Category Archives: Beauty

Trying More New Beauty Routines In Quarantine (or Anything To Keep Things Interesting)

Posted on December 8, 2020 | Comments Off on Trying More New Beauty Routines In Quarantine (or Anything To Keep Things Interesting)

Since March, I’ve been trying to find things to do to keep me busy. I’ve organized my house more times this year than I have in all the other years I’ve lived here combined. I’ve cleaned a lot. I’ve spent time catching up on tv and books. I’ve found new virtual hangouts to do. I need to fill my time with something and I’m always looking for something to do.

I have done a few things to change my beauty routine this year, but a lot of that has come from what life is like now. I changed my face washing routine because I’m rarely wearing makeup. I haven’t been using heat on my hair because I spend almost every day with my hair pinned back and I don’t care too much about what it looks like. I’ve tried to take more time for self-care practices, including beauty routines because I have the time. Again, it’s just stuff to change up my life a bit and to keep me busy.

My hair has had a journey over my lifetime. When I was younger, I alternated between having short or long hair. It used to be pretty curly but at some point, I feel like it lost the curl. It might have been when I was about 14 and I grew my hair very long. It was so long that I could sit on it. Then I cut it to my chin for no reason. I’ve had a lot of time where there are a lot of bald spots, due to my alopecia. I’ve dyed my hair so many colors (including one time I went blonde). My hair used to be thick, but now it’s thinning. And it’s going gray. I don’t hate my hair, but it’s not as good as I remember it being in the past. And not using heat on my hair has seemed to be doing some good.

But not using heat on my hair also means it isn’t looking that great. It’s almost half straight and half curly. It’s weird how it gets like that. But seeing the curl come back a bit has made me curious about letting my hair be curly again. I know that if it’s curly, sometimes it can seem a bit fuller and not as flat. But I’ve never really had my hair curly as an adult or with longer hair.

I’ve had several friends post about how they are doing the Curly Girl Method during quarantine. Since there might be a time period where your hair is adjusting, doing this when you aren’t going to see people is a good plan. And so many of them have posted amazing photos of what their hair looked like. So I decided to try it myself.

I’m still very early into trying this. I have found a few products to test out and try, but I’m not sure if they aren’t working or if I’m just in that weird time period where my hair is adjusting. But it is much curlier than it’s ever been. I don’t know if it looks healthier yet, but it is interesting to see how much my hair can hold a curl just by changing up my hair routine a bit.

There’s a lot of new stuff I need to learn with letting my hair go curly. And I’m still learning a lot. I’m trying to not do too much at first because I need to see what works and what doesn’t. Also, I don’t want to overwhelm myself with this new process and give up. I really want to give this a chance and see what happens. And if after a while, I really don’t like how my hair looks, I don’t have to keep doing it. I can go back to my old routine at any point. But with so many people saying that it took a month or two before they really noticed a difference, I don’t want to give up before I really try.

I know there are other ways to let my hair stay curly without doing the official stuff from the Curly Girl Method. But this seems to be a good place to start since there is so much information out there from them. And I know there are different forums and groups that I can join to get advice or ask random questions. Plus, since this is how many of my friends have let their hair go curly, I know I can ask them and they are familiar with the method.

Hopefully, in a month or two, I’ll have a better idea of how this goes and if I’m on the right track for letting my hair stay curly. And if I’m hating it, at least I’m not seeing anyone in person so it’s ok if my hair looks awful.

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Doing Some Skincare Basics (or Slowly Changing My Self-Care Routine)

Posted on August 28, 2020 | Comments Off on Doing Some Skincare Basics (or Slowly Changing My Self-Care Routine)

I know that things that used to be routine for me are not necessarily happening right now. Since my schedule has changed so much and I don’t have as much to do each day, I’m not always doing things I used to not think twice about. I had a routine for so much and it was based on what I had to do each day (or what I was going to do the next day if it was a nighttime routine). But now, everything in my routine feels so up in the air.

I’ve written recently about doing some self-care stuff at home. And I’m almost surprised at myself for not doing more self-care things. I’ve got nothing but time right now. I could do a 20 step skincare routine if I wanted to. I could spend hours working on hair, makeup, and my skin. I don’t know if I’ll ever have this amount of free time again in my life. I feel like I should take advantage of that, but that feeling has also made me feel a bit guilty that I haven’t been doing that already. So, just like I have been doing for so many aspects of my life, I am trying to go easy on myself and not feel too bad about any lack of effort.

One of the self-care things I’ve been wanting to do, even before the pandemic, was to revamp my skincare routine. I’ve been using a lot of the same products for a while and I don’t know if I’m actually using enough stuff. I’m usually pretty basic with cleanser, toner, and moisturizer. I’ve added a few random products from time to time and sometimes they stick for a while, but I know that using the same 3 products for the last decade is probably not what I need to be doing. My skin has changed a bit in 10 years and my routine hasn’t.

The hardest part of changing up a skincare routine is that there are too many choices of things to use! It can be overwhelming looking at all the options of just a single type of product. And also, things change based on your skin type. I didn’t want to waste a lot of money testing new products when I have no clue what is going to work for me, what I will like, and what will be something that I can see myself using regularly for a long time. Since the idea of overhauling everything seemed too much for me, I just decided to start with a single product for now. And I picked my nighttime cleanser as the first thing I want to play with.

I haven’t done a lot of testing and experimenting. I’ve only tried 2 new products so far. I will say, I’m grateful for how many products have travel sizes. I am only looking at drugstore products for now, but even those products can get expensive if you buy a lot. But I found 2 cleansers that had travel sizes for only a few dollars so I picked those. They also seemed to be very basic and neutral options so I wasn’t trying something too extreme.

For the last few months, I’ve been pretty lazy when it comes to washing my face at night. I always do it, but I wasn’t taking the care I used to. More often than not, I would use a face wipe before going to bed. I know those aren’t the best to use all the time, plus they create a lot of waste. But my laziness got the best of me and that’s why I started using them more often. But washing my face properly at the end of the night is a nice routine to have to end the day. And feeling like I’ve done something for myself is a good thing to have too. I know I don’t appreciate things I have as often as I should. So treating my skin nicely is a good way to start doing that more often.

I’m still pretty early in testing these products and I’m sure I’ll have to try more and see what happens. This could be an overnight process, but for me, I just don’t think that will be the way I get the results I want. And I don’t need to feel overwhelmed with changing up too much when this process can take a while without it causing issues. So this is just the beginning of it, but at least I started to do something that I have been putting off for too long.

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Self-Care Is So Important (or At-Home Beauty)

Posted on August 13, 2020 | Comments Off on Self-Care Is So Important (or At-Home Beauty)

For the last several months, I rarely leave my house. I know this is for the best and it’s what we all need to do in order to slow the spread of the pandemic. And I’ve complained a lot about staying home and the mental toll that has taken on me. But there are other things I’ve noticed about staying inside that have been getting to me. While I’m not going out and seeing people, I’m not really taking as much care or effort in my appearance.

I’m still doing basic things so it’s not like I have skipped washing my hair for weeks or that I’m not clean. I shower daily, wash my hair regularly, use lotion, and do basic beauty maintenance. And there are some beauty things that I can’t accomplish on my own or do not have the skills to do that I understand I can’t do (I have no talent with doing my own brows or pedicure so I’m not worried about that). I haven’t had my hair cut since March, but I might do a light dusting trim to get some of the split ends off (I have discussed this with a hairstylist so I know what to do and I won’t be really cutting my hair). And I did some at-home color earlier this year because I wanted to cover the grays in my hair.

I really needed to color my hair again, so I did color it at home (with salon color from my stylist) yesterday. It’s still not as good as when it’s professionally done, but it is better than nothing.

And even with the little bit of color that I was able to add to my hair, it made me feel so much better about myself. I haven’t really been making an effort with how I look, and it was getting to me. I hated seeing how many gray hairs were in my hair and how it just didn’t look or feel like me. So getting a bit of a color refresh was something that I really needed to do. I hope that I will be able to have it professionally done the next time I need it, but if not I know I won’t wait as long this time to buy some dye and I’ll do it myself for the third time.

Making an effort with my hair did perk me up a bit. And then I focused a bit on my clothes. Just like with other things, I’m not making much of an effort with my outfits each day. I’m almost always wearing yoga capris and a tank top. I don’t need anything else for just sitting in my house. Technically, I don’t have to even wear that much, but I don’t believe in wearing the same thing all day that you slept in. So I do always change my clothes in the morning. But I’m not feeling cute with what I’m wearing. My outfits feel very utilitarian and not stylish. Part of it is that I know I gained weight and don’t want to try on my clothes because I’m scared of how I’ll feel. But I do need to put more effort into myself.

Just because I’m spending almost all my time alone in my house doesn’t mean I shouldn’t care. I should care about how I feel about myself, even if nobody else sees it. I can dress cute if I want to or make an effort with makeup just for fun. Maybe I should take this time to experiment with makeup and hairstyles because nobody will see my mistakes. I can’t just be in a rut with not caring about myself beyond what needs to be done for hygiene. It’s hard for me to think about doing things for me when I usually make an effort for someone else or because I’m going out to do something fun. But because I don’t see this pandemic ending soon, I need to learn how to practice self-care just for me and not because someone else might be seeing me.

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Sharing Some Resources (or Working On Being Anti-Racist)

Posted on June 4, 2020 | Comments Off on Sharing Some Resources (or Working On Being Anti-Racist)

As I shared the other day, I am coming to terms with how I have never been anti-racist. It’s a very different mindset from what I have had my entire life, but I know that I need to change and I am so grateful that I have friends who have shared some good resources to work on this. One friend also shared that if you haven’t been anti-racist, you likely have had a bit of racism in you. I hated that idea, but the more I thought about it the more that I know it is true.

I don’t make an effort to only give my money to white-run business or to white authors, but that is what I have done if I look at my past. So many books that I love are about white characters. There are a few that are about black characters but often I don’t know that until I’m already partway through the book. If a character isn’t described by their skin color, I default to thinking they are white. And for brands, I usually don’t know who runs a company or pay attention to that. But I now know that black-run businesses don’t get the same opportunities as white-run businesses do so I might not have the chance to buy from them unless I make a little effort. I never was trying to avoid black-run businesses, I just didn’t know that because of many different factors I wasn’t being presented with the chance to buy from them.

Fortunately, during Blackout Tuesday there were so many lists going around with different resources for anyone to look at. There were books about racism or how to become anti-racist. There were lists of black-run beauty companies that many of us hadn’t heard of. There were movies, tv shows, and podcasts that discuss these issues that maybe hadn’t gotten the same publicity that other media had. There are hundreds of lists out there and the ones I am going to share are only a few. I recommend doing a search or looking on social media for more because there are so many out there.

The one thing I saw the most over the past few days was this link to a google doc of anti-racism resources. This has lists of books, videos, podcasts, articles, movies, and tv shows to look at to work on becoming anti-racist. There is also a section for resources of media to help raise anti-racist children. There is also a list of organizations to look at and their social media links so you can follow them on there. Plus they link to more lists of anti-racism resources.

This list from Medium has sections of what to read, listen to, watch, and follow on social media. There is also a section for kids and teens.

If you are going to be buying any books (either from these lists or books in general), this google doc has a list of black-run bookstores. They are listed by state and it includes if they are open for shopping, only doing curbside pickup right now, or only shipping. But there are so many stores you can buy from and I believe the ones that can ship books can ship them anywhere in the country.

Some people may think of black-run beauty businesses as companies that make products specifically for black people. That is not true. Just like how white-run beauty companies don’t just make things for white people (although you might be able to argue that they do, but that’s a very different story). Here are two different lists of companies to look at and you might find a new favorite product! I understand that maybe right now you don’t have money to buy any new products, but you can still look and take notes on what you’d like to buy when you have the money.

And if you want to do a search for black-run businesses in general, I found a few lists that do just that. Here is a list from New York Magazine. Here is the directory for Black Wall Street. And this is the link to Support Black Owned. Again, I know this doesn’t cover all the lists or all the types of businesses, but it is a start.

I’ve also seen lists of black-run restaurants and coffee shops, but I haven’t found a good list that I could share on here that covers more than just Los Angeles. Please do a search online for the lists for your area. Many of them are doing delivery and takeout or curbside delivery, so you can order from them even if restaurants are not open yet for your city.

Some people who believe the response to Black Lives Matter is to say all lives matter might argue that white businesses should get promoted too. But that’s all I’ve done in thousands of posts. I didn’t have to go out of my way to say they were white-run businesses. Unfortunately, that is the default. I am trying to use my voice and my blog to give some opportunity to a large group of businesses that I have not given that same chance to. Yes, people will still shop at white-run businesses and read white authors. I bet that most money will still go to those. But I want to make a conscious effort to not do that with all my money. I want to increase my awareness of businesses that I have not been shopping from in the past and make sure that I don’t fall back into that trap. I know right now everyone is hyper-aware of this issue and will be making efforts. I want to make sure that this change is permanent and not just because it’s such a big issue right now. And I hope that you all will increase your awareness, work on becoming anti-racist, and support more diverse businesses, authors, artists, and creators.

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At Home Hair (or I Haven’t Done This Since I Was A Teenager)

Posted on May 20, 2020 | Comments Off on At Home Hair (or I Haven’t Done This Since I Was A Teenager)

With isolation/quarantine lasting as long as it has, there are a lot of routine things that people are missing out on. Some of them are things that only happen once a year or so (like some doctor appointments or fancy spa days that people might plan), but there are a lot of things that people do regularly that they can’t do right now. And a lot of those things are beauty-related. I don’t do a ton of regular beauty appointments, but I do have a few. I do get waxed once a month (waxing is better for my skin than shaving for my autoimmune disease) and I do miss doing that. I was supposed to go in just as things closed, so it is a little annoying since shaving isn’t an option for me. But at the same time, I’m not seeing anyone so I don’t care too much.

The other regular beauty thing I do is my hair. Haircuts and color something that I have seen a lot of protestors complaining about. And I get it. If you need a haircut or your color looks bad, it’s frustrating that you can’t do much about it. But at the same time, there is no way to keep proper distance while doing someone’s hair. And nobody’s hair is worth risking getting sick or being a carrier and getting someone else sick. I know that not everyone agrees with me, but there are so many other things to worry about than hair.

I was lucky because my hair was done right before things closed. And even though my hair grows quickly, I didn’t care that it was getting longer. Most days, I just pin my hair back so it’s out of my face. Again, I’m not going out so it doesn’t matter how I look. When I need my hair to look good, I can blow dry my hair and style it. When I did my self-tape audition, my hair didn’t exactly look like it does in my headshot. But the casting directors know that nobody can get their hair done right now so hopefully, they aren’t judging us on that.

But the one hair frustration I was dealing with was my hair color. I’ve been going gray for almost 15 years now, but the grays have been significantly worse in the past few years. I do have different products I can use to cover my grays between appointments. And if I needed to look good (like for my audition), I just used those. I don’t like seeing so much gray in my hair, but if that was my biggest issue then I am lucky.

But my friend who did my hair the last time said that she was going to come by with some hair color for me as a gift. I knew a lot of people were buying box color, but I wasn’t going to do that. So to have a friend drop off professional color for me was so nice! She gave me enough to do my roots and cover the grays. It wasn’t for a full color, but it was something to hold me over.

When I was a teenager, I did dye my hair at home. Back then, I did use a cheap box color. It never looked horrible, but it never looked great. It was mainly to add some red to my hair and sometimes in the sun, it did look a little orange. But compared to some of the hair fails my friends in high school had, mine wasn’t bad. But that experience did scare me a bit about coloring my hair at home. Even if it was professional color.

Fortunately, my friend was able to help me via text with what I needed to do. I sent her photos to show her where I had the color for her to check that I was doing it right. There wasn’t a lot I could screw up (I just had to mix 2 products and then use the brush she gave me to put it on my hair), but I was still nervous. By the time I got the color all over where my grays were, I sent her another photo and she confirmed that it looked good.

I had a little bit of leftover color, so she told me for the last 10 minutes that I should mix that leftover with some conditioner and put it on the rest of my hair to refresh things. I did that (sorry, forgot to take a photo that time) and before I knew it, it was time to wash out the color. I didn’t think too much about washing out the color, but I’m glad it didn’t stain my tub too much (I did have to clean it after this because some dye did stick to it). My friend was right, it was a pretty simple process and I don’t think I screwed it up. I wish I had taken a before photo, but I wasn’t thinking about that. But this is my after photo and I can tell you that before dyeing it, I had a lot of gray hair on the side of my head. And now I don’t!

This wasn’t as good as getting it done by a professional, but it was much better than what I did in high school. And I will admit that I do feel a little better about myself now that I’m not seeing all the grays. But I never would have been protesting to get a salon open even with the boost that this gave to me. I know that right now, this is the safest way for me to color my hair. And if things remain closed for a few more months, I’ll probably ask my friend if she can help me with getting me some color again. Most of the people I know who do hair have been offering this to their clients. So if you are worried about your roots, reach out to your hairstylist to see if they can mix some color for you.

This isn’t how I normally would do my hair, but as I’ve said so many times, this isn’t normal times. I’m just grateful that I did have a chance to have a small bit of normalcy and to feel a bit more like myself. And I’m glad that nobody had to put themselves at risk for getting sick for me to do this.

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Working On Self-Care (or Continuing To Try To Fill My Day)

Posted on April 30, 2020 | Comments Off on Working On Self-Care (or Continuing To Try To Fill My Day)

My days aren’t filled with too much right now. I have very little work. I do my workouts, but those only take about an hour (and I don’t spend extra time driving there and back or talking with friends). I do virtual movie hangouts with friends, but I don’t do those every day. There is only so much tv I can watch (although I am watching a ton of tv). And even reading can’t fill all of my day every day.

I remember not that long ago wishing I had a day where I didn’t have anything to do. Now, I would do anything to be overscheduled again. I’m not used to being bored the way that I am right now. And I know that boredom could potentially lead to some destructive behavior. So I’m trying to find ways to fill my time with things that are good for me.

I’ll be writing about some of the things I’ve been doing around my house next week because that is still a work-in-progress and I’m hoping to have a lot of it done before I share. House projects have been a majority of the good stuff I’ve been doing. But I’ve also been taking time to do good things for myself as well.

I have been a big advocate for self-care for a while. And I do have some regular self-care routines that I have been doing for years. But there are several things that I haven’t done for one reason or another. Often, I don’t have the time to do something. But now, I have nothing but time.

One of the more basic things I’ve been doing for my self-care is what I’ve been doing for my hair. Or I guess it’s more about what I haven’t been doing. Unless I need to look good for some reason (like a self-tape audition), I am not using any heat tools on my hair. I usually don’t let my hair air dry because it is a weird curly texture that isn’t very uniform. And my hair sometimes takes a long time to dry and if I shower before I work I don’t want to work with wet hair. But now, I usually have nothing I have to do after I wash my hair, so I can sit around with wet hair with no issues. This is letting my hair take a bit of a break from the damage that heat tools can cause. I don’t know if my hair will look any better after not doing it, but I know that it’s not adding any damage.

I also have been taking this time to learn how to do my makeup better. I’ve never been great at makeup, but now I can practice without the fear of someone seeing it. So far, it’s mainly been learning how to do eyeliner (which is something I never could do) and it’s been going ok. I will be practicing looks and trying to perfect things so that when things start coming back that I will have a great look that I know I can do!

But the self-care thing I’ve been most excited about was something I did for my feet. My feet aren’t that great. I wish I could get pedicures more often so that they would look better. And now, I have no clue when pedicures will be an option again. I had heard about the Baby Foot foot peel before, but everyone said that you need to do it when you know that nobody will be seeing your feet for about 2 weeks. I never knew when I could do it before, but now is the perfect time to do it!

I asked friends who have used it for any advice that they had. The main thing they said was to soak your feet before using it and doing daily foot soaks starting the day after using it. Your feet start to peel after a few days, and it doesn’t really hurt.

The day I used the peel, I got everything set up in my room before starting. I knew that once I used it, I was going to be stuck for about an hour. My hips were getting a bit uncomfortable, but nothing was causing pain in my feet. And for the few days after doing it, I soaked my feet in a basin for at least 15 minutes.

I was worried that it wasn’t working on me because I didn’t see anything happening. But yesterday, that all changed. I won’t share photos because my feet look like a zombie or a snake shedding its skin (if you really want to see examples, there are plenty online). But it’s definitely working! And I’m really glad that I did this when I’m not going to be out in public. The peeling should be done in a week or so, and I can’t wait to see how good my feet look by then!

With so much time to kill every day, adding new self-care practices will probably continue to be something I do. I can use this time to be a bit selfish if I want. And these don’t have to be things that I keep doing. They can be one-offs like the foot peel. But at least the time is being used for something good.

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Almost Deja Vu (or Not My Usual Hair Appointment)

Posted on March 4, 2020 | Comments Off on Almost Deja Vu (or Not My Usual Hair Appointment)

I’m not someone who changes things that often. If I have something in my life that is good or works, I continue doing that. I don’t fear change most of the time, but I also don’t like to change things up if I don’t have a reason that I need to. With my hair, I have a mix of changing things up and keeping them the same. I have changed my hair cut and color over the years, but for almost 14 years I have had the same person doing my hair.

My friend Erin started doing my hair in 2006. I went to a salon that a friend recommended to me and Erin was the stylist that I randomly was booked with. I followed her to another salon when she switched and when she started working from her home, I started going to her house for my hair. We were strangers when I started going to her, but we quickly have become friends and I love that she does such an amazing job with my hair.

I was trying to find a time for her to do my hair at the end of last month and she thought she would be able to fit me in. Sadly, there was a family emergency and she had to let me know that she wouldn’t be able to find a time for me to come over. I completely understand that she wasn’t something that she thought would happen and I told her that she should focus on her family and we would chat again soon about hair. I wasn’t going to bother her when she was dealing with something, but I did want to get my hair done since it had been a bit too long since the last time it was cut or colored.

In a weird coincidence, I have another friend that is also named Erin who does hair. We met at Orangetheory and I have known for a while that she was a hairstylist. We’ve chatted before and after our workouts about our work and for some reason, I never knew the name of the salon she worked at until recently. And I almost did a double-take when she told me where she worked. She works at the salon that I went to when I moved to LA in 2001. It was close to my college and they offered all students a really good discount. I went to that salon from the time I moved to LA until I saw not-Orangetheory Erin at the first salon we met at. I don’t remember the reason why I stopped going to that salon, but I think that maybe the stylist I was seeing wasn’t there anymore.

I asked Orangetheory Erin (I guess I will have to use nicknames like this to keep them straight in this story) if she could fit me in for hair, and she was able to do so this past Sunday. The salon is in a different location now, but it’s still the same salon as the one I started going to when I was 18. It was such a weird realization about how full circle this moment felt.

I didn’t think about taking before and after pictures of my hair, so I don’t have any to share (sorry!). But I’m so grateful that Orangetheory Erin was able to fit me into her schedule with little notice so I didn’t have to wait a while to get my hair refreshed. Because I have such dark hair, the gray hairs that I have are really obvious. I’m lucky that there aren’t too many, but there are enough to bother me and I was using some cover-up stuff to hide them. I just wanted my hair dyed so I didn’t have to worry about it because I have a few things coming up that I want my hair to look nice for.

The salon didn’t look the same as it did at the old location, but there were still a few things there that for some reason gave me feelings of deja vu. I don’t know why the setup of some of the stations made me feel that way, but I also realized that it had been a long time since I was at a regular salon. I am just so used to going to a house for my hair and that’s what my normal is. So I guess going to a salon felt so weird to me that I was connecting it to an old memory of being at one. And I was trying to connect that to when I was at that same salon at the old location.

It was definitely different going to a different place and having a different person do my hair, but I’m so grateful that I have a friend that can be a backup for doing my hair when I need it!

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Default ThumbnailGetting A New Look (or Two Attempts To Dye My Hair) Default ThumbnailContinuing To Get Back To Me (I Needed My Hair Done!) Default ThumbnailAt Home Hair (or I Haven’t Done This Since I Was A Teenager) Default ThumbnailCoconut Oil Hair Mask (or Trying A Simple DIY Beauty Trick) Default ThumbnailLast Dentist Appointment For A While (or Not Really A Quick Appointment) Default ThumbnailGetting Pushed Into Changing (or A Story About My Hair)

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Time For A Bit Of A Change (or Getting Chopped)

Posted on October 3, 2019 | Comments Off on Time For A Bit Of A Change (or Getting Chopped)

My hair has been the same way for a while. I have been dyeing it the same color for several years, and I think the last big change I made to it was when I got bangs. I’ve been growing my hair out for a few years, and while I haven’t let it get crazy long, it’s been long for quite a while. Whenever I would get my hair done (which is not as often as I should), it was mainly just a trim to get the shape back in my hair. I would have maybe an inch or two cut off because of the growth since the last cut, but that’s it.

I used to love to change my hair up more often. But now, because every major change to my hair requires me to get new headshots and spend more money, I rarely do it. But before I had my hair cut earlier this week, I decided that it was time for a change. I loved my long hair, but it wasn’t looking as professional and styled as I would like. I have very thin hair and get bald spots from alopecia, so the long hair was starting to look a bit stringy. And I had recently lost a big chunk of my hair (fortunately it was at the back of my hairline so it’s not too noticeable) so I wanted to make sure I had a new hairstyle that would cover that hair loss.

There are so many styles I would love to have with my hair, but they don’t work with my face or how my face looks right now. I think if I was thinner, some looks would be better on me. I hate that my weight changes what I feel like I can do with my hair, but it’s just the truth. But I was looking at a few different things that I thought could look good and decided to show them to my friend Erin, who does my hair, to see what she thought would work and look good for me.

And the first thing I showed her was similar to a collarbone length bob (I guess it’s technically a lob but those seem to be a bit shorter than what I was looking at). Erin thought it would look great and help create the illusion that my hair is fuller than it really is. So I decided to go for it and make the first major change to my hair in years.

Since I also needed my hair to be dyed (not only do I not love my natural color, but I’ve been going gray since I was 20 so I need to cover those grays up), we started with the dyeing. But because there is no point in coloring hair that was just going to be chopped off, Erin first cut off about 6 inches that we knew would be gone. It was just a cut to get a bulk of what was going to be cut off gone, but it was still a big cut and I was excited to see how much was coming off!

You can even tell in that picture how stringy the bottom of my hair was getting. Long hair is awesome, but I just don’t have enough hair to make it look good (maybe I’ll do long hair when I can get extensions to add some thickness one day).

Dyeing my hair is a pretty standard thing for me now. I’ve been doing it forever. I did notice one random benefit to having gray hair, though. I get a single process, all-over color, but because of the gray hair, it does look like my hair gets highlighted. It’s not as perfect compared to when I actually get it highlighted, but it at least adds a bit of dimension to my hair color.

Since a lot of the cutting was done before it was dyed, after the dye was washed out it was just perfecting the cut. Erin has been doing my hair for 16 years now so she knows what works for me and my hair. And while there were a few ideas she had that could be nice, she went with what she knew would look the best on me and that I could style. And when it was done, I had much shorter hair even though it still is technically long!

I wish I had worn a lighter shirt when I took those photos because you can’t see my hair that well. But I took another after photo in a tank top so I could show off how short it is now.

It’s not short, but it’s a decent change from what it was before. I love my new look and it hasn’t been a huge adjustment. My biggest concern with shorter hair is being able to put it up for my workouts, but it’s still long enough to pull back into a bun. And it looks so much better than it did before. I guess it looks fuller now, but since I’m so aware of my hair I don’t see that. But it does look much healthier and polished, which is something I wanted.

Now that I have a new look, I do have to get new headshots, but that was already something I was working on. And since my hair is at least the same color, I’m not as stressed about getting my headshots done immediately. My plan is to do them this month, but in the past, I was worried about doing them the same week as a major haircut. I have other things taking up my time next week, but I know I’ll get it done soon.

I’m so glad I took a chance on changing up my look because I needed it! This was just the refresh I needed to feel better and I have a lot of confidence about my hair now!

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Default ThumbnailGetting A New Look (or Two Attempts To Dye My Hair) Default ThumbnailAlmost Deja Vu (or Not My Usual Hair Appointment) Default ThumbnailDoing Some Beautification (or Feeling Better From The Outside In) Default ThumbnailAt Home Hair (or I Haven’t Done This Since I Was A Teenager) Default ThumbnailContinuing To Get Back To Me (I Needed My Hair Done!) Default ThumbnailFeeling Refreshed (or Looking Good While Babysitting)

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I Love When Something Becomes A Non-Issue (or An Update On The Scar On My Face)

Posted on June 14, 2019 | Comments Off on I Love When Something Becomes A Non-Issue (or An Update On The Scar On My Face)

I have had no regrets at all since doing the surgery to remove what turned out to be a benign tumor on my chin. I was a bit worried going into it based on what other doctors had said to me, but I quickly realized that my fears were not going to be realized. I was not going to have a massive scar or look disfigured from having this removed. Maybe the doctor who told me that before really believed that and surgical techniques have improved a lot since then or maybe he was warning me and didn’t think it was guaranteed to be that bad. Either way, I’m so glad that the original doctor was wrong and I found a new doctor who was confident that he could do it and didn’t think it would be a bad decision for me.

Before I had the surgery, I was so self-conscious and aware of the mark on my face. Not only did it feel like everyone was looking at it and it was the most noticeable thing on my face (although I know that wasn’t true), it was painful too. The skin on it would sometimes break and it would start bleeding. I know that’s gross, but it’s the truth. I hated how it would hurt and I was so embarrassed when I realized that it started to bleed. The skin around it was so irritated from both the past treatments I had done and all the trauma to the skin that the breaks would cause. While my main motivation for the surgery was for appearance, the physical issues were a reason too.

I did whatever I could to make the mark blend in with the rest of my skin. I had so many concealers I would use and I wouldn’t leave the house without using at least one. Even when I was going to my workout, I would put concealer on that spot and it would make me feel better about myself. It’s crazy how much one little thing (that most people didn’t even notice) affected my life and had me working around it.

Since the surgery, I’ve been doing treatments to keep the scar soft and as minimal as possible. It’s not that much work and it’s been easy to have as a part of my normal skincare routine. I’ve only had one follow up with my doctor and he was very happy with how the scar looked. I’ll be seeing him again at the end of the summer when I do my normal skin/mole check, but I’m guessing he will be looking at the scar too. I think he will tell me that I have been doing a great job with the aftercare and that I should probably continue with the same plan as long as I can. I want the scar to look as close as possible to the skin around it, so I will do anything I have to do to accomplish that.

But I realized this week that I don’t really need the acknowledgment from my doctor that I am doing the right thing. I haven’t been putting concealer on my face like I was doing before. I still put some on when I wear makeup or am going out because the skin is a bit more red on the scar than on the surrounding skin. But I don’t feel the need to wear it when I’m going to work out or when I’m just going to run a quick errand. Considering how important my concealer was to me before surgery, it’s amazing to think that it’s not even something I think about anymore.

I have been skipping the concealer for my workouts or quick errands since my surgery. But it was only like that right after surgery because I wasn’t allowed to put makeup over the scar. At my follow up I was given a timeline as to when I could start using it. But I actually don’t remember how long I was supposed to wait because I never thought about it again. I think it was another week or two after the stitches came out, but by the time I was able to do so I wasn’t worried about it.

I know that there is no requirement to wear makeup or to conceal any blemishes or marks, but for me, I was covering it up for me and not for what others thought.  If I forgot concealer and had to see a bunch of people, I couldn’t focus because I was so worried about if anyone would notice it. It was really a big time suck in my life and I love that it’s not anymore. And to know that I didn’t even realize that I’m not worried about it anymore makes it even better and more proof that it’s a non-issue for me now.

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Saving Money and Trying To Be Green (or Revamping Some Things)

Posted on May 22, 2019 | Comments Off on Saving Money and Trying To Be Green (or Revamping Some Things)

This post is a bit of a mishmash about a few different things, but it weirdly all is about one purchase I made on Amazon. I recently purchased reusable cotton rounds to replace the single use cotton rounds I use twice a day for my face toner. And that purchase inspired a few changes that I’ve been trying to make.

The original reason I bought these reusable cotton rounds was that I realized how many I went through in a day. My bathroom trash can was usually at least half full with them because that’s one of the few disposable things I use in my skin care routine. It’s not that they are super expensive, but it does add up when you go through over 50 in a month. And I had read a few stories online about how they can have different chemicals in them and that they aren’t the most environmentally friendly because of how they are made. It seemed like an easy purchase to make so I did it. They weren’t that expensive, although since cotton rounds aren’t that expensive to begin with it might be a bit of time before I break even. But it wasn’t just about money, so that’s not that important.

So that single purchase got me thinking about what other disposable things I use in my day to day life. I’m proud that there aren’t that many things, but there are enough to look at what options I have to replace them. There are a few things I had already done like getting nicer straws so I didn’t use disposable ones (although when I did use those, I used them for a while before throwing them out). And I’ve looked at paper towel alternatives, but I haven’t found any that I like and I still like to use regular paper towels. But it has gotten me to look at what I buy and what I have stored in my house.

As I have been replacing things, I have been able to clear out what I have been storing in my little storage area in my house. It’s been a slow process because I do try to finish out what I have already purchased, but it’s getting there. I am not buying things in bulk and trying to find a place to put them. And I don’t have to think about repurchasing something because I am running out. It’s been a nice feeling when I don’t have to make a trip to CVS in the middle of the night because I desperately need something.

The few purchases that I have made that are more environmentally friendly haven’t always been because of that reason. The cotton rounds were more about being aware of what I am using on my face and I was tired of feeling like I was just throwing out so much every day. I also hated that even the premium rounds I purchased left fuzz on my face and hands. The fact that they were better for the environment was a bonus after I looked into them more. But I guess it doesn’t matter what the motivation was for the purchase, if they are more environmentally friendly that is a good thing. I know we all need to be more aware of the single use things we have in our lives, and I’m slowly doing that and seeing what I can replace.

Just like so many other parts of my life, it’s hard to make the changes until I really become aware of what the problem is. I can’t just look at my house and see what I need to change to save money or have greener options. But once I’ve discovered where the issue is, I have been quick to look into what I can do. I know that not every green option is the best for my financial situation, but not all of them are that expensive if you take the time to shop around online. For example, some of the cotton rounds I found were over $20 and that seemed too much. But I looked around and found them for about $5. I have to be picky right now on what I buy so I don’t just spend money, but again, it will save me money in the long run.

I’d love to hear what other inexpensive changes I can make to be more environmentally friendly. I know there are so many things I don’t know about yet that would be easy swaps. And obviously if they also save me money that would be amazing.

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