Love my face

I recently watched love my face on ch4. A fantastic series with Jono Lancaster which follows people with a range of visible facial differences as they seek support, advice and explore transformative treatments to help accept or address their differences.

For me two personal stories resonated with me. Firstly the guy who had facial palsy and wanted his smile back. After my stroke it took years before I could look in the mirror and think positively about my appearance and it took even longer to be comfortable with having my photo taken. As a very smiley person, I hated the fact that my smile and dimples had been lost due to my facial paralysis. In rehab I spent so much time on facial exercises because although I struggled a lot with how my body now looked, my absent smile and the lack of symmetry really upset me. 

The second person that really resonated with me was a lady with a facial scar from a car accident who wore black so as not to stand out, as her confidence had been shattered and she did not want to draw attention to herself. I also had similar feelings as I was  stripped of my confidence, but as people loved to stare at me anyway or ask ‘what’s wrong with you’, my outlook changed. 

People were going to stare if they wanted to regardless, so I started buying mobility aids etc that boosted my confidence and made me stand out. I now get stares because of my standout walking sticks or vibrant colour choices. Jono was right , wearing colours boosts your confidence. My confidence was shattered just like this woman’s was, but finding brands such as Glamsticks and Neo Walk meant I can be as bold in my mobility aid as my choice of outfit. 

Quite often, like Joni Lancaster eluded too, we can only build our confidence with self love but sometimes we find products that aid our self confidence with non clinical looking, beautifully unique products that are certainly never grey.