Do People Really Care What You Look Like? Body Confidence

In this episode Nathan talks about bodies: Do we like them? How do we feel about them? And, if we don’t feel great about them, what can we do to make ourselves feel better?   KEY TAKEAWAYS The issue of our bodies and body image has come up a lot in the last couple of weeks on the podcast as well as in my team. As a job, I talk daily to our guests in the salon and the team. I see and hear a lot about the issues and it’s especially a big subject with younger people and the age group between 35-50. Social media has a lot of fitness experts and celebrities continuously posting with ‘the best body’, how to achieve it, what to eat or what training to do to promote muscle growth. We’re continually subjected to having the perfect body. This is these people’s job, where they earn their living, and they are showing their best self 24/7. We’d all be doing the same in their position. How much of it do you want to be subjected to? I look at the poses that young women get into in a lot of pictures they take: the bending of the knee, the lifting of the ankle, the hand on the hip, the pouting lip. It seems like a lot of hard work to me! But it seems men are increasingly getting affected by this, seeing pictures of guys with perfect abs and muscles in all the right places. I want to be in good shape, strong and have definition, but I also like to eat and drink without thinking about it the whole time. It’s all about achieving balance in our lives. We need to stop scrolling through social media, on average 18-22 year olds spend 4 hours a day on social media and the impact of that is huge. Put your phone down, think about who you’re following and clear out the things that make you feel bad about yourself. There are plenty of body positivity sites out there that you can access. Stop questioning who you are. Are your peer group making you question who you are? Surround yourself with battery chargers, not people who drain your battery. Never keep it locked away, there are so many resources out there to help you and for you to talk and get things off your chest. Please do that. If you can see the signs that your friend is feeling uncomfortable, suggest that they go and talk to someone, even if it isn’t you.   BEST MOMENTS ‘I don’t know what the perfect body is, but I think there is a healthy body.’ ‘Covid and the lockdown has caused a growth in these markets because people had nothing to do.’ ‘The impact I see on people, almost daily, is that they’re continuously dissatisfied with what they look like, particularly in pictures.’ ‘We are all different, there’s no one-size-fits-all.’   ABOUT THE HOST Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.   CONTACT DETAILS www.hairlifeshow.comInstagram is @nathan.hairlife Email me at [email protected] show was brought to you by Progressive Media