BODY HAIR IS A-OK: why i don't shave

Happy Sunday folks! I thought today I'd do a bit of a controversial post - one on body hair.
Body hair acceptance is something that is super important to me and people often call me out on this, but yes, I have hairy armpits and legs, and guess what: THAT'S OK!

It is absolutely every human's choice as to whether they shave wherever whenever. I promise you I'm not some crazy feminist (I am a damn passionate feminist but I don't not shave because of feminism) and I'm not 'disgusting'. But I have accepted that my body grows hair in these places, and I'm cool with that. Having said this, I don't feel like a lot of the pressures women feel really apply to me as a transgender non-binary individual. But any woman that wants to not shave should be free to do so. So basically I don't shave because I DON'T WANT TO.

But it's shocking how early children begin to feel these pressures. I remember being younger, maybe 10 or 11 years old and secretly buying razors to shave my legs. How can it be affecting youth in that way?? I felt pressured to shave at ELEVEN. It's ridiculous.

This being said, if a human wants to shave that's totally cool, each to their own.

What's your opinion on shaving? Do you think I'm disgusting? Haha.

Let me know in the comments.

Lou <3

dreampop & rainbow turban: a sunday outfit

Good afternoon folks! This is my belated Sunday post, since I've been very ill from Thursday until today (I'm feeling much better today thankfully), so I didn't feel well enough to post yesterday, but I hope you will enjoy this outfit :D You'll have to forgive me if posting is not quite to schedule all the time, though I do try and post these days once on Wednesday/Thursday and once on Sunday :)

This outfit was inspired by a genre of music I'm loving at the moment, called dreampop. And in particular, a band called Parks, Squares and Alleys (they're a great band from Moscow, Russia).  Dreampop is exactly what it sounds like: mellow, beautiful and dreamy: perfect walking by the beach music.

This is my second favourite song by them, I couldn't upload the video of my favourite but I'll link it here.

On to the outfit: 

 CARDIGAN - charity shop // SHIRT - vintage Jaeger // SHORTS - vintage Levis 

 SOCKS - random and Topman // TIGHTS - eBay // SHOES - Nike Air Force 1s 

TURBAN - eBay // GLASSES - Heritage

I was, in fact, listening to Parks, Squares and Alleys in this photo! :D

So I hope the weather's great where you are and you all had a lovely Sunday. What did you get up to? Tell me in the comments! 

Love love, 

Lou 

<3 

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struggling? 5 ways to feel better about your life in a matter of minutes

Things aren't always as they seem: believe it or not, and I'm just going to come out and say it, I have a chronic mental illness. I won't go into (or reiterate if you know me in person) my diagnosis, but just know that it affects me every day in many different ways. I quite often feel, and there's no other word for it, shit about my life. 'I'll never get over this... the thoughts will never stop... everything is pointless' are thoughts that often fly around the sphere of my mind. But there are things that you and I can do to feel better! Here are some:


1. Talk talk talk until you can talk no more!
There's nothing more therapeutic than a good old chat, and whether you just need to chat to a family member or friend or if you need it, a therapist, call them up or go and see them, and just TALK. Word vomit to your heart's content, be the very definition of stream of consciousness. Or if you feel there's no one you can trust with certain things, write it down or talk to yourself. You can rip it up afterwards, that's cool, just get it out.

2. Distract yourself with the web!
This is where Tumblr having endless scrolling is particularly useful :P
And of course there are many resources available, such as Mind, just google it (and I've linked Mind here!) to help. Also don't be afraid to reach out on Instagram or Facebook, your friends will want to help you out if you're feeling bad, keep people in the loop if you're struggling.

 3. If you're feeling shit and having urges to do unhealthy behaviours, don't do it and distract yourself for 20 mins!
This piece of advice is key: urges pass and if you can manage to deter yourself from undertaking maladaptive behaviours for 20 minutes, there's a much better chance you won't end up doing the behaviour. Practice what works, as my nurse says, so distract yourself with whatever you enjoy doing - for me, it's internetting! So I'll go on Tumblr for 20 mins then see how I feel, often I feel a lot better and don't end up doing the behaviour.

4. Utilise your hindsight!
Have you felt like this before? Did it get better then? (Clue: yes it did) How did you help yourself then? So practice what works for 20 mins, avoid behaviours and keep going! You can do it, chick :)

5. Trust yourself!
This is the most important element of this post. You are the only person you will ever have throughout your life. You have you and only you forever, other people come and go, so trust that you can keep yourself afloat. Say kind things to yourself and embrace your emotions and thoughts, sow happy seeds and grow bountiful crops. And most of all, you do you!! It's okay to feel shit, but look after yourself, m'kay?

You are all fabulous beings who are strong and independent, so stay that way, my chickens.

I hope you enjoyed this post, if you want more recovery-related content let me know and totally check out my personal Insta to keep an eye on me @janu.art

Love love

Lou
<3

my sunday face: freckles, eye dots & peachy lips

Happy Sunday earthlings!! I hope you're all having a fab day. Right, today's mission/blog post is about my Sunday 29th May face (I don't always wear makeup on sundays but today I felt like it and wanted to share with you guys!) Read on if you'd like to hear what products I used, and my tips eye dots and false freckles.

Brow game is strong with this one :P

On the brows: Benefit Brow Zings
On the eyes: Rimmel Curling Mascara
On the face: I don't actually wear foundation or concealer really, hence the imperfect skin. But hey, it's okay, I'm imperfect, we all are!
On the lips: Kiko lip stain

My tip for eye dots: my fave look for eye dots is one larger dot on the outer corner of the eye and a smaller one in the inner corner.

How I create them: use a cotton bud and dip it in the excess mascara that occurs (?) on the end of the wand. Simply dot and adjust with more cotton buds and make up remover.


How I create my false freckles: I use eyebrow wax from Benefit and apply dots using cotton buds. I think it looks pretty natural and cute <3

Also side notes: I have (top to bottom) a bridge, septum and labret piercing. And my glasses are from Heritage!

I hope you enjoyed seeing my Sunday make up look. Have a great day guys :D

Love love,

Lou <3

come now, we're not ALL morning people! how to wake up late and be productive!

We’ve all seen those posts: ‘how to be a morning person’, ‘how I get out of bed at 5.30am smiling’, etc. Well, I’m sorry guys, and although I have serious respect for you early risers, that’s just not me. And though I don’t get up at 5am everyday (I do get up super early some days, but that’s if I naturally wake up then) I like to think I’m a pretty productive person! Okay, strike that, I’m a damn productive person. 

I get up at around 9.45am everyday, give or take 30 mins (I have work at 10am on some weekdays, so obviously earlier then, around 8.30am) and allow myself a lie in occasionally AND I manage to get everything done. It’s not even true to say that I’m a total night owl; I like my sleep, and function best on 10 or so hours of it. I stay up sometimes, when inspired, and yes there are nights when I stay up ALL FLIPPING NIGHT. But that’s very rare, and hey, sporadically doing all nighters when sleep evades me is something my body has gotten used to. 

Right, so we’ve established I’m not a morning person, and I like sleep. So how do I get everything done?? That’s the question on everyone’s, or at least my long suffering parents’, lips. Here’s how I do it. 

Firstly make sure your self care routine is up to scratch (as a sufferer of mental illness self care can be difficult for me). It sounds super basic but make sure you’re treating yourself well: eating regularly, staying hydrated and keeping yourself clean and happy. It’s like a pyramid and self care is the foundation layer, if you’re not looking after yourself, how can you expect to be productive? 

Answer: you can’t. 

Lush Prince Charming shower cream // Sukin Facial Moisturiser // Thisworks deep sleep spray //

 Dr Bronner's Hemp Rose Castille Soap 

Next, I make a selection of lists: I have monthly goals, weekly to-do lists, and since reading Rosie’s post I’ve made a daily list of integral tasks that need doing. I keep this all in my Moleskine Planner. If you’d like to see a post about how I manage my essays, totally comment below and I’d be happy to do that. (I might do it anyway!) 

Of course, scheduling work, appointments and the like is very important and spacing out work to be done is essential. This is also done in my planner. 

Thirdly, a vital part of being productive is not procrastinating. For me, the way of getting around procrastination is to schedule a certain number of tasks/words to write/pages to read for each day and to stick to deadlines for these things. So if I have 2500 words to write and I want to get it done in 5 days, I'll do 500 wpd (words per day) and if I don't do 500 on Monday, for example, I'll have 1000 to do on Tuesday. It certainly motivates me to get work done! And as long as I get those 500 words done, it doesn't matter how much YouTube I watch or cups of tea I make trying to avoid it. It's about setting small goals and achieving them. 

And finally, it’s important to make time for what you enjoy and to reward yourself: for me it’s art and reading and YouTube video-watching. So schedule (yeah, you use that planner, girl) time for that stuff. It sounds cliche, but everyone needs some down-time, so pop it in your diary. 

I hope this was a helpful post, let me know in the comments! 

Also, do you have any tips on being an un-morning-yet-productive person? I'd be super interested to hear. Another post soon. 

Adios, 

Lou <3 

sunday feels better when it rains

Sunday is my favourite day, it's even better than Friday in my opinion.

So here's my rainy Sunday to-listen-to/to-do recommendations:

1. Write/draw/paint something (like I'm writing this lovely blog post for you lovely people and I may do some drawing later). There is seriously nothing better than a creative Sunday; pop on your artiste's hat and get creating!

2. Listen to some indie folk, because that's what Sundays are for: The Paper Kites' album Woodland (you can listen here) is beautiful, perfect for a rainy Sunday. It's getting sunnier here but it was lovely and rainy earlier. I just adore the feeling of being inside and watching the world outside when it rains. So tranquil, so peaceful. If it's a sunnier Sunday, I recommend Gregory and The Hawks's album Moenie and Kitchi (her voice is one I would imagine a china doll to have, it's lovely - listen here).

3. Dress as an eccentric Sunday lady/gent/somewhere-in-between (like me). Here's an example when I went for a walk earlier with the doge!

SHIRT + JACKET - charity shop // JEANS - dorothy perkins // TRAINERS - nike

Anyway, I hope you are all having fab Sundays, rainy or sunny or none of the above. Take care, enjoy, now, run along kids.

Love love,
Lou

<3

I'm a hippie???? WTF

Today a young fellow who I was buying paint from in B&Q posed a jokey, in his eyes, and to me, serious question.

He asked: 'Are you a hippie or something?'

I said: 'Uhhhhhhhhhhh. Idk. I don't think so.'

Shocked and slightly taken aback by his comment, I googled 'hippie'. This is what Google, oh dear old, trusty Google, told me:

HIPPIE: (especially in the 1960s) a person of unconventional appearance, typically having long hair and wearing beads, associated with a subculture involving a rejection of conventional values and the taking of hallucinogenic drugs.

synonyms:

flower child, Bohemian, beatnik, long-hair, free spirit, nonconformist, dropout "yesterday's hippies are today's ad execs"

To fully give the context, here's a pic of what I was wearing today; the look, if you will: 

Let's analyse this: 

1. 'Typically having long hair' - I do NOT have long hair, this is clearly visible, though I guess at a push my appearance could be considered unconventional: the piercings, the bowl cut, the Ozzy Osbourne/John Lennon/Elton John glasses, the "interesting" (HAH. My gran thinks I look plain odd) clothes. Maybe I could be considered a 'contemporary hippie'. 

2. 'Associated with a subculture' - Now, this is a contentious issue; I don't like to be associated with any particular already-formed subculture. I tried that jazz: lolita, scene, punk, and I didn't like having rules to adhere to, and people to compare myself to. I take inspiration from everywhere. I'm a mongrel. I like that: JANUART STYLE MONGREL (should that be the header of my blog??? Totally comment your views below!! I'll love you forever <3 ) 

3. 'A rejection of conventional values' - Haha, you got that alright. I'm vegan, religionless and base my ethics on continental philosophers. I love to go against the grain. 'Contemporary hippie (or New Wave hippie') is sounding more and more like me.

4. 'Hallucinogenic drugs' - UH NO. Sorry, no drugs for me. :P 

But is 'hippie' a term for all kinds of alternative people whose look we just can't seem to put our finger on? A mainstream outsider may totally see me as a hippie, but step inside and we see that alternative style is a whole lot more complicated than that. 

Please, step inside. And shout out and thanks to the guy who called me a hippie for inspiring this post!

Totally leave your views down below! I'd love to hear what you think of being a 'contemporary/new wave hippie'. Maybe it'll even catch on! 

Lou 

<3