I had shaved my head right before starting at a new salon. I needed to step away from my hair, because in all honesty I was hiding behind it. I had gained so much weight during pandemic that all I felt good about my body was my hair and that was keeping me from finding beauty within myself.
The task at hand:
✅ shave head
✅ take photo each day for 90 days
✅ write about it
This again, was another iteration of The Beauty Project exploring what beauty really is. Finding it in the world, other people and within ourselves.
This vulnerable project of The Beauty Project is all about exploring the harmony of beauty and being a hairstylist without hair.
What is it like to take a step away from being fully focused on your beauty routine?
What’s it like to strip it away and focus on how we show up for ourselves and others without hiding behind our precious, beautiful hair?
I don’t believe it’s wrong to have a beauty routine, I think it’s actually quite beneficial. But the moment that it becomes a mask rather than a tool, it get dangerous. Finding that balance is what I experience daily. The struggle is not gone, nor do I believe it really ever will be. I think it’s part of my journey here on earth. But the acceptance of find the self compassion and the empathy for other people’s experience is what has changed me.
I say that a selfie a day keeps they haters away because
1. It’s funny
2. I think there’s an opportunity there to lean into a self love practice…
By that I mean, it’s kind of like looking into the mirror but taking a snap shot.
There are so many of these photos from this project that when I took them, I didn’t like the way I looked and it think it was mostly because I didn’t like how I felt.
I was in a very uncomfortable phase of life and taking a snapshot of that reflected that to me.
However, looking at them a year later— all I can see is the beauty in the pain and the pain in the beauty.
A selfie a day kept my haters away because I was focused on building a loving relationship with myself and my body rather than what other people needed to tell me about what they thought about my shaved head.
Read the journey here: