quite what I was trying to say. Since this is part of the post about All the Colours of the Rainbow, I think I need to link this up with orange, so that the link with sunsets will become clearer, so until then.....

Plastic Surgery

In light of my trying to re-invent myself, I came across this picture:

 

The sign says: "Plastic Surgery ". 

Unfortunately the three ladies on the right are depicted as stereotypes, but are they really the only ones that are the main customers?

Here is my view on it:
"No matter where you go, you take yourself with you" I think these are the wisest words someone once said to me. I think not only does this apply to when people change work, their church, their place of study, or even countries, but also when people start surgically altering their bodies to become unrecognisable or to become more attractive (what the world views as attraction). No matter how much we change the outside, we still, in essence, are who we are and we still have a fundamental problem - that of sin.

Plastic surgery, like creams, and pills, can lead to addiction, and that is slavery. In the beginning, plastic surgery was used to make people look younger and stem the signs of ageing. Then methods were developed to alter the body with implants of all shapes and sizes and in more places than one, or reduce the areas that people were unhappy with. The film "She Devil" gives a dramatic picture, in the worst possible way of this.

What are people trying to achieve when they change their bodies by surgery? Well, in part, I think we all try to look like someone else, whether it be by dressing in the latest fashions, or using more invasive methods. Whether plastic surgery was made poular by celebrities or others, the fact remains, we can never be another person, no matter how much we change the outside.

I like how the Bible views ageing. It is seen as a crown - the epitomy of life. Grey hair shows that you are highly esteemed, because you have attained wisdom. (Proverbs 16:31, Isaiah 46:4) Also, the older you are, the closer you are to the day that the Lord can call you home. We can wear our age with pride. Also beauty is viewed as coming from other things than exterior looks (1 Peter 3:3)

What about going against what society teaches and strive to be more like us - who we are as individuals that we were created to be? In the process, if we become more like Jesus, we come to reflect His beauty. We can only shine if the fundamental flaw (sin) has been dealt with.