When I was 24 I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, after growing up believing that it was normal to be constantly deafened by panic, as though it were white noise. I started seeing a counsellor and taking anti anxiety medication, but it took me a long time to realise that my mental health could be managed holistically, and that self care could help.

Because I am a cliché, it took a man to turn my life around. Shortly after I turned 29, I met Ian. Ian was a hairdresser who had come highly recommended by an actual person with great hair, and not a Groupon offer. At the time, my life was starting to come together, but my hair was still breaking apart in my own hands. My looming thirtieth birthday felt like an arbitrary deadline. Everything else was going pretty well. I was engaged to someone I adored, and instead of seeking attention from bad boys, I was putting my energy into my career, which was much better for my mental health. I was starting to think I might be a grown up, and I longed to look like one.

How looking after my hair taught me to look after myself too