THE VIEW FROM THE KITCHEN TABLE…
Let’s talk about masks. How’re you getting on with yours?! Like a lot of relationships, the one I have with mask wearing is complex, but in this world you’ve gotta pick your battles and for me, to wear, or not to wear a mask just wasn’t one of them. I have to wear it for work and it just may very well stop the spread of Covid so, for me, it’s a no-brainer. I just wear it but that doesn’t mean I like it.
I’ve tried them all in my quest to find the perfect one. I got some nice black ones made of a sort of neoprene fabric which were really comfortable but felt like I was breathing through a wet sock after a while, but they are easy to wash and dry so I hang one or two up in the car and they get the thumbs up for short trips, or for when I forget to bring one ,which is often. Next up were fabric ones, very nice prints on them, they look as good as a face mask can. Not very airy though and because they had no pleats, they were rigid so when I looked down, the mask rode up over my eyes. This really hampered my weekly game of ‘Beat the Aldi check-out person’, where I pack as fast as I can (this is strictly against their rules!) at the checkout. I had to admit defeat with this mask on. Even though it was Leopard print, I couldn’t see what I was doing and I had to pack at the packing area (the shame!)
We wear the disposable blue ones in work and they are probably the best, though I dread to think of the landfill we’re creating. When I say they are the best, I’m not in the medical profession (be grateful), so I never expected that mask wearing was ever going to be a thing in hairdressing, they were never on my radar as something I was going to have to rate but as ratings go they are the easiest to wear by far. Even though you can’t wear lipstick or lip gloss because your mouth sticks to the mask and then you end up eating it. You can’t even really wear make-up because it comes off on the mask and it’s all a bit gross. There are many, many reasons not to like the mask – they feel a little claustrophobic. They are a continual reminder that life is just a bit strange right now. They hamper non-verbal communication so I’m doing lots of verbally communication while wearing one for 12 hours a day which is giving me a sore jaw and sore ears from the straps no matter which way, I twist them. But wearing one has allowed me and 25,000 others in my sector to get back to work, and I’m very grateful for that, and it won’t be forever. The experts say another year. Or 2 years. Or until a vaccine is created. Or never. But we’ll live in hope