🇬🇧 Pink October

October starts and everyone starts talking about Pink October and breast cancer awareness. I then decide to return to a theme that I have advocated for a long time, which is related to the suffering that is, for many women, losing their hair during the treatment of cancer, and also for those even more invisible who have alopecia. And that point is the cruel relationship that some media channels make between beauty, femininity and long hair. As if there was no opportunity to have a full life in every way for women who have short hair or are bald.

I lost a great friend to cancer. Not for the sake of beauty standards, as she had short hair before and had the support of many people. But I still believe it is important to take this weight off of the shoulders of women. The burden of needing long hair to have a love life. The weight of needing to have long hair to feel beautiful. Of course, only each woman can lift this weight off her own shoulders. I already took mine. And if that serves as a reference for someone, great. But others can also do their part by reconfirming that every woman is beautiful even if she is bald.

I am 44 years old and have been wearing short hair for about twenty years. This is easy for me. I hated my long hair because it was heavy and it was impossible to style. And at that time I was terrified of discoloring to change color, so it was always black hair (my natural color), straight and dull. And my love life was almost nonexistent, as was my self-esteem. So, I didn't have much to lose, I admit. But the cool thing about this is that it was from short hair that the quality of my relationships changed for the better. And the quantity started to correspond to my will. I feel more beautiful and have less heat with very short hair. And if it happens to damage the wires with chemistry, as it once did, I just scrape and then it grows again. The only time I did that I scratched the machine zero and loved the result. Today it is all over machine 1 (I scraped a few days ago) with the longest top, with bangs.

Since the days of Orkut (2004) I have spoken publicly about this. I really admire the women who show off their baldness. And I also admire those who take on short hair and vary their cut, color, style, always keeping it short (above the mouth line). I think everyone should try shaving their hair three times in their lives willingly to get used to their own appearance and discover new ways to value it, such as wearing big earrings (love it!) and makeup (without the exaggerations propagated nowadays, please).

Self-confidence is something that comes from within, but from time to time we need a little force from the outside. And I suggest that anyone of any gender who wants to truly support women this month post their own photos on Instagram with shaved hair and a message of encouragement and use the #baldforher tag. Let's spread a message that women can be beautiful without relying on long hair, so that those who have to face cancer can focus on treatment, which is the most important. And those who are bald for other reasons, such as chemical cutting, alopecia, etc. also feel embraced. Here on the blog I already explained how to shave your hair at home, but you can also go to a good barber or hairdresser to do this. Some will think you are crazy, but explain the cause and stick to the decision.  Whoever follows my profile on Instagram and takes the photo using the tag I will repost your post.

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Nycka, the Nomad