Self Portrait Tuesday: All of me

21 February 2006

I wasn’t so keen on this month’s challenge for Self Portrait Tuesday. It’s called “All of Me” and much of the challenge is based on doing exactly what I resolved to do less this year: picking at myself and pointing out the not-so-pretty bits.

I started to think about the various parts of myself that I could look at without thoroughly lambasting them and began to wonder: why does my hair only ever fall out of its clip in a romantic, floppy, delightful way when it’s in need of a wash? And why, for that matter, do I always scratch my head more when my hair needs a wash, serving only to make matters worse?

I’m for ever scratching my head and I find it oddly soothing. I had a terrible time a couple of years ago when I was stressed about an upcoming meeting … for which I wanted nice clean hair and so couldn’t let myself have a scratch. Oh, the scratching that went on afterwards. I nearly got a splinter.

It took me a little while to get this photo right (oh my camera, she does love to focus on what’s behind me) and the shot I’ve used has caught a previous attempt on the screen of my iMac. It wasn’t intentional, but it does rather symbolically underline the fact that I do this all the damn time.