Hey everyone, I appreciate your support and wanted to share a non-skin-related post that I believe is blog-worthy. I hope it helps you get to know me better as a person.
Solomon (Sol) and I met when we were 18 as coworkers at a sports club. He was the new guy on the bar in October 2015, and I had been working there for years as a lifeguard. At 18 (Dec 2014), I started working on the bar alongside lifeguarding, as I was working full-time during my gap year before university. It wasn’t the typical gap year, as I worked to save money and didn’t feel ready to go yet.
We worked long hours at this sports club, and had club nights that lasted until 3am, which allowed us to become very good friends quickly. Alongside my other friend, who was taking a year off before university. Me and sol often worked at the quieter, calmer events like bridge nights and women’s institute nights, where we had more of a chance to chat. I found Sol very mysterious, mainly because he came across as real nervous and quiet—a tall, dark, and handsome type, hahaha.
But once he had got comfortable, he wouldn’t shut up, constantly bantering and joking around. I felt like I had made a true friendship with him, more than with all the other staff that had come and gone through the doors. When our shifts finished and we’d be at the gate, walking home in opposite directions, I’d feel a sense of wishing we had more time together. I was totally convinced that he only saw me as a friend, and he thought the same of me.
So it wasn’t until a few months later (April 2016) that Dutch courage helped us have an open conversation, and we’ve been inseparable since. We had the type of relationship where we stayed up all night sharing the deepest parts of ourselves, from the get go communication was key, I ‘ve always told him everything and same him to me.
We embarked on a long-distance relationship early on, as he went off interrailing around Europe for a few months while I jetted off to Thailand, New Zealand, and Amsterdam (finally did a bit of a gap yaaaaa lol). In between, we managed to spend a few days together.
When someone means so much, distance truly means so little. Sol and my love was like a first love all over again. At each interrail stop he wrote me a postcard listing all the reasons he loved me, and I still have them to this day.
He’s a big guy with a big, soppy heart, which I adore. Don’t tell him I told you…He also lost a bet and dyed his hair peroxide… legit felt like I had a new bf when he returned home hahaha… EVIDENCE BELOW;
Eventually we both returned from our travels and had the most amazing 2 months before I started University in September 2016, heading off to University. He was doing a HND so still had a year of working and college before university, we never once thought about breaking up. A new adventure began with me in Edinburgh and him in London. I always posted pics of him in the train station, the excitement of seeing him and sadness of him leaving was soo hard.
Long distance worked amazingly when he was working full time finishing his degree whilst working loads as he both could afford it but in February 2017, I returned home for lunch one weekend and found my alopecia (see full story here ). My headspace became very negative and self image and worth were at an all time low, I was having panic attacks all the time and insomnia and needed him more yet he was soo far away, We did struggle a bit then and then also my hormonal contraceptive implant decided to fuck with me. I ended up having 3 month low extremely heavy periods which the doctor only offered more hormones to fix, my skin exploded my hair loss only got worse over these 6 months. I did start sharing online;
In August 2017, Sol and I experienced a rough patch and broke up for a few weeks. I hastily returned to university in August following the breakup, seeking to escape my emotions. However, a mutual friend’s birthday in September brought us both back home, and upon seeing each other, we realized the mistake we had made. We reconciled and I began therapy to address the bottled-up feelings stemming from my hair loss, anxiety, and eczema. This period stands out as one of the most challenging years of my life, during which I felt truly depressed and unlike myself.
Therapy proved instrumental in helping me regain control, and it ultimately strengthened my relationship with Sol as I learned how to communicate the things i struggles to talk about and was able to explain why i was acting certain ways and was able to communicate my needs whilst also his. Since that difficult period in 2017, we have not encountered any major issues as we learned how to support and communicate healthily.
Itch N Bitch 