Social media is just a highlight reel
This has been said plenty of times in plenty of different ways. I’m saying it again.
Hi 👋🏻 I’m Alicia, I’m a boss, hairstylist, photographer... well you‘ve seen my website (if you haven’t you should probably go check it out I’ve been working really hard on it 😌) Being authentic is important to me.
You know what’s real? I kill myself wearing a million different hats and working through 10,099 different ideas, problems, possibilities and doubts. So many doubts. It’s hard to put yourself out there, especially your true self. The truth is it’s really easy to throw a filter on something, edit out the pimples (which I totally do btw) and the giant dark circles under the eyes and throw it on Instagram with a vague caption. As if you just wake up looking like a dream with an inspirational quote in your head everyday 🙄. C’mon. Most of the time, you don’t see people’s ugly and personally, I think that’s just fine. I value realness over everything, but I don’t think it’s really necessary to share the ugly shit all the time. Just knowing and acknowledging that it’s there universally is enough. I’m telling you, what you see on my social media feed is a teeny tiny fraction of my actual life (you wouldn’t believe how hard I work to make it look so easy, unless you actually know me and know how hard I go). Don’t get so busy idolizing Instagram models and insta-famous mom bloggers that you forget to live your real life and see the real moments for what they really are. You can always post about it later if you still want to.
Social media can be a powerful tool for business, marketing or staying in contact with friends and family, just remember that it’s a tool. It’s not real life. It can also be an unhealthy time/energy wasting tool for comparing your real, hairy life everyone else’s highlight reel. Don’t forget to live and love in the moment. It’s ok to keep some things about your life private.
It’s always been important to me to be transparent both in life and in social media. That doesn’t mean that I’m going to post a picture of myself ugly crying on my office floor, or show you the horrible haircut I gave myself or the way my skin sometimes looks without makeup, because my anxiety causes me to scratch my face while I sleep. There’s hundreds of stories that I haven’t told and pictures that I haven’t shared (I might some day, but that’s for me to decide, thoughtfully I’m my own time). Turns out, sometimes even the ugly stuff is beautiful if you can manage to look hard enough at it. I use my social media intentionally, to show you the things about my life that I want you to see or that I think might benefit you in some way. You’ll almost never see me posting in real time (I also kind of think that’s a really dangerous thing to do, more on that another day). There’s so many things I’ve been working on during the last few years in an attempt to better understand myself; I’ve been pretty quiet here because I truly believe that kind of work is best done in private. I’m back and I’m ready to start sharing again.
So friends, please enjoy the content I’ve been gathering to share with you, but don’t forget that this is my highlight reel. Everything I share here and each piece of content I create is prettied up and shared with intention and thoughtfulness. If you want to really get down in the dirt with me and talk about alllllll kinds of stuff, please follow my blog and get in this comments section.
The truth is, I’m actually super terrified right now about the state of the world and the state of things here in WA. It’s very possible that I could lose everything I’ve worked the last 15 years for if Jay Inslee decides to close salons in WA a second time, as they’ve done in CA. It’s been crippling, and I’ve been soul searching pretty deep.
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Stay well friends
✌🏻🧡
