Lady Parts: A BARB Beauty Series
by Stacy Conde
This edition: Love The Skin You’re In
featuring Kristen Perman
I met Kristen Perman recently at a friend’s BBQ/pool party. We talked about bathing suits … and how hard it is to find a good one (she was wearing a great one which I immediately copied). We also talked about botox. Whether or not to try it (She had. She didn’t like it. I hadn’t. It scares me.) and what our options are should we not go the needle route.
We will talk about botox again in a future installment, but for the sake of this discussion I want to make clear that this column is not about making judgments. If injectables for for you – great. If you’ve had “some work done” (you brave soul) – I hope it wasn’t’ too painful and you came out of it even more beautiful than you were before. The point of these conversations is to say: do whatever makes you feel happy in your skin. For me, at least for right now, what makes me happy is working with what I’ve got. My medicine cabinet is full of potions. Some work. Some don’t. My esthetician promises that the O2 treatment will take years off my face. It does temporarily.
Kristen had a birthday recently. She wrote some pretty powerful words. Her raw honesty about turning another year older expressed a beautiful vulnerability. I hope we can all embrace her message. No matter what you choose to do with your body, let your path be unfettered by societal expectations or air brushed magazine pages.
<3 Stacy
Today is my birthday and my heart thumps inside my chest as I post this, the uncomfortable feelings that arise prompting me to hit share.
This is 53.
I’m in better shape than I’ve ever been, and I feel good about myself and who I am. Age is truly just a number because I feel, and very often act, half my age.
I’m tired of the representation of the middle-aged woman because I don’t see a representation that feels like me.
I’ve tried Botox and fillers, nothing against any of that, but they aren’t for me. I’ve heard amazing things about laser treatments, but for now I’m embracing a more natural route of decent skin care and hydration, because even Retinol products create spots and that’s not the type of resurfacing I’m looking for.
I have brown spots and white spots, and I have soft rolls. My muscles are less defined, the texture of my skin is changing at an alarming speed, and I color my hair every three weeks now.
Every day that I wake up I give thanks to be alive, healthy, and in this body that has served these 53 years very well.
I am a maiden, a mother, and a crone. I am rich with experience, and I walk this life with my eyes wide open, humbled and blessed.
I make images to capture a mood and feeling. I’m inspired by my surroundings and my cameras are my way to interpret the world around me.
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Kristen Perman is a fine art photographer living in Los Angeles. Her work has been included in group shows in Los Angeles and New York, and her photography has been featured in various online publications and appeared in print.
Follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kris tenperman/
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