Being a minimalist has changed a whole lot about me. I embraced this new lifestyle few years ago and since then the changes have being so obvious in almost all areas including my dressing, my relationship, my diet, my reasoning, my physical appearance and the likes. While some people prefer the new me and appreciate my minimalist lifestyle, others, most especially my family found it strange and couldn't stop picking on me since then till now.
Before adopting this my new lifestyle, I was always intentional, selective and used to go for the most expensive items in the market. This does not mean I had money to lavish, in fact I was from a very humble background, yet I believed so much in expensive things that if I had no enough money as at the time I wanted to purchase, I would rather go back home to save up and come back when I had enough to buy. Imagine, my slang then was, 'if it's not expensive, it's not original '. Overtime, I however realized that wasn't the best practice as many of those expensive things were not as lasting as the ones my neighbours bought with little amount. In fact, what made those items so expensive at times were the accessories used to decorate them, and you would just discover one day that the accessories had fallen off from one of the shoes, or the main accessory fallen off from the whole bag, leaving them so blank and worthless Then, you wonder the value for the huge money spent on them.
The most habit my people have picked on since I embraced being a minimalist is my hair. Oh, once this is their topic of discussion, they let all hell loose. I don't blame them actually, it's a change they found so hard to admit. Before now, my love for expensive hair was incomparable. I had a lot of wigs; human hair, fibre, Brazilian, clueless and the likes. Even if I would do Ghana weaving, it had to be so long and reach my buttock.
I was used to it and it almost formed my identity. So what changed? All of a sudden, I stopped wearing wigs, I stopped bum-length weaving. I even stopped attaching anything to my hair. It was as if it was too much change for those that are close to me to assimilate.
Surprisingly, I started making only hair. I now make all kinds of natural short weaving without attachments which truly makes me more beautiful but younger. This latter feature was what always stir up problems in the house. My sisters didn't buy to my idea of not attaching anything to my hair. They complain it makes me look like a 16 year old girl while I am over thirty years. Their grievance is that it would make those teens disrespect me at any given chance, since we would look the same.
Just at my father's burial ceremony two weeks ago, they all took my look so personal because they said I wasn't looking big and as mature as they wanted. But all those complaints were less of a problem to me. Gone are the days of buying and wearing $125 hair, I no longer had pleasure in them. I now have better things to do with my money. Even if I think I have enough, there are lots of people out there that have nothing to eat. So, I see no reason spending recklessly again. This my new lifestyle has offered me so much including peace, happiness, a young and nice look and opportunity to help others conveniently.
Thanks for reading.
All photos are mine.