Desperate times call for...

…short hair and big earrings. 

Yes. Life is stressful sometimes. In the past couple years, I’ve come up with some great coping mechanisms. And one of them is changing my hair: cutting it all off, dying it, etc. My friend Dana knows all about this, because she was usually the one cutting or dying my hair at the time. Oh, and she just moved too. And cut her hair:

O hey, girl.

“Why the hair?” you may ask.

Change can cause a lot of stress, both good and bad. For example, moving to Alaska (as fun as that sounds) has been pretty stressful. New place, new living situation, new job, new coworkers/cohabiters. I haven’t lived in one place for more than a year since I started college 5 years ago. In my experience, it takes approximately a month to get settled and content in a new place. (But that’s just me.) Anyway, the best way to deal with change that you can’t control is to make change you CAN control! Cutting your hair or changing your look is a great way to do that. It’s a fresh start, especially if you do something drastic. When I chopped my hair off for the first time, I felt like people treated me differently, took me more seriously (I mean, who takes a sweet, plain white girl with straight brown hair seriously. I’m not saying it’s right, it just seems to be the norm.) But maybe they didn’t treat me differently. Maybe my perception of myself changed, so I related to people differently. Maybe short hair makes me feel more confident. Maybe I feel like Halle Berry when I wake up in the morning.

Yeah Halle Berry. That brings me to the next coping mechanism: big earrings. I need to cover some backstory here. Back when I was living in the Henhouse, we started this thing called “Diva Thursday.” (yeah hens, this is a shout out to you ladies.) It was senior year in college, and it seemed like all six of us had crazy schedules on Thursday. It wasn’t the weekend yet, but we were running out of steam. OVERWHELMED is what that is called. And sadly, it’s a fact of life for everyone. The coping mechanism? When feeling overwhelmed, it’s time to change your attitude and strategy. It’s time to do battle. On Diva Thursday, the hens just didn’t have time to deal with any outside distractions or additional stress. We had to be Divas. If you aren’t on my agenda, if you are only in my way, if you can’t offer me something useful: GET OUT OF MY WAY before I squash you with my cherry red, 4-inch high heals. And you must use the Diva Thursday catchphrase:

 "um....exCUse me." If you're feeling especially DIVA, say that to someone's face. Or say it under your breath. Feel free to say it to inanimate objects (malfunctioning computers, etc.) 

This all sounds mean and snotty, but if that’s what it takes to get through the day… (Disclaimer, please do not go out and start pushing people off the sidewalk or ramming into cars during rush hour. Remember, a real diva is subtle.) 

Diva Thursday is mostly about dress code. BIG sunglasses, BIG earrings, several large, flamboyant necklaces, bright colors (red, orange, pink,) black, blood red nail polish, lipstick, mascara……….etc. It’s amazing how this can bolster your confidence. OOOH OOOOH I used to walk up into class on exam day like I OWNED that campus. I have no idea what the professor or other students thought. And I didn’t care, because divas don’t have time to care about trivial things like that.

Short hair and big earrings. This is about self-care. You must BE AWARE of stress in your life, because it can manifest itself in some ugly ways. Someone once told me that depression and anxiety are monsters. And you have to push those monsters out of the way. I like to think of Halle Berry (wearing a Diva Thursday outfit) pushing my monsters out of the way.

Self-care is unique to everyone. You have to find what works for you. Go walking in the woods, meditate, do yoga, maybe put a ‘lil Kahlua in your coffee (maybe don’t), go sit in a coffee shop and read a book, maybe dress like a man and ride the public bus and see if anyone notices. Bahahahahahha! Just kidding. Whatever you do for self-care, make sure you do it!

<3