 For many years I believed that the length of my hair determined my self worth and how beautiful I was in the eyes of the world around me. Coming from the East Indian background where long hair is a sign of beauty and customary. I found my beauty in my long hair, until one day in 2012 I cut it all off in a season of deep depression. Cutting off my hair, really did something to the way I saw myself. I stopped hearing the words "beautiful and gorgeous" when it came to my hair and I started hearing the words "cute and edgy". As a model (with my new Dora the explorer haircut) I looked to the modeling industry to give me back the value that I felt like I had lost when I cut my hair. Even though I didn't feel beautiful with my short hair, I would go home and say "well I must be beautiful because the top modeling agencies in the world like Wilhelmina are signing me to their agency with my short hair." Yet a modeling contract with these top agencies didn't fix the fact that i no longer felt beautiful inside. In that season of my life, God taught me that the length of my hair didn't define my beauty or worth, and having long hair wasn't what made me beautiful to begin with. Coloring my hair blonde last year, (the Dora hair needed to go) I began to grow out my hair for the first time in 4 years. And as it began to grow out people began to compliment how much they loved my hair. Yet now when I look in the mirror, I see Christina. Not my long hair, not the compliments of others, I see a child of the King. Growing my hair out again has not helped me to feel more beautiful because I ALREADY feel beautiful because of what my Creator says about me. Above is a collage of all the different lengths of my hair from 2012 until now. Through all my hair transitions, I have learned this one thing. Whether I am bald, have short hair, long hair, blonde hair or blue hair. The length of our hair should never determine our self worth, how beautiful we feel, or our identity. Even coming from a culture that sees long hair as beautiful, I have learned to look into the mirror of my Creator for my beauty. Not the length of my hair. If any of you are struggling out there because your hair isn't as long as it used to be, remember that your hair is never what made you beautiful to begin with. Your beauty comes from your joy, your compassion, your love, your smile, and God's light shining in and through you!! xoxo www.beautyhasnosize.com
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 Sitting at my friends house last week drinking some coffee and chatting about her day. I glanced down at a stack of catalogs and something caught my eye. Looking down was a Justice Clothing Catalog which is a popular mainstream clothing store for girls. What I saw on the front cover of the catalog brought tears to my eyes and a smile to my heart. Picking it up I began to flip through the pages of the catalog, and a deep sigh of relief and joy filled my soul. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, my mind was going 100 miles per hour, and all I could think was "this is incredible, this is amazing, this is so cool, this is so freeing". Your probably thinking "Christina cut to the chase what was in the catalog". Well here are the pictures from the catalog.
You can probably conclude after seeing these pictures what I was thinking. How AMAZING, COOL, INCREDIBLE, FANTASTIC...the list goes on. It is that Justice is using girls of all different shapes, sizes, ethnicities, skin colors, body types, and heights for their clothing campaigns. Looking through this campaign and catalog. Every girl around the US flipping through it will be able to identify in some way with one of the girls in the catalog. They will be able to see an outfit, look at their own body and know it will look good on them because they see a model similar to themselves wearing the same outfit. Some would call it smart marketing or some would call it a push in a new direction with body image. Whatever others call it, I call it a miracle. Why? Because self hatred and self consciousness begins with girls at that age. At the age where most girls shop at Justice, right before they graduate to Forever 21. It starts when they are in elementary school and are constantly bombarded with airbrushed, photo-shopped, digitally altered images of models and celebrities. That plants messages in their heads that, that is what they need to look like to be beautiful. So many young girls also believe they need to look a certain way in order to fit the trends and feel beautiful in their own skin. But there isn't always a model for every body type that teaches them that they CAN be beautiful in their bodies. What I love about Justice is that the did JUST THAT. They showed every girl out there, that they could wear the trends, and be absolutely beautiful in them. Bravo Justice Bravo!!! What does this have to do with this fashion blog?? EVERYTHING. Because that is our goal here at beauty has no size. To show girls, young women and women everywhere how to dress in a way that fits their body type. To help women and girls everywhere see that the trends are not just for one body type but for ALL body types and that they don't need to wear a certain size in order to feel beautiful in the trends. Our first outfit we are going to use to demonstrate that is this one below!!
   In this outfit we have 3 signature pieces.
1. A black turtleneck top from H and M $5 2. A black satin dress from H and M $15 3. A chunky glam necklace from Forever 21. $10 Looking at the runways this past season, satin dresses layered with a turtle neck are trending. How to pair it for your size and shape is a different ball game. So here is how you can wear this trend to fit your body shape. 1. Tall and Curvy - If you have a tall curvy figure like I do. Then you can wear this dress with black tights underneath like I did. The slits on the side were a little high for me, so wearing black tights made it look classy and sheek. I also paired it with black ankle boots from forever 21 for a classic elegant look for a night out with friends, church, a date night, a wedding etc. 2. Tall and Straight - If you have a tall straighter frame. You can wear both these pieces like I layered them. But instead of black tights you can do a shimmer or printed tights, with black lace up ankle boots for a punk grunge look. 3. Petite and curvy - If you have a petite curvy frame, this dress will almost look like a maxi dress on you, verses a dress that hits your calves like it did for me because I am tall. For this dress the slits on the side won't go as high as it did on me, they will probably hit your knees. That way if you wear spanx like I do, you don't see them on the side where the slit is. You can pair this dress with cute platform heals or boots (black, or white). This will elongate the dress just in case it's hitting the floor. You can also pair it with a solid colored ballet flats (black or white) that are currently trending for more casual everyday look for work, a day out with friends, a nice dinner, or church. 4. Petite and Straight - This look will also look great on you if you have a petite straight frame. You can also pair this outfit with a cute pair of ballet flats which are currently trending (black or white) for a more casual look. You can wear a pair of ankle boots, or solid colored heals (recommended black or white) to create a more elongated look for a night out or a wedding. What I love about this look is that whatever body shape you have, you can dress it up and down. These pieces you can find at Old Navy, Forever 21, Gap, H and M, Target and so much more. You don't have to spend a lot of money to look great, and you can look great in the trends no matter what body shape you have. We hope you enjoyed this weeks Fashion Post! Remember you are beautiful, and feeling beautiful doesn't start with being a certain size. It starts with being confident in the body you have, and embracing your one of a kind beauty. XOXO Beauty Has No Size Special Side Note - The photographs taken for this fashion blog are by Karli Sculnick photography. Karli is a wedding, lifestyle and Fashion photographer based out of Orange County CA. You can visit her instagram at - @karli_s_photography or email her at ksculnickphoto@gmail.com  Our First Fashion Blog PostI don't know about you, but I love fashion, I love the trends and new styles I see at the mall and in magazines. Yet when I walk into the store, pick up the clothes and hold them up to my body..I shake my head..hang the piece of clothing back up and walk away. A lot of women and young women have this experience on a daily and weekly basis. Of finding clothes they love, trends they adore, but having the problem of those clothing trends not fitting their size or shape. The average size model used to market clothes to young women and women is 6 feet tall and a size zero-two, and has the body weight of a healthy 8 year old. While the average size woman in America is a size 14-16. Are you seeing my disconnect? I'm not bashing on the models, those girls are beautiful, and I work with a lot of these girls. But sadly as I stand at photo shoots, shooting plus size clothes, while I have a straight size (modeling industry term for normal size model) also shooting her clothes for the non plus market. I can't help but wonder why, why 12-14 year olds girls are used as models to sell clothes to women in their 20's, 30's, 40's and up. To be honest the standards in the industry I'm apart of is very very sad. When women and young women look at the latest trends, they automatically feel body shamed and insecure because they feel like they need to look like the size zero models wearing the clothes in order for those clothes to look good on them. A lot of these models I work with haven't even developed as a woman, a lot of them haven't had their periods in a long time because they are so underweight and many of them have eating disorders and are taking drugs to stay thin. Even the models wearing these trendy clothes struggle to feel good enough and skinny enough to look good enough for the trends. And if they struggle, and we struggle..then why doesn't the industry change its beauty standards? Personally what I would love to see is a model for every body type. Most of the population isn't 5'11" or 6 feet tall like most models are. In the modeling industry we have models who are a size zero or 2, and then a size 12 and up which is considered plus size. But honestly most of the population falls between the sizes of 2-12. So why aren't there models for those body types? And who is helping those body types how to dress? Do we need to be a size zero or 2 or a size 12 or 14 to be trendy and to be able to wear the trends? No. You can be beautiful, wear the trends and love your body at any size. Beauty has no size is not here to body shame, we are here to bring body positivity awareness and to help young women and women embrace and celebrate their shape and size. We are going to be committed to not only talking about the trends, but helping you dress in the trends that go with your body shape. No matter what your size is, you are worth being celebrated! Next week we will be posting our first outfit, talking about some of the trends this spring, and helping all our gals out there feel fabulous in their skin this spring!! Until then we would love to see your spring looks, post and tag us with a body positivity message!! @beauty_hasnosize |
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Christina is passionate about restoring value, purpose, identity and beauty to the young women of this generation. Follow- @beauty_hasnosize Archives
February 2018
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