Friends, I’m kind of a mess – and totally loving it. A couple of weeks ago, I posted the picture above on Instagram. My trusty hair blow dryer up and died that morning, setting off the smoke alarm in the process. With no chance to dry my thick hair straight, I felt like it looked like a science experiment gone wrong! Luckily, I had a hair appointment later that day and figured the serendipity of that perfectly timed hair debacle would at least give folks a good laugh on Instagram. So I posted the pic. But what happened next caught me off guard.
Nobody laughed. They said I looked adorable…sassy…beautiful. Wait, what!?!?
How did everyone else – including my own hairdresser, Fiona – see beauty where I saw crazy? Could they all be wrong? I took a step back and tried to look at myself through their eyes, not mine. And when I did, you know what? I saw fun, not frizz. I saw sass, not stress. And I saw potential freedom after years of painstakingly straightening and styling my hair nearly every. single. morning.
Over the years, my hair has changed (yours, too?). It’s no longer naturally straight (or bright blond, ahem); the longer it is, the harder it is to style. I’ve been trying to force it into submission for a decade, but styling takes forever and I’m rarely happy with the end result. So I breathed deep into a paper bag, went into my appointment with Fiona and decided to ride the wave(s). Ready for the result?
I am shocked by how much I like it, you guys. It’s so much easier and it reflects my personality and lifestyle so much better – casual, relaxed, messy, free to be. And to think I fought it for so long!
Truth is, I may have never done this without the nudge from those of you who saw beauty where I didn’t.
This is one of the best things we women can do for each other, isn’t it? Hold up mirrors that reflect only love and truth? Mirrors that tell the whole story of a woman’s innate beauty and brilliance, challenging her inner monologue; the one that’s full of falsehoods fed to her by magazine covers, school bullies, top models, biggest losers, beauty pageants, ex-boyfriends, the list goes on.
This is the ultimate makeover: we have the power to rewrite our stories and change the face of beauty just by holding up our mirrors. Not to nitpick and judge, but to reflect light – each other’s and our own.
