Beauty for Ashes Series

Going Au Naturel

beautyIn Red Carpet, Lexi has a break from her work as a model and enjoys just relaxing in her dad’s old shirts and a pair of worn sweatpants:

I flung off my Nike sneakers and sprawled out on Monica’s couch. It felt good to hang out in old sweatpants, one of my dad’s old shirts, and no makeup. I felt more like me. The blond-haired woman with the sultry smile that I saw on TV and smiling from magazine covers was not me. (Red Carpet – beauty for ashes book 2, by Dayo Benson).

I had a taste of this last week, but I didn’t think anything of it until Thursday when a friend told me about an email she received that listed the signs of stress. One of the items on the list was ‘lack of interest in your physical appearance.’ It made me laugh because all week I’d been au naturel. I always am anyway, but this was even more so. I didn’t bother with straightening my hair even once, I didn’t bother with all my special lotions, I didn’t bother with my nightly skincare routine. Each morning I just slapped on some moisturizer and the first outfit I laid my hands on and that was that (usually I consider a few different outfits before settling on one and my husband just doesn’t get why I do it. I don’t get it either tbh).

So, I tried to dig deep and work out if my sudden change was because of any kind of stress. It really wasn’t. I just couldn’t be bothered. And it was a conscious decision because nice hair means at least an additional 10 minutes in front of the mirror, and nice clothes means I have to iron, or colour code, or dig out a matching handbag, etc. And dewy skin means Lancome gets more of my money than they should. Thankfully they’ve stopped making the product I swear by so I’m delivered. (For those of you who want to know it was the T Zone gel).

And guess how I felt last week as I went about my daily business with my au naturel look? I felt so FREE!!!

I doubt it’ll last long though. It a woman’s nature to want to look somewhat nice. Either that or we’ve been conditioned to think we’ve got to look a certain way. Whatever it is, I’m not immune so I know I’ll be whipping out my hair products and everything soon, but it’s good to know I own those things, they don’t own me!

I think that sometimes it’s too easy for women to hide behind hair and makeup and stylish clothing. And I think it’s sad that society tries to equate our worth with how we appear. Okay, if I didn’t bother looking my absolute best today, why does that matter? It really shouldn’t. Should it?

Ladies, any similar experiences? Or do you feel more yourself after you’ve gone through the whole rigmarole? Lol.

God bless xx