“Dye-ing to oneself – Testament by Kanzensakura

silverfox

The following is a comment conversation between me and Kanzensakura via Say it with flowers.

kanzensakura: What a nice post! I too am a silver fox – at least I like to think so! My mother says, that after I wash my long hair,  blow it dry, and it is all full and glisten white that I look like one of those wild Japanese demons. So I’m sticking with silver fox.

seeker: Japanese demons have long black hair. Yes, kanzen silver fox, stick to this one!

kanzensakura: Some do have the long white hair. It’s crazy. I started getting white hair when I was 20.

seeker: You must be my long-lost sister! Me, too. Spent lots of dinero to stay blue-black and then I decided, enough. The rest is history.

kanzensakura: I was in hospital about 6 years ago for cancer treatment and surgery. I had started turning white-haired early and after a few dye sessions, I decided it was not worth the time or the money. My husband and mother freaked because when they came to the hospital room after I had been brought up from recovery room, my hair was white. I haven’t even thought about dyeing it.

seeker: Hope that the treatment is successful. Not worth it, kanzen. Why hide our singular beauty with false beauty?

kanzensakura: Praise God, I’m cancer free.

I am always amazed when I see people dye their hair, as if it will make them look 20 or 30 still. I know several Asian women in the church I attend who have their hair touched up without fail every month.

One was sick for a while. I saw her before she came to church after her illness and she had an inch of pure white grow-out. She had developed a skin condition and would not be able to have her hair dyed so she was not coming to church until her hair could be – a space of several months.

I smiled and asked her, do you think God doesn’t know what you really look like inside or out?

She looked at me harshly and frowned.

I told her why my hair was white and that I considered it a badge of honor proof that I had been saved from cancer and still had a job to do for God here on earth.

I asked her maybe God is touching you and reminding you, we are all made of dust and to start working for Him in our limited time?

Well, she stopped dyeing her hair. And to be truthful, she looked 20 years older, softer, and more approachable. She became part of a ministry to teenagers, powerful among them and often seems, to be the youngest among them.

seeker: What a wonderful testament. God works in wonderful ways. Love and Prayers to you and yours.

kanzensakura: Thank you

seeker: I am thinking of sharing your comments as testament on faith. Do you mind?

kanzensakura: Not at all because I know it is God, His grace and love that not only did I survive but what is most amazing, is the tumor that was the size of a tennis ball and lymph glands that were all infected prior to the surgery; when the MD went in, the tumor had shrunk and the lymph glands were clean.

My mother and husband said when he came to them after surgery, he was so amazed and kept thinking of scans and x-rays earlier.

They knew a miracle had occurred. I truly do praise God for His love for me.

seeker: God is good, all the time!

kanzensakura: Amen

” When a woman ceases to alter the fashion of her hair, you guess that she has passed the crisis of her experience.” Mary Hunter Austin   The Land of Little Rain,’The Basket Maker’.

“Now also when I am old and gray headed, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.” Psalms 71:18