Last week, a little girl in my local supermarket loudly declared that I had super amazing hair. Naturally I said thank you and beamed for the rest of the day.
I generally tell people to ignore comments from strangers about their appearance, but this is a special sub-category of comments from strangers and should absolutely be taken on board. Friends and family will often tell you that you look nice, even if you look a bit rough. Do you know who doesn’t tell you that you look nice when you don’t? Little girls in supermarkets, that you have never met before!
I pay a lot less attention to my appearance these days than I probably should. I’ve never been particularly high maintenance, but whatever standard I used to aim for has been drastically lowered, even on special occasions. It’s a combination of working from home, being a web developer, being older, being quite lazy and probably a long list of other things. Spending more time on my appearance doesn’t have any obvious benefit, so I tend not to. I’d like to say that I have big plans to change this, but I like you far too much to lie to you.
I’ve been getting my hair braided on and off since I was 13 and these days braiding my hair is mostly about how practical it is. Not only is braiding practical, but it also fits my budget and elevates my look with minimal effort (after the initial braiding session) During lockdown I finally mastered braiding my own hair. I’m still not the best at it, but I can now braid my hair to a decent standard (just don’t look too close)
Somewhere on this site I’ve probably already told you that I wasted my childhood wishing I had long blonde hair. I obviously don’t have long, blonde hair genes, so braids are an easy way to change the colour of your hair without the chemicals. Over the years I’ve been a blonde, a brunette and probably every other colour of the rainbow. Blue hair is cool, but if you ever want to impress a little kid, pink mermaid hair is definitely the way to go.