Autumn's Song

Hey beautiful people dripping with awesome sauce

Yes, I cut my hair! This is my second big chop since going natural. I am absolutely loving this new look. Even more than the new look I love that my wash days and my morning routine are both super quick and easy. I won't lie though this new cut is a bit of a challenge with this cold weather. I seriously need to stock up on beanies and head wraps.  I have to give Aisha O'Reilly credit for encouraging me to give my hair a fresh start. I literally flooded her timeline with questions because I am a bit of a scaredy cat. Also props to the #Gowiththefrotour ladies who were in Johannesburg recently reminding us all how incredible our hair is and helping us build community.

I started toying with the idea of cutting my hair towards the end of last year and I started scrolling through Pinterest to find cute twa and tapered cut styles but I was a bit apprehensive. One afternoon while I was on leave I woke up from an afternoon nap and decided that I wasn't going to wait any longer, I jumped in the car and drove to the nearest barber to do the damn thing. If you are thinking about doing a big chop, I highly recommend Renaud Desi at the Douglasdale Village Shopping Centre and for a fresh cut with a proper pamper session Midori in Sandton, ask for Tunde, he is a master! Both places serve wine by the glass in case you need that little extra boost of liquid courage.

Naturally a lot of people have asked me why I cut my hair, I generally don't like talking about hair because it gets so topical, but I will share some of the reasons for my big chop in this post. There are several reasons why I cut my hair, firstly I wasn't taking very good care of it and it started to get damaged, I had been applying heat to it more than I usually do. As a result of the damage I started leaning towards styles that required extensions or straighteners which I am not a fan of (nothing against those who do, it's just not for me). But the main reason was I had become frustrated with maintaining longer hair. I couldn't deal with the long wash days... a good wash day took me about 3 hours! I couldn't deal with fighting with "hairdressers" and how they mishandled my natural hair. The process of picking good protective styles that last and don't damage your hairline started to feel like an impossible feat.

Basically I became too lazy for my longer natural hair! I don't know how long I am going to stay in the "short hair don't care" club but for now I am really happy to wear a twa. When I do decide to grow it out again I will be better prepared and hopefully by then I would have learned to braid and style my own hair so that I am not at the mercy of the wretched women of Randburg. It's really discouraging that there are so few hair salons in Johannesburg that cater for natural hair that firstly don't break the bank and secondly don't serve as a plug for sales of their hair care products.

As promised in my last post I have a skin update. My wonderful dermatologist prescribed a mild dose of Roaccutane which I am thrilled about as my skin was in a bad bad way. I also learned that I don't actually have oily skin, I have hyper sensitive skin instead. She also picked up a bit of eczema on my scalp... one of the many weird conditions I have picked up in the later part of my life. Having shorter hair will definitely help in the treatment of my eczema. I can already see the difference so I'm stoked. I'm also really grateful that I'm going through this process during Winter so that the dry Roaccutane lips thing won't look too off kilter seeing as everyone else will also be trying to manage their own dry skin.

About this look:

Dress  -  Daily Friday (Superbalist)
Jacket  -  H&M
Shoes  -  Forever New
Earrings  -  Lovisa

And shout out to me for this bomb makeup which I did by myself!

 

On a more serious note, the last few weeks have been very heavy for me due to some people very close to my heart having to go through some incredibly difficult situations. I am one of those people who feel deeply and I often carry the hurts, pain and disappointments of those close to me. At times I feel so helpless knowing there isn't much I can do to help. It reminds me how important it is to tell the people in our lives how much we love and appreciate them.

So to all of you, be gentle with yourselves and don't become so busy that you forget to show love and care to others.

Xoxo