We’re all Jock Tamson’s Bairns

As the time of the restrictions of the coronavirus goes on not only here in the UK but in a great many countries all over the world.  We have all had to get used to for the time being a different way of life.  Here in the UK we are still in lockdown.  Shops, restaurants, pubs close.   Work places cannot function as they once did.  Schools, colleges and universities have closed their doors to students and staff.  Many personal services can no longer take place; such as hair cuts and styling, nail manicuring, tanning.

As someone with carcinoid syndrome   things changed for me quite some time ago and I  had to learn to deal with many issues.  I have had to make many adjustments.  My skin has changed, I have to deal with horrendous flushes, etc.  Whilst I still love to wear make up, dye my hair, etc I have to be careful for reactions.  Looking back as a youngster I can remember pinching my mothers food colouring to dye my hair when I had ran out of money to buy the real McCoy and making sure the earrings matched the colour of the nail polish,  that co-ordinated the hand bag and shoes.  Well I was more of a Dr Martens  student, although I did like to wear the decorative ones, give a bit of colour to my life.

The one thing I have never been into is wearing any ‘add ons’ – getting my nails manicured and polished and painted a pretty colour for a special occasion yes.  Acrylics on me? No – just never been the done thing.  Hair extensions are something that have came a long way in the last few years.  And to be honest they look so good and natural you would never know where the natural hair ends and the ‘fake’ hair starts.  And as for any other body enhancements, young women placing an implant in their bra, such as a  chicken fillet insert to make them look on the larger side and give them that extra lift.  In the seat of their pants too bum boosters.  for that additional filling on the rear end.  I’m blessed with olive skin and don’t feel the need for fake tan

As a woman who brought up two lads I didn’t have make up,  nail polish, make up, hair extensions, bra, etc requests in our household.  We did have lots of aftershave, mousse and wax for hair styling, and hair dye.

In the evening hubby and I find ourselves sitting blethering about our day just the same as we normally we do.    On one of our evening chats we had a discussion about how much time has been spent on screens and the pros and cons of this.  We have been really grateful of the smartphones we both own, the fact that we can FaceTime our friends and family.  If I am going to be in the house for 12 weeks with the garden for light exercise and the only physical people I see are Steve and my nurses I cannot thank enough the progress of technology that has allowed us to move forward and video talk on a call.  On Sunday when my hubby was cleaning our Harley Davidson and I was doing my favourite job of saddle soaping the leather panniers we had a FaceTime call and the 4 year old granddaughter, Alexandra that is mad keen on motorcycles, virtually started the Harley Davidson Fat boy.  She got to hear the roar of the pipes.  And to see the big smile on her face made my day.  As we discussed screen time we went on to discuss social media and what we had seen on it over the last day or so.  My husband had been perplexed and annoyed with the folk that were generally yapping about nothing.  I said to him its simply boredom with people, they have nothing better to write or they are hiding behind their status and making out everything is FINE.

What really got us was the folks worrying about breaking their nails and not being able to get to the nail bar…… the hair extensions falling out…….roots coming in and the fear that everyone will see their hair colour (well I hate to tell you, you have just told us, if you hid in your house, and didn’t put a status up no-one would know)………    We have started to see status’s on facebook and people tweeting about their appearance or rather what they believe the lack of it.  They are worrying about what they look like even when there is people fighting for their lives in intensive care.  One of the nicest stories I heard this week was a young family talking, Mum in her late forties was doing the talking, got to admit she looked like she had just got out of bed and it was lunchtime, she was wearing a pair of jeans and a sweater, no make up and no fancy hair do, the kiddies were still in their onesies; Mum was telling the tale of how nice it was to work from home, not feel pressurised to get dressed up and be able to wear the same set of clothes the next day.  Oh and have a day off from make up.

I remember a time when I was a bairn and played free, skipped to my lou and sang songs, didn’t bother if there was make up on, what size of breasts or bum someone had.  Yes, its great to take pride in our appearance, however we have to be careful not to become self obsessed.  What we have to remember is  we are all human beings with similar skin and hair.  As the saying goes We’re all Jock Tamson’s Bairns