Call Forth from the Deep

By Arlene Embola and Felicia L. Hamilton

Undoing generations of erroneous practices call for change to the most powerful tool known to mankind, the mind. Only through a "Transformation" can true change take place. Far too long, man has damaged himself by his hurried acceptance of what can be done for him, with some "miracle" product and remaining ignorant to that which is already within him.

Examining one specific area- the hair- brings to remembrance for some or all:

Sitting between Mama's legs while she oiled your hair. Mama didn't know better.

Going to the salon to have your curly hair fried straight. The stylist didn't know better.

Using over-the-counter products and then demanded a stylist fix it. You didn't know better.

Discover how to revel in your crowning glory.

Learn how to replace the generations of erroneous practices, and "Call Forth From the Deep" your true beauty.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jun 13, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477208892

Arlene Embola

Cosmetologist and Educator Arlene Embola, radically explores hair care with a refreshingly new and insightful approach. She is married with four daughters and is currently stylist/owner of Transformation Salon de Coiffure in Columbus, Georgia.

Book preview

Contents

The Reason

The Business

Call Forth From the Deep

The ministry

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

A Letter to Destiny

Chapter 5

The prayer ministry

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

A Mad Scientist

Chapter 8

Dearest Purpose

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Free at Last

Remembering …

Meet Destiny

The Answer

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Behind the Mirror

References

Dedication

Special Thanks

In His hands are the deep places of the earth...

—Psalm 95:4a

The Reason

For as long as I can remember, I hated my hair. It was, in my opinion, fine, nappy and extremely difficult to manage. I suffered from low self-esteem when I was a child, because I was not one of the girls who had what we called good hair. When I looked in the mirror, I saw the opposite of good.

I tried many chemicals to deal with my uncontrollable mane, including the jerry curl and relaxer. Both of these chemicals caused a lot of damage and made a bad situation worse.

After years of relaxing my hair, one day a friend recommended that I pay a visit to Arlene Embola at Transformation Salon de Coiffure.

During my consultation, I was immediately blown away by Arlene’s passion for hair. She had this beautiful smile on her face as she slowly moved her fingers through my hair and spoke about the wonderful texture God had blessed me with. Are you serious? In all my life I had never heard anyone talk about my hair in such a positive way. For a moment I thought perhaps she had lost it.

Arlene described how my hair would be if I went through the Transformation. After a lot of encouragement from Arlene, I decided to give it a try and slowly rid my hair of the relaxer and other harmful products.

The process was not easy, but it was worth it. After several months, I finally became relaxer-free. Recently, someone asked me how I made it through the difficult Transformation process. Initially, I was not sure how to answer the question, until it finally hit me. During one of my most difficult hair days prior to the total Transformation, I vented my frustrations to Arlene. Instead of focusing directly on my hair, Arlene began to talk about the Book of Genesis. She talked about how God created the heaven and the earth and everything in-between. Arlene quoted Genesis 1:36 by saying, And when God saw everything He made, He said, behold, it was very good. She told me that no matter how I may like or dislike my hair from day to day, the fact remains, God created me in His image and everything about me – even my hair – was very good in His sight.

Today, I love my hair, and I owe it to Arlene Embola for having the courage to obey God and help women like me see that indeed our hair is good. Very good.

Janice Mitchell

Everything is connected to everything.

- Anonymous

The Business

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Call Forth From the Deep

Introduction

When you know better, you do better. I can remember my grandmother telling me that. So many life lessons tied to one simple sentence. As universal as the saying is, it often gets lost in translation. The saying would be more accurately delivered, When you know better, you do well. As you read this book, you will discover that the advent of Black women going natural is more complex and transforming than the surface embracing of her blackness or the fed up attitude with relaxers. Simply put, I do well by my hair, now that I know better. I am no longer defining who I am by my hair in the way many define me by my skin color, for I now know the awful misunderstandings that accompany this definition. There are significant reasons Black women are now embracing their extremely curly texture, as we like to call it. No longer is she opting to chemically alter her hair texture or enhance her appearance by wearing weaves and lace-front wigs or jump from hairstylist to hairstylist because none seem to curb hair breakage once and for all. No more will she take vitamin supplements to stem hair loss when it is falling out or shedding at a frighteningly abnormal rate. She now knows better, because she dared to take the journey to the depth of her roots. Yes, the actual hair roots and the roots of who she is, where she came from, what she believes, and what she is willing to face and change. So, she is about to do well.

When reflecting on your life, you can probably identify a gazillion instances when hindsight was 20/20. You think about those experiences, sigh, and wonder what life would be like if you could turn back the hands of time. But the reality is, you cannot. Time goes on. It does not stand still, even though you may be at a stand-still. The truth of the matter is, time waits for no man. Life is ever changing and evolving. Life makes its demand to move on or move out of its way. Now answer this question: Are you evolving as well? Clarity comes through proper assessment. We welcome you to journey with us as we launch into the deep.

Is your mindset the same as it was fifteen, ten, five years, or even one year ago? Where were you? What were you doing? Have you grown? Can you measure your growth? Have you done a self-evaluation? Are you in a better situation, state of mind, or circumstance? Have you peaked? Are you rolling along? Are you stuck or sliding backwards? Overwhelmed?

If you have tapped your full potential, you can close this book. If you are still growing, you can continue reading. If you have not grown, you have lost years of potential, years of growth, and years of personal, professional and community achievements. As a matter of fact, I will dare to say, you buried years of your life.

This is a great time to apply the When you know better, you do well theory. You see, once you have asked yourself the question, What the heck are you doing? you are now forcing your subconscious to become a more conscious presence in your life. What was in the back of your mind has the opportunity to surface to the front. It is high time to begin. Trust me on this: Starting is definitely very uncomfortable. It resembles a dose of castor oil, for it’s hard to swallow, but it’s a darn good cleanser in the end! Pun intended.

As we continue this journey and explore what exactly got us to a place where we messed up, got backed up, stopped up, mad and close to erupting, we will give ourselves that long overdue dose of castor oil that the subconscious mind has been yearning for. We, the authors, intend to step on some toes, ignite some flames, ruffle some feathers, bring forth some not-so-great memories, and conjure up others that were long ago forgotten but bring a smile to the soul. Our