It Was Never About the Hair.

Welcome to my first blog post. And of course, I had to start with a story about something that was never really about what it looked like on the surface.

I’d felt it building for a while. This quiet but insistent nudge. It was time.

Time for it to be gone. Taken away.

I wanted it off me. Not just off my head, but off my soul.

I can’t fully explain it except to say it was a deep, unshakable pull to shed layers that had been woven into me for years, layers tangled in my hair and my identity. And here’s what no one tells you: shaving your head doesn’t just change how you look. It changes you at an energetic level. A soul level.

Shaving my head didn’t just leave me physically exposed, it exposed me at my core.

I had nowhere to hide. It was just me.

Watching myself evolve through this process has been fascinating, challenging, illuminating, beautiful, raw, and deep. I’ve had to sit with the same feelings that so many women before me have faced - that beauty is not skin deep, yet we live in a world that tells us it is.

We all rely on our physical expression every single day, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

It’s important to feel good in our own skin. I’ll never deny that.

But I had to face the fact that my hair had been part of my identity.

It was presenting something to the world I didn’t have to say out loud.

And in some ways, it was also a shield, keeping me from stepping fully into the next version of myself.

It’s not that I wasn’t showing up in the world as my authentic self, far from it.

I was. But now? I had nothing to present except me.

Who was I behind the hair? What would people think of me? If perceptions change, does that change me?

I realized how much we identify with others’ perceptions of us, often without even realizing it.

I know this now because I’ve experienced it firsthand.

And honestly, another reason I did this was because I wanted to know.

I wanted to know what it would feel like to have nowhere to go, nothing to hide behind.

To show up exactly as I am soul first, appearance second. Of course, I’m still in a physical body, but until you’ve shaved your head, you can’t fully understand my experience.

And I love that.

Because that’s the kind of person I am. I’m here for the full human experience, without attaching to the label of who I’ve been or who I’ve built myself to be.

Where are my limits? How did they get there?

My hair was a limitation. And I wanted to push past it.

True liberation. True freedom.

This act has pulled the next version of me to the surface - the version that’s been waiting.

And it took a tremendous amount of courage I knew, deep down, I had.

It’s made me stronger. It’s made me respect myself more, because I’m sitting in the discomfort of it every single day.

Don’t get me wrong, I fucking love myself now more than I ever have, but it’s been a hard transition.

I’m a woman now.

Not a girl.

Not a lady.

A 41-year-old woman who has lived and experienced a hell of a lot in this lifetime.

This was a rite of passage into the next version of myself.

The woman I’ve known I needed to embody.

And that’s what my website is: a reflection of the woman I am now.

Not who I was.

(And yes, I know, I have to update my photos - don’t worry, I’m on it. HAHA.)

The soul of my work is the soul of me. I am a representation of my life, my business, my truth. This is who I am, and you’re welcome to find a home here.

I’m committed to showing up as the most raw, authentic, and powerful version of myself, for me and for you. I’m not afraid to say my work is unique, because I am unique.

We all are & it's time we own it.

So welcome to my home: bodybyreneedawn.com.

It’s an honour to have you here & I look forward to walking alongside you and you alongside me.

And so I’ll leave you with this : What has your soul been pulling you toward? What change have you been resisting, even though it’s the very thing that would bring you into the next version of yourself?

A small question to ask yourself ;)

I love you & I’ll see you soon.

Renee Dawn