As I have written about before, since the pandemic I have really cut back on the regular beauty things I used to do. I know I could have gone back to doing some of the things I used to do, but I just wasn’t that motivated. Either they didn’t seem as important to me as they used to, I still was a bit cautious about Covid, or I didn’t feel like I needed to do them because I really don’t do as much as I used to. The only thing that I really kept up with was getting my hair done. And I think I’m better about getting my hair done regularly now than before.
But since I knew I would be seeing my family for our Fake Thanksgiving, I wanted to make sure I did what I needed to do to feel my best. Most of the beauty things I used to do wouldn’t matter for this trip (like getting a pedicure when I was going to a cold place and nobody would see my toes). But I did time getting my hair done so I would get my hair dyed right before my trip and it would look the best it could. I actually planned ahead before my last appointment so this one would be exactly 6 weeks after the last one. I try to do my hair every 6-8 weeks, so that would work out perfectly!
Since getting my hair done was the one thing I really kept up with, it does feel a bit more like maintenance than beauty. But there is still a difference in how I feel after an appointment. I know that a lot of people have been growing out their gray hair, but I’m just not there yet. I know I have a lot of gray hair, but it’s not really concentrated in one spot so they seem to just stick out. And most people who are my age and have gone gray usually have patches or streaks which makes it seem more like a style choice. One day, I’m sure I’ll just let go of my feeling about gray hair and let it be. But that’s not how I feel now. So getting my hair dyed and not having to see the grays is still something important to me.
But because my last appointment was only 6 weeks ago, the roots weren’t as obvious as they have been before. And my hair wasn’t looking scraggly so I didn’t need a bit cut. Even a trim helps to make things look polished, so I was very happy with how I looked after my appointment. And I knew that my hair was going to look great when I saw my family.
But going to get my hair done wasn’t all I did before the trip. I also got my eyebrows done for the first time since the pandemic! I used to regularly go to get my eyebrows done. I don’t need it as badly as I did before because I think getting them waxed for a few decades has led to some of the hair follicles dying. But I still like to have a professional do them so they look polished. I also know that I can’t always be trusted with tweezers and I don’t want to overpluck them.
The place I usually go to get my eyebrows done is inside a beauty store in a mall. I don’t normally go to malls, and I certainly hadn’t been in one since the pandemic. It was weird seeing things that felt normal but also not normal at the same time. I know that everyone has different comfort levels with how things are now, and I’m still very cautious. But I wore a mask and I was glad that I didn’t have to go too many places to get to the eyebrow place.
Most of what I needed to be done was to get them shaped. The esthetician did wax my brows to clean them up, but more time was focused on detail work. I appreciated her attention to detail and how she worked with me on what I preferred. And when they were done, my eyebrows looked so nice! It wasn’t a drastic difference compared to what I’ve been able to do on my own, but there’s just something extra when someone else makes things look as good as possible. And I didn’t realize until after the appointment how much I needed this. It really was something that helped me feel so much like myself and I felt just that much more confident about how I looked.
There were plenty of things that were making me nervous about my trip. I had been having a lot of anxiety the week leading up to it. But getting a few different beauty things done before I left really allowed me to spend some time on positive things that were distractions from the nerves.
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