Healthy Recipies

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Be Good to Yourself

I once heard a Marriage and Family Therapist say how he got the most therapy sessions during the Holidays. His hypothesis was that everyone was stressed out and going crazy because it's the most hectic time of the year.

SELF CARE

I received an email from my dear friend this week, who is a new mom like myself, and she shared how she has started doing self care activities everyday. My friend explained how these small moments of self care everyday are time out for just her. In other words, no multi-tasking! My friend intentionally makes time to color, paint her nails or go for a walk everyday. Because of her self care, my friend was able to rediscover things about herself that had been forgotten. She admitted how she had lost herself without even knowing it.

Self care is taught to health professionals, but everyone it. The purpose of self care is to care for yourself so you can keep helping others who are your responsibility. Many people get burnt out, which can lead to resenting others and sacrificing their health. Eventually, they are not able to help themselves or others.

My husband, who is a grad student plays racquetball and also reads for his self care. I personally love going on walks, blogging :) and doing yoga.   

So pull out your hair--or try some self care! Wow, what a catchy jingle I just made up!

References


Friday, September 30, 2016

Silver

At 16, I found my first few silver hairs. How embarrassing! At 20, I began to dye my hair my natural hair color, DARK brown (practically black)...and I never stopped--until now. My hair grew so fast that I was having my husband dye my hair every three-four weeks. But this past January, I stopped dying my hair for a few reasons...
1. My nieces think I look like Elsa.
2. It's annoying to constantly dye it.
3. It's costly, even if it is from a box.
4. I was curious to see what it looked like grown out.
5. I saw beautiful women with silver hair.
6. I was mostly dying it because I was ashamed of my silver hair and worried about what others would think.
7. I'm 28 and I don't want to dye my hair for the rest of my life.


Sarah Harris
Sarah Harris, Fashion Features Director of Vouge was one of my inspirations. She had premature silver hair too and never dyed it. Some have raised concerns that if I let my silver hair grow out then I will look old. Who knows? I might hate it, but I'll never know unless I grow it out and try it. Besides, it's been liberating for me to embrace it. My silver hair is symbolic of me embracing who I am and not worrying about what people will think of me. I am doing this because I want to and I don't want to dye my hair brown just to conform. And as far as looking old goes, I'm still going to exercise, eat healthy and get ready for the day. I think as long as we take care of ourselves (make our eyes and eyebrows pop with a little makeup tweaks and wear certain colors that flatter silver hair) then we won't have to worry about looking like an old and decrepit hag. Some will hate my new hair and others will love it--but the fact is that I'm not doing it for anyone but myself anymore. My natural silver hair isn't quite there yet, but so far, so good. We'll see how I like it in the end.



This lady has a lot of tricks and tips for going silver naturally: http://howbourgeois.blogspot.com/
My favorite product to help with the transition was Gray Away spray. It helped my hair blend more. I used the dark brown one. It washes out and it's basically like a hairspray. I'm not using it in any of the above pictures, but sometimes I use it. You can purchase it at Walmart, Target, Walgreens or online. 

Three Months Later...

One year later and one more hair cut to go until all the dyed hair is gone.
Done & done! It took me 1.5 years to get to this point, but now that I'm done growing my hair out and I love it! 11.4.17