I just couldn’t think of any more subtle way to title this post. The cold, hard truth is that I don’t care for hot hair dryers. I try to avoid them at all costs. There is nothing about sitting under a hood that blasts intense heat into my hair and scalp for an hour that sounds remotely attractive to me.
Sure, there have been a couple occasions, on a particularly cold day, when the warmth felt good . . . for about 10 minutes – but then I just got hot – sweating bullets and using the palm of my hand to fan my scorched face. You’ve seen it before – pink plastic rollers, covered with a hair net, smashed underneath that wide dome. A steaming bolt of hot hair always seems to find its way to that sensitive spot on the skin at the nape of your neck well before your hair is dried. Just flat out painful.
OK . . . I get it.
Hair dryers work. My hair stylist keeps trying to convince me to allow her to try some styles on me that require a hair dryer to finish off. She assures me that there are some new, fabulous hair-do’s awaiting me if I’ll just take the heat. But I keep putting her off – nicely of course – but firmly indeed. She’s been honest with me; this thick hair of mine would take no less than 1 hour, if not a bit more, to fully dry if set in rollers or twists under the hood.Yet, I know the reality – to set some patterns firmly in place you have to apply heat. Without that drying effect, the curls or coils you are trying to achieve would take a full night sleep or even a full couple days (in my case) to achieve the same thing that 1 hour under that hood can accomplish.
Sometimes, the only way to get the task done efficiently and suitably is . . . to take the heat.
I’m thinking the Lord allows “the heat” for much the same reason my stylist does –to cement a pattern, re-mold a mission, reinforce a new configuration that might take longer without it. I’ll admit it, I’m not a fan of life’s “heat” much more than I am a fan of the kind in my local salon but . . . they both seem to get the job done.
Changing.
Conforming.
Firming.
Securing.
Setting.
Establishing.
Creating.
Finishing the work that has been started. The heat. . .. . . it makes God’s work look good on us. So tell me . . . how are you handling “the heat” in your life right now?
Priscilla
