Beauty and Health Done Your Way

February. Or should I say, the season of love (although it doesn’t quite feel like it given that we are currently still in a national lockdown). Personally, I feel that we should be showing ourselves that extra bit of love this time around. Self-care is a term that I have used frequently in my life but one that I didn’t really know the

true meaning of. It is thrown around daily on social media platforms, with influencers raving about the proven benefits of self-care and how it can change your life for the better. But what actually is self-care? From a very basic perspective, self-care is ‘the practice of taking action to preserve one’s own health’, which is very hard to narrow down for one article. In my experience, self-care can be an internal and an external process with things like meditation and nutrition that better your inner health alongside beauty, haircare, and skincare which better our outer self. It is very personal to the individual and how they find peace in their environment which, for me, is found in the joys of social events and family gatherings. This was going very well for me until big, bad COVID came around and lockdown meant that that social interaction became lost, being replaced by zoom calls and socially distance walks which someone who relied on others to fuel their positivity. That was when I realized that it was time for some drastic change in my life; I needed to venture out (not literally, that would be illegal in these current times) and find other ways that could nourish my mind and make sure that I wasn’t in a constant slump for the months inside. Based on this mini epiphany, I decided that this month I would take you all on a little self-care journey so that we can all come out of lockdown 3.0 feeling refreshed, calm and, most importantly, happy.

My tip for all of my new self-care apprentices would be to find a beauty-based activity that you can participate in once a month. This may seem like a silly suggestion, but I do believe that the majority of busy people don’t invest enough time out of their day to do something that makes them feel good about themselves which means that relaxation time can be long forgotten before you know it. A beauty activity can be something as small as a fresh paint of nail varnish (the chipped nail varnish of my past still haunts me to this day) or as big as a ‘self-care day’ filled with face masks, bubble baths and lots of good books. I know that this time can often be hard to find, especially for the millions of people who are working from home at all hours, but I promise that this small act of dedication to yourself can make a world of difference; there is something lovely about the way that it takes you away from reality for a second and brings you back to yourself (something that we can all do with at the moment). My new routine now consists of ‘Tanning Tuesday’ (to hide the reality that I’m starting to look like a Twilight character having not left the house in so long) and a long bath whenever I’m starting to feel any stress or negativity build up after a hard day. Each week you will find yourself looking forward to this time as it provides that much needed luxury

By Molly Dutton

Another quick and easy idea that you can do whilst getting on with the other items on your to-do list is a hair mask; this was an entirely new concept to me as of summer (when I had completely overdone it with the straighteners and was left looking like Ozzy Osbourne) and they work absolute wonders on the dryness that comes with the winter weather. I am particularly obsessed with the Garnier ‘Hair Food’ range as they smell absolutely delicious and can be left on for twenty minutes before a quick rinse to finish off. To add to the haircare miracles available on the market, my lovely friend @ch_creations.xo on Instagram has created some beautiful hand-made crotchet scrunchies, along with some other lovely items, that are the softest things I’ve ever owned and have helped me massively during this lockdown as I can sleep and get on with my day without the horrible uncomfortable tug of a tight hair bobble, which I’m sure many of you can relate to. Receiving the scrunchies in their perfect packaging is a form of self-care in itself and it’s made me feel so warm inside to be able to wear something that’s been handmade with so much care.

Now I know this is a controversial one so please bear with me. Exercise can be a huge uplifter during any situation and, now that we are confined to our houses in what is turning out to be the coldest month in my whole eighteen years, it is the perfect way to fill up the time that we’re all desperate to get rid of. By exercise, I do not mean a 20-mile run or these ‘get abs fast’ videos that are circulating around the internet, I simply mean going for a nice walk or doing some home workouts that get your blood pumping and your body moving just so you can feel alive. The range of workout guides available is incredible and there is something for everyone, even if you just fancy having a quick stretch every now and again. Most importantly, the best form of self-care is allowing your body to do exactly what it needs to in the moment and giving yourself time to breathe, even if it doesn’t fit in with the routine that you’ve made for yourself. Let’s all take a big breath as we enter a better time where we are treating ourselves well every day.

Hair (Here) We Go, Again! Another Lockdown and Good Intentions

Will this New Year, bring our wished-for new beginnings? It doesn’t seem so, as the Prime Minister announced in the first week of the New Year, we are once again in National Lockdown. I assume that he means England, for here in Wales, we have been in Lockdown since 20th December 2020, except for the brief ‘holiday’ at Christmas, when I assume that you went mad and let your hair down. That’s all you could do with it, as hairdressers and barbershops are not open. I was already beginning to look like an ageing hippy with curls I haven’t had for many, many years, goodness knows what I will look like before I get it cut again. I think that I might let it grow into a ponytail but my wife says I am too old. Still, with us not being able to go out and ‘live it up’, I will be able to save a few pennies to pay for a new hairstyle, whenever that may be.

I usually keep my hair short, having it cut and thinned every five or six weeks, in the old familiar style I have had for many years. That is, of course, since the first National Lockdown in March of last year, when I took on the look of a long-haired, Father Christmas, but without 44 CARDIFF TIMES the beard! That’s the strange thing about my hair. It grows profusely on the top of my head but very slowly

By Michael James

the pandemic, you would hardly notice the thin excuse of a beard and moustache that I would have had by now. That doesn’t bother me; the less I need to shave, the better. but, as someone remarked some years ago, “hair only grows to protect the parts of the body where there is a weakness!”. Hearing that I wonder if my general, strong hair growth, only on the top of my head, is telling me something?

Not being able to have my hair cut doesn’t bother me but, it’s my wife I am worried for. Like me, she keeps her hair in a shorter style but, unlike me, she gets really bothered if it is not cut every six or seven weeks. Fortunately, she has a friend who comes to our house and, since the first Lockdown finished, she has had her hair cut at regular intervals and is due another soon. However, we in Wales are in Lockdown until, at least, the 31st January and by the time you read this in February, goodness knows what state she (and I) will be in! Let’s hope that by then her friend will be able to visit to do the job, if only in the garden and observing all the necessary precautions. Watch this space!

I am sure that you will be thinking that considering what many others are going through, problems with hair is a minor issue and of course, you are perfectly correct. Indeed my wife would whole-heartedly agree with you. As I write (mid-January) there are already concerns about the speed that a new variant of the virus is infecting the nation, with its ability to be able to transmit itself to so many more people in quicker time. Our hospitals and their staff are close to being overwhelmed and the two superheroes on the scene, said to be able to save us, are the new vaccines and all the population (that include you and me) obeying the rules of, ‘Stay Home: Protect the NHS: Save Lives’. This later bit of advice is simply down to all of us whereas, receiving the vaccine is more of a monopoly, depending on your age and/or health. Both my wife and I are in our early eighties and so we should be among the first to get ‘the jab’, after of course our wonderful NHS staff, local GP’s, teachers, care home staff and residents and all the other essential workers who manfully keep us going. Hopefully, any day now, we should get our notice to attend our vaccination centre. It can’t come quickly enough for us.

Another new year has dawned with signs of fresh hope all around us, this picture of a daffodil in our neighbour’s garden was taken on Christmas Day and, with possibly, new (good) intentions for us all. I no longer make new year resolutions as I inevitably fail to keep them but, new intentions seem more possible. As you know, I have become something of a couch potato, officially during this last year due to my various health problems, “You must stay indoors”, I was told. That I happily did and settled down with television shows and films, with occasional diversions into books. But, strangely, towards the end of the year, I was beginning to get fed up with what my wife says is just wasting time. I was keen to get some fresh air but with the restrictions about driving to our seaside resorts or up into the mountains and just sit in the car with all the windows open (fresh air), while enjoying a nice cup of hot coffee, there seemed to be nothing to do. My wife, who has gone out for a daily walk during Lockdown, suggested, “Why not go out for a walk?”. My immediate reaction was, no! I have been told to stay indoors. To counteract that, the general advice has been that being out in the fresh air is good for both, our health and mental well being. The more I pondered on that, I gradually came round to the idea that I should do it, after all, I had (once) completed a trek in the Himalayas.

So it was that on New Year’s Day, I set off on a relatively short walk, following my wife’s advice to just walk for fifteen minutes, turn around and walk back. This my training, before my trek, a good omen I thought. We live close to the lovely Roath Park Lake, ideal for a short stroll but, unfortunately, many others had the same idea. An opportunity to work off the Christmas excess or, perhaps, just get out of the house with the children or the dog. The whole of the path around the lake was jammed full of people, all diligently following the oneway system, as directed but, not following the advice to keep socially distanced which, together with the joggers, cyclists, skateboarders, prams and pushchairs and what seemed like hundreds of different variety of dogs, made what should have been a gentle stroll a huge health hazard. I know that being outside is good for us but why don’t people stick to the advice given?

The whole scene put me off but, determined to stick with my idea of a daily walk, I decided to walk on the pavement outside the houses on Lake Road West and, from where I had started down to the main gates of the park, outside the promenade, took exactly fifteen minutes. I crossed the road and walked back along the pavement, just above the lake, back to my starting point. Having finished the walk, I checked my pedometer on my phone to see all the various times, distance, speed and calories expended and, to my horror found that nothing had been recorded as I had forgotten to switch on before I started. Disappointed, but pleased that I had, at least, walked a short distance, I vowed to carry on a daily walk, which I did for the next six days. The same walk as on the first day but with my pedometer switched on, which confirmed that I walked for approximately 25-30mins and covered a distance of up to one and a half miles. Hardly more than a snail’s pace but, at least it was a start. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that on carrying out even gentle exercise, I should have factored in rest days. I discovered this on the next day when it hit me hard. Once again, I started on my daily walk and within ten minutes I felt I could go no further so sat on a wall to recover. I carried on walking to the promenade and sat for a few more minutes on a bench just inside the gates. Rested, I carried on but, once again, had to stop and sit-in in the bus shelter. Eventually, I arrived home and saw that I had more or less covered the same distance but took twice as long. A lesson learned the hard way.

I haven’t been walking since my excuse being the rainy days we have had. As I hadn’t made a resolution as such, there was nothing to break. I am determined to carry on with my good intention to have a daily walk but, perhaps in the spring, when my extended rest day(s) finish. Don’t let my experiences put you off, you are probably younger and definitely fitter than I am. I wish you ongoing safe health and happiness. Roll on the vaccines for all of us and the hope of a better future. May God continue to bless us all.