Hello and welcome to the second in the series of Love Everybody Body Positive Workshop and the theme this time is everything above the neck.
For me personally this is a part of my body that on the whole I feel quite positive about so lets start from the top!
Hair
I have always loved my hair as it is the one part of me that my weight has no bearing on and through the years it has been my way of expressing myself. I was lucky to be born a very natural light blonde so light in fact that in my 20's I was often asked if I dyed my hair but no it was all natural. The only problem was it was very unruly especially when it came time for the annual school photograph! So you can imagine my mums horror when a the age of 17 I wanted to start dyeing my hair as I was bored of the blonde!! At first I went a red color which with my fair skin looked OK but that wasn't enough I wanted black hair as I was in the midst of wanting to be different!!
So here is a quick snapshot of my hair at different stages in my life
Here is me now aged 38...............
Still blonde but it has to have a helping hand these days!!!
Eyes
Now you can see from my younger photos that I didn't always wear glasses, I first wore them at the age of 13 but they weren't needed all the time, but by the time I graduated from University at the age of 21 they were a permanent fixture!! Over the years I have considered both contact lenses and laser eye surgery but ultimately due to the strength of my prescription I have continued to stay with just glasses and now they are a part of who I am. It can make things awkward at times I would love to be able to buy cheap sunglasses or go swimming without them on but without them I would somehow feel a part of me was missing! They also make a great fashion accessory and with the increased rise of online glasses retailers owning several pairs has now become much cheaper!
I must confess I also love having blue eyes although my son and husband do have the most amazing big brown eyes that you can get lost in!
Voice
If you have ever met me in real life then you would have heard my brummie accent (although I am not as brummie as my hubby!) I have a strange accent due to the fact that I have lived in various parts of the country over the years. Occasionally my West Country roots appear and a somerset twang at the end of a sentence will slip out!! I also have a very dirty laugh or so I am told which caused Gok Wan to call me a filthy bitch!! Our voices are such a huge part of who we are and I love my accent as I am proud to say I live in Birmingham and that my voice shows this!
Skin
As a teenager I was quite lucky with my complexion and suffered from only a few spots in fact it is fair to say that my skin has become more problematic in my 30's as I have had lots more breakouts and they seem to last longer! (I put this down to my hormones!!) When I was younger I used to curse the fact that I had freckles and would slather on foundation to try and hide them! Now I am older I love my freckles as because I am so fair they are the only way you can tell I have been in the sun! The one thing I need to do now I am approaching 40 is look after my skin as I have crows feet and terrible frown lines but they are a part of me so there is no way I am having botox I still want to be able to smile thanks! So I need to show my skin more respect, drink plenty of water, not sleep in my make up and moisturize!!
Facial Features
I have never had any hang ups about my nose or ears as to me they are just really rather ordinary the only thing I ever wanted was to maybe have fuller lips but with some decent lipstick mine aren't too shabby! When I was in my late teens and at university my face became another way to express myself by having my nose pierced and about 4 earrings in each ear. Now that I am older I no longer wear a nose stud (I think the hole has long closed) and I only have two holes in each ear that are still open although you can still the see the others! To me they are a reminder of my younger carefree days before I had the stress of a mortgage and the responsibilities of being an adult!
Teeth
I will admit that I have had a love/hate relationship with my teeth over the years, when I was very young I sucked my thumb for a long time and because of this I ended up needing braces which I wore for about two years. My teeth now are a lot straighter but I wish they were whiter and one of my front ones needs fixing again as the bottom of it keeps snapping off! I have been lucky as my wisdom teeth have been well behaved and apart from two teeth that were extracted when I was young as they needed to make room I still have all my other teeth!
So there you have it I hope you enjoyed your tour around my face!!!
See you next time.
