‘Always travel in braids’ is a little diddy born out of living room laughter with my friends Claire, Livie and Melissa in our early twenties. Knowing how to French braid, I was always the hair braider. Braids were most often requested before nice occasions, before going out on the town, hot dates, or parting ways for a trip. Whatever it was, braids always served as a ritual to prepare oneself. One afternoon before we said our goodbyes and as I finished fastening the last hair tie, someone said ‘always travel in braids’ and our mantra was created.
It’s always stuck with me, especially after moving across the country alone. I’m often missing my friends and the act of braiding their hair. ‘Braiding Sweetgrass, Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants’ by Robin Wall Kimmerer has been a well traversed book for me this year, and early on is the passage “There is such tenderness in braiding the hair of someone you love.” I think about my Mom braiding my hair, teaching me how to French braid by watching her weave my sisters and cousin’s hair, and my older sisters playing with my hair. And I think about how I braided my friends’ hair so often before we’d go out, and in my more impatient days wondering why they wouldn't just learn how to do it themselves, but realizing the request was really about the comforting and sacred experience that is shared between the braider and the braided; the sisterly act of imparting one’s feminine strength to another. I think about practicing braids on my hair, and figuring out that I made the best braids often when I wasn’t looking with my eyes but seeing with my fingers. Braiding is a rhythm, and the best ones are produced in a good flow state. The ones with the most kinks are reflective of a struggling process where you’re holding too tight or trying too hard. When this happens, the best thing is to find your breath and start over again.
Traveling in braids isn’t just for us long-haired folks. One can ‘travel in braids’ by enacting any sort of intentional grounding ritual before they go. Maybe it’s wearing a certain ring or pair of earrings, a scent, saying an affirmation or singing a song you love with friends. You know what makes you feel your sunshiney best! But if you do have long hair, try it. Be present in your intentions with each weave, and see how ya feel.