- 10:38 am → I decided to wake up early today (yes 10:30 is early for me) to get this look together. I’m feeling excited because I’ve never really done this but it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. The only thing is that I know that this will take me along time because it always take me forever to do makeup…that’s why I don’t do it. It messes up my skin and it takes time away from sleep, why would I do something like that!
- 12:20 pm → I just finished doing my makeup, putting on the wig, and figuring out the appropriate outfit. It. Took. Forever. I feel pretty…like a Youtuber or one of those people that actually does this everyday. Time to go meet my friend from back home for coffee. I am a little nervous about how he will react.
- 12:34 pm → Some asian women started pointing at me and smiling as I was on the way to the coffee shop. I’m uncomfortable and a little self conscious.
- 3:25 pm → My friends just ran up to me in the cafeteria telling me that they thought they saw me but since I didn’t look like my usual self they apparently spent a few minutes arguing about whether or not it was me. Finally one of my close friends said he knew it was me because of my smile so they all ran over. That was funny.
- 10:00 pm → SO happy to get home after the day & wash my face. I already got a break out after one day with a full face of makeup…oof.
Reflection:
At the beginning of the day I felt extremely self-conscious about the way that I looked and that carried on throughout the rest of the day. Granted, the day was punctuated by feelings of reassurance when I was received by my friends with excitement. I hadn’t told them what I was going to do that day so when I ran into them it was amusing to see their reactions. The three asian women who started pointing and smiling at me however did put a large hole in my confidence and that happened right after I walked out the door. I am very interested to hear what they were whispering to each other. I’ve never had a stranger react to me on the street like that before or at all for that matter. Needless to say, their small action threw me off.
I realized that at times I was actively trying not to look at strangers as I walked around that day, and at other times I couldn’t help but try to use my peripheral vision to see if there was any difference in the way that people looked at me. For the most part, or from what I could tell, there was no change; this is New York City afterall.
I should note however that after that day, I want to dye my hair light pink very very badly. When I got home I jumped on the phone with my mum as she was on her way home from work and told her how badly I wanted to dye my hair. Her response was, “hmm enjoy the wig for now, we’ll talk about it when you come home for Thanksgiving,” her polite british way of saying don’t you dare. We’ll see mummy, we shall see.
– Isabelle Desmarchelier
