Grey Hair

Apparently no one knows why we get grey hair or more accurately, why we stop producing the melanin that gives hair it's colour.

The old wives tale of it being related to stress has yet to be proven. I can fully believe however that a stressed individual will possibly be exhibiting behaviours that aren't conducive to 'normal' hair growth like not eating well, smoking etc. But the idea that it's a direct link still is a bit far for me. Primarily because I have grey hair.

I've counted a grand total of 5 'white' hairs. One really long mama, one about an inch, and the rest are in my temple hair. All of which are in the same front left quadrant of my head. Friends can't see anything from the back. When I first told my niece (same age as me) that I had them about a year ago just casually in conversation, she was stunned and thought I must be super stressed. I'm not, and I wasn't. If my hair colour was directly related to my stress levels I would have had a full head of white hair when I was 21.

Biologically, my fathers side all had grey hair in a front quadrant from what I imagine was a relatively young age, 40 ish. My issue is, when should we actually expect to get grey hair? Does anyone even no anymore? I had a couple of grey hairs coming and going since I was about 16. I've never dyed my hair, but a lot of young girls do obviously. Could more people be getting grey hair in their 20's and we just don't know because we artificially change our hair in one way or another all the time?

There was a lady on the train with her son yesterday, she must have been 37 at a high push. She had a good inch of grey roots showing against dyed brown hair. And I thought, lets just say she's a normal every day person who is relatively healthy, if she really has gone fully grey, are most people grey? Or at least is it much more common at a much earlier age than we actually know?

As far as I know it doesn't seem to be a problem for men, they look distinguished as they get older. I don't know what men think of women with grey hair, surely if your face and your general mannerisms still reflect your age (or the age you feel), how much of a big deal is it? And also how you wear your hair as well. My white hairs are still good quality hairs so my hair styles still rock, is it that some people's grey hair loses it's manageability or is it that people give up caring for their hair in the same way once it goes grey? thus then making you old (the rusty dusty kind not my granny still looks amazing in her church dress and wig kind).

I have a lot of questions as you can tell. I don't know if I'll ever get answers for them. I've never been drawn to dying my hair and it doesn't entice me now, always a possibility that could change in the future but I like to think it won't, mostly because I don't know if my fine hair can take a relaxer as well as hair dye.

Also it isn't lost on me that age and aging keeps popping in my head with my milestone birthday coming up. I like to think as long as people keep getting my age wrong in both directions, I'm probably doing ok.

Mrs K's Eczema cream

I was so happy when my friend said that her mum wanted me to make more of this for her.

I do do my research but I am not trained in any certified sense so to know that this worked for her felt amazing. She had bad eczema on her ears for as long as she could remember, it was so dry her ears were constantly cracking and bleeding. She never were her hair down and had tried every prescribed cream and ointment she could get. She lives in New York so I imagine they have much more available for cosmetic help than we do. Her eczema is also much worse than anything I have, so making something cosmetically medicinal for someone else was a challenge.

This she said was the only thing that worked. She's now left with pink ears, no cracking no bleeding. Applied at night mostly as it's oily, this little pot lasted her 4 months. She'll be coming to the UK soon so I will be making her some more fresh from the pot then ❤

50 ml tub

• 2g Beeswax
• 11g Aloe Butter
• 12g Coconut oil (virgin obvs)
• 5g Vitamin E oil
• 13g Jojoba oil
• 2 drop Lavender Essential Oil
• 1 drop Cedarwood EO
• 1 drop Rose EO

Unfortunately she didn't take a before and after picture, my friend just gets to see live progress over Skype and reports back to me. She has asked if it's possible to make it slightly less oily next time, but doesn't want me to sacrifice any of the good stuff that makes it work. I would like to put in some Cyclomethicone but she's so sensitive I'm not even sure if that will work out. Maybe I'll just swap the Jojoba out for Avocado oil as it's drier. I'll figure it out I'm sure.

PS. If you have any questions about this stuff or just want to pick my brain, just write in the comments, I'll reply.

Charley x

Retract to expand

Feeling good with this latest realisation. As you know I embarked on a number of different projects after I got out of my funk at the beginning of the year. Enough projects to make sure I have no idea how to do them all and therefore stops me obsessing entirely about any single one.

Now it seems I have gotten to a relatively stable point where I can with good faith and no sense of remorse shelve some. I've put 3 of the original 8 projects on hold, swapped some and added others. I'm glad it all happened this way though. I very much believe that if I didn't have all of these ideas, they wouldn't have lead me to the other projects that would stick right now. I'm really grateful for them giving me a new perspective from where I stood, because all of these things didn't come into my head at once, it was drip drip drip. And I ran with all of them, what did I have to lose.

So now I'm left with the following that make up the happy empire

• Relaxed in London blog (all 3 pages)
• Writing the book - The book, the one people have been nudging me to write since I was 21
• Chartership - becoming a Chartered Project Manager, I shiver with the wonderfulness of it all
• Gem Stone Love - the baby project that some how took over my every waking thought - it's a good thing I have other things to do. But this will pun intended - be the gem in the empire
• Stakeholder Management - reading the book. Really interesting actually, you would imagine it to be as boring as dishwater but the writer has a lovely tone and lightness to it all thank goodness. This also counts towards my continual personal development hours for the chartership as well so win win.
• Volunteering with the Association for Project Management, will again help with the chartership, hopefully just surrounding myself in the community will help to inspire me and keep me going
• 'Flow' maintenance. Books / podcasts / audiobooks to help me on my way and keep me on track. The current 'Flow' is Abundance Now by Lisa Nichols. / Yoga mindfulness and comedy podcasts / Search inside yourself by Chade-Meng Tan audiobook.

And I still work 40 hours a week, with a minimum of 15 hours travelling time. I promise I am of sound mind and body, that's what the 'Flow' part is all about after all.  I also have to prepare for my 2 week holiday in July - it really isn't as far away as you might think, I got my injections done just last week, and now my beautiful friend whilst on medication offered to organise my 30th birthday celebration. Seeing as I'll actually be on holiday when the day comes.

I'm busy, but it feels so good. I got back to work this week after my week off feeling genuinely refreshed; I was working on the empire every day, every single day. It may not have been a full 8 hours chained to my laptop and a pack of wotsits. But I wasn't on holiday somewhere, I was working, on me and for me and it felt good, really really good. Especially when I compare it to the days of not so long ago where if I wasn't out with friends, I was watching tv or reading. None of those things are bad but I watched far too much tv for someone who had all of these dreams and wants. And I never went back to work feeling refreshed after the tv marathon, I'd just feel tired, and bored.

This week at work was so busy my line manager pulled me aside before I could get to my emails on Monday to warn me that my diary is likely to change. How sweet is that? and change it did, drastically and for the next 3 months, just like that. And with all of that, I was still pining after doing my empire work. Because it doesn't tire me, and weirdly having that not tire makes work not as tiring either. Something profound and psychological in there I'm sure.

It's not to say I don't do all of what people think of as fun anymore, I still watch tv, but maybe only 2 episodes a week (drastic for some people I'm aware) but I just really focused on the tv that actually gave me something and added to my life, and none of it is educational btw. I still read obviously, and I still see my friends. I even feel more flexible now in seeing my friends because I don't feel so exhausted after work in the week. There is time for everything, and really I should know, I'm inefficiency's arch nemesis after all.