Grooming during the pandemic
I’m a pretty basic self groomer. I wash daily and pick a chin hair or two every few weeks. I keep the underarms shaved. I lotion daily. If things are out of hand or I have a big to do I’ll get my eyebrows cleaned up and paint my nails. Your basic I like to be clean but I’m not going overboard daily. Or as my mom said when I was growing up, did you shower with soap, brush your teeth, and comb your hair? All before heading out to school.
Living in a city and being on a shutdown and no vaccine for about a year I made some big decisions. After a few weeks of quarantine when that 2–4 weeks was now 6 or 8 with no end in sight, I made a purchase. I bought hair clippers.
I keep my hair short and pretty simple. When it’s time to shape it up I usually go too long after time. At that point I say “oh I gotta do something about this hair”. I ordered a clipper set. Seven different length settings, some sheers, a few clips, and a cape. I assumed the cape was for me to walk around the house feeling like a super hero.
YouTube is a great resource. I searched “black short hair cuts” and “natural black hair” and specific styles and tutorials. I found a channel where the woman’s hair was closest to mine in style and watched a few of her videos. She did step by step directions. One of the things she said was don’t over think it.
I cut my hair in the bathroom and did a decent job for a first time and only doing Zoom or virtual shows where the back of my head wouldn’t be seen anyway except at the grocery store. I messed around and found out I could do it for myself. Then I thought, let’s try some braids because my hair was short but long enough to add hair and try new styles.
Good God almighty I am not a braider. I don’t braid my hair except an occasional plat. YouTube came through for me in learning some techniques. Unfortunately my arms and whole body grew tired. The YouTube braider lady lied to me. The simple style that should take one hour took more like 3 1/2 and it didn’t look good.
Start over, try again, buy more hair, and freakin give up. I finally gave up on the hair braiding and twists and went back to cutting my hair because I knew I could do that. Only thing is I got sloppy and stopped watching the videos because I’m basically a professional now. Even professionals check in on occasion. My hair was starting to look more like an late 80s early 90s box fade. It was all I could do.
One day I was in CVS the land of mostly unusable receipt coupons. In the hair removal aisle I found a little kit to wax your own eyebrows. Now I have a history with my eyebrows that I won’t go into except to say I shaved one eyebrow when I was in elementary school. That brow has yet to grow back normal. Is it from my silly I want to shave like my dad but the only hair on my face is my eyebrows, or am I just hyper aware? Probably both.
I bought this little kit that didn’t require the hot wax I often trust a person at a nail salon to put hot wax on my face and rip it out. Seems like not hot wax is safer for at home use. I again am proud to let you know, I did alright. At one point I kept saying “maybe a little bit more over here”. Thankfully my conscience and wisdom are still in tact and they said, “no girl, if you obsess you will have zero eyebrows”. I listened and I feel good about it.
I’ve become more and more aware of the hair on my legs situation. I have a decent razor but sometimes shaving just feels like a lot. So I went back to CVS and got the big box of sugar wax and decided I’d try for the first time ever waxing my legs. If that went well, I’d try other sensitive regions of my body with hair.
Turns out I’m not a professional waxer. I read the directions mostly. Occasionally I forgot which direction I was supposed to be applying the wax. I really was unsure of where I was I was doing. Turns out waxing the same spot more than once (on accident) doesn’t feel great. Also, having random hairs just waving saying “you missed me, please reunite me with my friends” is not ideal.
I think I’ll wait for never to try my no touch zone areas. Honestly I don’t want to accidently wax off my labia and have to take it into a pandemic hospital talking about “at home waxing”.
Through all of this I realized although I may not do it well, I am capable of doing well enough. In a pinch I can figure it out. It was also a great reminder that just because you can do it yourself, it is okay to have a professional do it. Also, like save that money sweetheart!
