Crowning Your Strength: The Sacred Journey of Growth and Healing

June 9, 2026 | Crowning Your Strength | By: Dr. Nakia Davis, RN

There is a powerful relationship between our external journeys and our internal evolution. Often, the changes we make to our physical appearance are outward reflections of the quiet, roaring battles taking place within our souls.

Next week marks a deeply significant personal milestone for me: my 11-year loc anniversary. But to understand the beauty of where my crown rests today, I have to take you back to where this journey began.

Years ago, when my late husband, Ronte, was living, I wore a full, beautiful Afro. It was a style he loved, and it represented a particular season of my life. But a year after his sudden passing, as I navigated the raw and devastating layers of grief, survival, and all the complicated emotions that accompany profound loss, I made a choice.

I decided to loc my hair.

At the time, it was a decision born from grief, transformation, and perhaps a small act of reclaiming my own identity during a season when so much felt beyond my control. I knew it was a style Ronte had never particularly preferred, but something within me felt called to begin again.

In scripture, we read about Samson and Delilah. Delilah waited until Samson was resting—in a place of complete vulnerability—to cut his hair and strip away the symbol of his strength. When loss strikes, it can feel exactly like that. It catches us when we are unprotected, cutting away the life we knew and leaving us feeling powerless and exposed.

But I chose to see my hair differently.

I resolved that as my locs grew, so would I on my journey through grief. Every twist, every loc, and every inch of new growth became a physical manifestation of healing. Every stage of the journey reminded me that growth does not stop simply because our hearts are broken.

What began during one of the darkest seasons of my life became a sacred testimony. Over the last eleven years, I have watched my locs mature, lengthen, and strengthen. In many ways, they have mirrored the exact work the Holy Spirit was doing within me—patiently transforming sorrow into wisdom, pain into purpose, and grief into grace.

Today, my locs are more than a hairstyle. They are a visual reminder that healing is not an event; it is a process. They remind me that even when life changes us forever, we can still grow, flourish, and become something beautiful.

The ultimate lesson of Samson’s story is that while his hair served as an outward symbol of his covenant, the true source of his strength was never his hair—it was always the Spirit of God within him.

That is the testimony I carry today.

My locs bear witness to more than a decade of survival, healing, faith, and resilience, but they do not define me. They simply remind me, every single day, that the strength to rebuild, bloom, and begin again was placed inside of me by the Creator long before I ever recognized it myself.

Your crown—whatever it looks like today—is a testament to your endurance. Whether your growth is visible to the world or known only to God, it matters. It is proof that you survived what tried to break you.

And just like a crown, your strength was never meant to be hidden.

Wear it boldly.

With Strength and Grace,

Dr. Nakia Davis, DHA, MSN, BSN, RN
Founder, Strength In Her