June - Overhaul

The theme of fresh starts and new beginnings seems to be infiltrating my life at the moment; I’m not sure what it is about June but everyone seems to have decided to hit the restart button and I’m so on-board for this current craze.

Upon returning from my ‘words-cannot-describe’ Caribbean holiday, I decided that I would do something I haven’t done in over nine years – organise a hair makeover. Whilst this may seem somewhat underwhelming and disappointingly predictable, it’s a huge thing for me.

How could a hair makeover be this exciting you may ask?  Well, let me tell you…

At the end of my first year of university my hair decided to start thinning and falling out in chunks. Yes, women reading this, I see your jaws dropping and eyes swelling with genuine pity. Any woman reading this can empathise with this terrifying wide-awake nightmare. At first I believed this to be just an example of the way in which our bodies can be so mean sometimes, and turns out, it was really the other way round. I was putting so much undue stress on my body that it was using all its energy to keep the other parts of me, that it deeded more important, going strong. (Personally, I think my body needs to sort out it’s priorities…I still had to go for a regular leg and bikini wax, something I would have loved to have done without!). My body was giving me, a somewhat harsh, but definitely necessary wake-up call.

Whilst you may think my hair worries are relatively insignificant to other things that could happen, I firmly disagree. Our hair is so intertwined with our personality, and it’s not shallow and it’s not a clear example of how our society is so obsessed with looks. It is all about expressing ourselves.

Some of my favourite writers, including Leandra Medine, have discussed with many women, how our hair evolves with us and is a symbol of what stage of our life we’re at. This hair makeover is entirely symbolic of my life overhaul.

This morning I read Victoria Coren-Mitchell (aka my superhero) discussing the concept of reinventing yourself in this month’s Elle, and how the Internet has made this impossible. Well, for me it’s the other way round, I don’t want to reinvent myself, I want to remember myself.

Frankly, I don’t mind the Internet reminding me of the time where boys were the centre of my world or when I decided to bleach the entire bottom layer of my hair blonde (now you understand my fear of hair makeovers, right?). This is because they remind me of a time in my life where I was learning; I learned the harsh lesson of having your heart broken and the even crueller lesson of having your hair stripped.

Luckily and at last, my hair is back to its good old self. But I’m in a new period of learning now. My life has metaphorically had its hair stripped and instead of cowering from the mirror and the reality of the situation, I’m going to get my butt into that salon chair and do something about it. Let the live overhaul begin. I’ll keep you posted.