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My Mane Man Chris Appleton · Untraditionally Lala

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Speaker 1: Hello, gorgeous, it's Lala Kent. Welcome to untraditionally, Lala. Hello, gorgeous,
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Speaker 1: it is La La Kent. Welcome back to Untraditionally, Lala.
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Speaker 1: We have been graced with an.
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Speaker 2: Amazing presence today.
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Speaker 3: I'm looking at you, baby, Where are you looking to
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Speaker 3: look at there?
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Speaker 2: My eyes are kind of wandering. Okay, my hot pants
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Speaker 2: that I wore for you I want to.
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Speaker 4: Give you will Yes, when I.
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Speaker 2: Walk, I made sure, but when I move, yes, it's
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Speaker 2: just the hot pants.
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Speaker 4: You guys.
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Speaker 2: I have Chris Appleton.
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Speaker 3: Obviously, you guys know him, because none of us.
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Speaker 2: Live under a rock anymore.
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Speaker 3: A world renowned hairstylist gives being showcased on covers of
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Speaker 3: major feature publications, including Vogue, Harper's Bizarre, Vanity Fair, and
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Speaker 3: That's just to name a few. Celebrity clients include Jennifer Lopez,
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Speaker 3: Kim Kardashian, Sophia Viagara, Ariana Grande, Katie Perry, you have
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Speaker 3: two babies that are not so much babies any more.
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Speaker 3: They're kind of always your babies, right yeah, Billy and
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Speaker 3: Kitty Blue. I love that name with your former partner, Katie, welcome,
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Speaker 3: my love, thank you, and you have a book coming out.
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Speaker 4: It's out, We're here, there, it is.
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Speaker 2: There, it is. Do you ever have a bad day
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Speaker 2: as far as like your looks go?
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Speaker 4: Yeah, really, I'm literally yesterday I was doing a podcast.
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Speaker 4: I was like, I don't know why I look like
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Speaker 4: all of them. It's my head gingja. Like we all
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Speaker 4: have those moments where you pull yourself apart. But now
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Speaker 4: I just come back to myself, Well, I'm doing that
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Speaker 4: thing I do. We will do it.
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Speaker 2: We all do it.
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Speaker 3: And I I love that when I was reading your book,
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Speaker 3: I love that you pointed out because most people would
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Speaker 3: look at you and be like, you have everything going on,
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Speaker 3: like your sexy as hell, you're touching you know, the
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Speaker 3: hair of these mega mega superstars.
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Speaker 2: What insecurity or problem could you ever have?
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Speaker 4: Yeah? And I have them all right, And.
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Speaker 3: I'm I'm so excited about your book and for people
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Speaker 3: to fall even harder for you. I want to know, like,
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Speaker 3: when did you know it was time to write a book.
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Speaker 4: I think maybe the idea of Chris Appleton as a brand,
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Speaker 4: Like people perceive me from what they see on social media,
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Speaker 4: which is obviously what most people do. We have a
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Speaker 4: perception of someone from the small amount of information we see.
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Speaker 4: So people probably know our work with celebrities. You know,
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Speaker 4: life looks good, it's a then red carpets or this
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Speaker 4: and that. But that's just like a really small part
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Speaker 4: of my life, right and it's a really small part
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Speaker 4: of what I do. And I felt like it was
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Speaker 4: time to bring a book out for people that say, well,
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Speaker 4: I can't have that. I don't look like Jo Lo
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Speaker 4: or I can't have that I'm not like I don't
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Speaker 4: look like Kim Gardishian. And I was like, well, it's
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Speaker 4: actually really easy when you break it down of how
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Speaker 4: to like look and fill your absolute best. There's like
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Speaker 4: a formula to it. Because I've worked with celebrities what
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Speaker 4: people know me as now, but I've also worked in
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Speaker 4: a salon doing you know, regular clients nine toil five.
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Speaker 4: I've also done models on a runway. I've also done
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Speaker 4: cancer patients lost their hair, and you know, I see,
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Speaker 4: I saw a formula that worked with everyone on how
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Speaker 4: to make people look and feel their best, depending on
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Speaker 4: what they were going through and what they wanted. But
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Speaker 4: a lot of it was about alignment. It was like,
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Speaker 4: when you're fully aligned on the inside is when the
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Speaker 4: outside really kind of happens, and that's the superpower. And
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Speaker 4: I think that's the bit that a lot of people
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Speaker 4: don't know. So what the reader will find is basically
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Speaker 4: tools in how to you know, look and feel their best.
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Speaker 4: And it's like, all right, well you don't look like
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Speaker 4: Jennifer Lopez, but this.
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Speaker 3: Is how And I love that because even Jennifer Lopez,
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Speaker 3: I'm sure has her moments of going, we just ain't
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Speaker 3: hitting today and like the little insecurities.
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Speaker 2: And I noticed when I started talking.
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Speaker 3: About like how I felt postpartum, which you have you
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Speaker 3: have two kids. I'm sure who you were with at
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Speaker 3: the time, their mother. You know, things are just different
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Speaker 3: after two babies. Your hair is falling out and you
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Speaker 3: really don't feel like you've so like your identity is
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Speaker 3: gone totally.
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Speaker 2: And it's hard to.
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Speaker 3: Like go out and explain things to certain people because
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Speaker 3: they're still fixated on like, well, you know, you're bounced back.
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Speaker 2: Imagine if you had you know it the way I
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Speaker 2: had it.
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Speaker 3: But there are moments where I'm looking at myself in
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Speaker 3: the mirror going like I just what is going on?
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Speaker 2: And it always for me goes back to what can
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Speaker 2: we do with this hair?
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Speaker 4: Yeah, hair is so powerful, right. I mean, if you
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Speaker 4: think about a lot of it's interesting to me. Some
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Speaker 4: people will be like, I don't care about my hair,
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Speaker 4: Like it's the last thing I care about. I just
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Speaker 4: I can't be bothered. And I'm like, that also says
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Speaker 4: something about you. That also says about that. That also
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Speaker 4: says what you're putting out to the world, you know,
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Speaker 4: And if you don't truly feel like that on the inside, yeah,
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Speaker 4: and the outside is saying that, then you need you know,
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Speaker 4: you're not aligned. You need to kind of get aligned
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Speaker 4: with how you want to come across people, what your
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Speaker 4: goals are, and work towards those things. And I think
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Speaker 4: if you think about any celebrity, like hair is so fundamental,
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Speaker 4: Like if I say j Lo, like you probably think
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Speaker 4: like honey colored hair with a pop su blonde. Yeah,
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Speaker 4: obviously the Kardashian like dark rich brunettes, Lady Garga like
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Speaker 4: platinum ice blonde, like Chapel with the red head. It's
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Speaker 4: so significant. I don't think about Marilyn Monroe without the
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Speaker 4: platinum hair. I don't know. It's just it's such a
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Speaker 4: part of identity, and I think a lot of people
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Speaker 4: don't always kind of necessarily know they have a choice,
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Speaker 4: because a lot of people have what they've always had
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Speaker 4: because no one's really given the option to ever explore.
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Speaker 4: But that is also like personal things as well, Like
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Speaker 4: you were told once as a kid you were the
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Speaker 4: quiet one, or you are the you know your sister's
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Speaker 4: the bobby one. You're the quiet one, or you know
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Speaker 4: you're the chubby one, she's the hot one. I don't know,
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Speaker 4: Like I noticed that people carry these things with them
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Speaker 4: their whole life, like they're put in a box. Yeah.
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Speaker 4: They literally like, oh, well, I know I can't. I
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Speaker 4: would sit down in the salon or in the chair
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Speaker 4: and I'd be like, you know, well, have you ever
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Speaker 4: thought about I don't know, you showed me a picture
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Speaker 4: of blonde hair, have you ever thought about Yeah, I
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Speaker 4: know I love the blonde, but I know I can't
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Speaker 4: do that. And I'd be like all right, why And
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Speaker 4: they're like, well, I just know that that I can't.
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Speaker 4: And I'd be like, well, who told you that? I'm like, well,
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Speaker 4: I don't know. And they trace it back and it's
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Speaker 4: usually like once someone said to them like this is
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Speaker 4: what suits you, and they kind of get it broken
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Speaker 4: up into the head is this is who I am.
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Speaker 4: And the idea of the book is that you stop
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Speaker 4: and like actually truly look in the mirror and find
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Speaker 4: out who you are, who you want to be, and
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Speaker 4: know that it's possible to change, and it's like never
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Speaker 4: too late to meet you come back. It's a lot
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Speaker 4: of people also have a thing about age, like well
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Speaker 4: over the age of twenty, I'm too old, Like it's
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Speaker 4: who I am, who I am now, And it's like
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Speaker 4: you can create, you come back at any age. It's
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Speaker 4: never too late. And it might be as simple as
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Speaker 4: like changing your hair color or your haircut, or it
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Speaker 4: might be leaving a marriage, it might be changing your job,
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Speaker 4: it might be getting out of the friend group that
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Speaker 4: makes you miserable. But the whole thing is about coming
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Speaker 4: back to yourself and you know, fully feeling comfortable. And
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Speaker 4: the book was actually really different, like I wrote a
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Speaker 4: very different book initially. Really Yeah, it was way more
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Speaker 4: kind of like what people would probably expect, like a polish,
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Speaker 4: like cute book. And I just was like, it's not
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Speaker 4: really real, it's not who I am, Like I've gone
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Speaker 4: through a real journey of getting to where I'm at. Yeah,
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Speaker 4: where the first time in my life I'm fully comfortable
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Speaker 4: with who I am, and I just wanted to share that.
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Speaker 4: So I actually started and talked about a lot of
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Speaker 4: the dark times in my life because I've hoped in
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Speaker 4: opening up to that, it would encourage other people to
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Speaker 4: feel freely to talk about theirs. Yeah, it's not about
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Speaker 4: deleting it and pretending it didn't happen. It's just about
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Speaker 4: making it part of your story.
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Speaker 2: And moving on from it.
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Speaker 4: So, yeah, that goes it's completely different.
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Speaker 3: Did you have the same title your Roots Don't Define You?
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Speaker 4: No, that came after the book, and I think your
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Speaker 4: roots don't define you? Obviously it's you know, visually, you know, yeah,
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Speaker 4: a nod towards hair, But it really is the fact
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Speaker 4: that most people roots do define them. Their childhood really
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Speaker 4: defined who they are, what someone once said to them,
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Speaker 4: really like to find who they were, and they carried
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Speaker 4: it their whole lives without even realizing. And it hopefully
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Speaker 4: gives people the opportun you see, to stop look in
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Speaker 4: the mirror and actually decide what their story is, decide
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Speaker 4: what their image is, how they want to be perceived
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Speaker 4: by the world, and you know, have the power to
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Speaker 4: change it. Because it is as simple as that, and
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Speaker 4: it's like really fun like techniques broken down which are
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Speaker 4: easy to follow. They just make you stop and kind
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Speaker 4: of for anyone that said before, is this it? Like?
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Speaker 4: Is this enough? All that way and read the book?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, this is as good as it gets. Like what
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Speaker 2: am I doing?
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Speaker 1: Wow?
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Speaker 3: I have to ask you a question? Yeah, and I
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Speaker 3: don't even know if I want to hear the answer.
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Speaker 3: What does what does my hair say to you right now?
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Speaker 4: What?
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Speaker 2: Like when you look at it, you go, she's in
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Speaker 2: what era?
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Speaker 4: I just thinkure, I never your has really pray. I
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Speaker 4: think it's great. I think the color is really nice.
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Speaker 4: It's like a nice combination. No, it suits your skin tone.
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Speaker 4: It works with your eye color. It's not too dark
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Speaker 4: and harsh, but it's not like platinum blonde and you
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Speaker 4: know out there like that. It kind of it works
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Speaker 4: with your skin tone.
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Speaker 2: What would you do?
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Speaker 4: Maybe give it? Maybe pop it more like more of
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Speaker 4: what you got, Give it a little bit more.
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Speaker 2: Like I'm oh, more sexy?
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Speaker 4: Yeah, like just pop out, like tip out some of
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Speaker 4: the ends a bit more and give it a bit.
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Speaker 4: But it looked great, you look you look amazing. But
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Speaker 4: you know, if you were like I'm going to this
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Speaker 4: event or I've got something going on. I want to
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Speaker 4: feel my absolute best, Like what you've got isn't wrong,
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Speaker 4: but you know, you could just spice it up, and.
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Speaker 2: I don't spice it up. Can I tell you?
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Speaker 3: I have gone from jet black to like super super blonde,
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Speaker 3: and so I'm in this phase of like, let's get
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Speaker 3: the hair healthy, let's like try to grow out.
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Speaker 4: And what was your best era? Did you like the
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Speaker 4: black or the blonde or not.
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Speaker 2: The black was too harsh?
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Speaker 3: Honestly, I think that I'm in my best era right now,
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Speaker 3: definitely where we're we're getting we're getting our sexy back.
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Speaker 2: I'm sixteen months postpartum.
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Speaker 4: And you look amazing.
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Speaker 2: Well, thank you.
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Speaker 3: And it's you know, I always know the moment my
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Speaker 3: extensions are clipped into my head, I become a different persons.
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Speaker 2: I am like vavoon, right, I come alive.
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Speaker 3: But I want to be able to like feel that
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Speaker 3: way without the extensions. So I'm like in this phase
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Speaker 3: of like, if I'm just kicking it, we have a
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Speaker 3: hair mask in we are oiled up. You could fry
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Speaker 3: an egg on my face because there's oil all over
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Speaker 3: that as well.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, that's great. You've got to be able to like replenish.
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Speaker 4: You got to put it all back together.
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Speaker 2: Can I ask you how old you are?
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Speaker 4: Forty two?
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Speaker 2: Damn me? You look good?
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Speaker 4: Really? Yeah, thank you.
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Speaker 2: I'll be thirty six this year and I'm tweaking out
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Speaker 2: over it.
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Speaker 4: I love me. I don't know. When I was turning forty,
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Speaker 4: I was a little freaked out. I was like, God,
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Speaker 4: I used to I was like, oh, thought, they're really old,
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Speaker 4: you know. And obviously that was just a younger version
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Speaker 4: of myself. But I think I'm at a place in
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Speaker 4: my life I've learned so much and I have done
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Speaker 4: the work. It's not like I just like, oh, I'm
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Speaker 4: in a great place, like because I've had success in
10:48
Speaker 4: my life and been really miserable. So it might look
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Speaker 4: great on the outside, but on the inside, I was
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Speaker 4: miserable and insecure and just afraid, you know. I had
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Speaker 4: a lot of shame, a lot of fear, heard that
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Speaker 4: a lot of my life. But I think truly find
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Speaker 4: in alignment. And the book was really helpful in that
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Speaker 4: of like bringing all of my past into one place
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Speaker 4: and then when it's just all part of me. Whereas
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Speaker 4: I think for a long time I used to try
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Speaker 4: and delete my past and kind of pretend it didn't happen.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, forget about it, because it felt.
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Speaker 4: So much shame and fear, especially like coming out later
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Speaker 4: on in life at twenty six having two kids. There
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Speaker 4: was some shame around that. And I think in writing
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Speaker 4: the book and making it all kind of one space,
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Speaker 4: it was really healing and for the first time in
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Speaker 4: my life, I think I was comfortable like being on
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Speaker 4: my own, having my own space. I think before I've
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Speaker 4: always gone into things, had someone around, had relationships, gone
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Speaker 4: into situations.
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Speaker 2: Like a codependent situation.
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Speaker 4: But if it was codependent, I think it was more
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Speaker 4: it was it was better to have someone around them
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Speaker 4: to be on your own, because when you're on your own,
11:48
Speaker 4: you have to That's when you're looking in the mirror.
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Speaker 4: And that's what I mean, it's that thing. Write about
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Speaker 4: it in the book. We'll look in the mirror maybe
11:54
Speaker 4: ten or fifteen times a day. You're brushing your teeth,
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Speaker 4: You're like glancing. You see that thing. You know, you
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Speaker 4: see your reflection. You just know it. But not many
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Speaker 4: people really stop and look. And I realized I made
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Speaker 4: a career out of doing that, making people stop and look,
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Speaker 4: seeing the best version of themselves. I felt like a
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Speaker 4: superpower to me making people look and feel their best.
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Speaker 4: But I realized that I'd never really stopped and not
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Speaker 4: to myself. That's hard to do, you know. And I
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Speaker 4: think in doing that and really seeing like where you're
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Speaker 4: out in your life, the changes you want to make,
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Speaker 4: you know, and like I say, getting aligned internally externally
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Speaker 4: was just that's like your superpower, because that's then it's
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Speaker 4: you have piece. You have like an inner piece absolutely,
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Speaker 4: you know, which I've never had before, and I think
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Speaker 4: I have ADHD. I've always been on the move, are
12:36
Speaker 4: you know, And I've always like strived for, like to
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Speaker 4: become successful because my background, like we were really poor
12:43
Speaker 4: as kids and we didn't have a lot. And I
12:46
Speaker 4: was like, well when I if I get successful, if
12:47
Speaker 4: I get financially secure, that will be you know, that
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Speaker 4: looks like the goal. But I realized, oh, you get
12:54
Speaker 4: those things, and it's like yeah, but you still have
12:56
Speaker 4: to come home to you.
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Speaker 2: I still have to.
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Speaker 4: Be on you know. It doesn't matter how rich or
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Speaker 4: families you are, it doesn't matter who you are, Like
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Speaker 4: you're still human, Like we say, we'll have heartbreak. We
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Speaker 4: still have good times, bad times, and you know, it's
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Speaker 4: been able to like be okay with that and be
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Speaker 4: present and you know, not be in a situation where
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Speaker 4: you're trying to you know, feel the void. So right, Yeah,
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Speaker 4: the book was really helpful for me to get to
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Speaker 4: that point.
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Speaker 3: Well, it was probably a lot of shedding and like
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Speaker 3: an elephant was off of your chest. I don't know
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Speaker 3: about you, but there have been so many moments. I'm
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Speaker 3: a recovering addict. I've been sober for over seven years,
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Speaker 3: and there were so many times and even now being sober,
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Speaker 3: I will still think back on moments in my life
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Speaker 3: and feel so much guilt and shame, and I feel like,
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Speaker 3: once I acknowledge that that's just a part of my
13:45
Speaker 3: journey and where I am today, and without those moments,
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Speaker 3: I don't exist the way that I am exactly.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a power.
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Speaker 4: Will make you a better parent, you know, because you
13:56
Speaker 4: can speak for my experience. You know, you can help
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Speaker 4: guide in a way that you know, maybe the things
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Speaker 4: that you didn't have that made you lead to get
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Speaker 4: into that place, you can help make sure that doesn't
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Speaker 4: because you know that what you needed at that age.
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Speaker 4: I don't know, you know, that's like, I mean, it's deeper,
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Speaker 4: but like you're in a child work of like looking
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Speaker 4: back at a younger age of you. And have you
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Speaker 4: ever done that?
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Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, yes, it's very intending a lot of
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Speaker 3: tears when I do that by nature, But I'm.
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Speaker 4: Not really like, I'm not like an energy. I mean,
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Speaker 4: I just I don't know. I was in I was
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Speaker 4: in this verypy session of my praipise was like, you know,
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Speaker 4: I want you to remember when you were a kid. Yeah,
14:34
Speaker 4: we go and I was really like not feeling it.
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Speaker 4: And I was like okay, and he's like, and I
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Speaker 4: remember this. I was like six years old. I was
14:42
Speaker 4: standing at the window and and he's like, well, how
14:44
Speaker 4: do you how did you feel? I think I felt
14:48
Speaker 4: kind of like alone, like I wasn't really like my
14:49
Speaker 4: brothers or my sisters, and I was dyslexic. I kind
14:53
Speaker 4: of wasn't academic. I don't know, I felt different. And
14:56
Speaker 4: he's like, well, you know, if you could go back
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Speaker 4: to that little cook kid, now, what do you think
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Speaker 4: you needed to hear? And I was like oh, and
15:05
Speaker 4: then my shoulders kind of went down. I was thinking, well,
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Speaker 4: I think you just wanted to know what's going to
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Speaker 4: be okay, like and you know, I think he's just
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Speaker 4: wanted to know that, like, how although I'm different, that
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Speaker 4: will be like your superpower one day when you're older.
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Speaker 4: It's good to be different, you know, whereas I so
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Speaker 4: I just wanted to blend in and then I'm like
15:21
Speaker 4: crying hysterically and I was like, oh my god, ugly crying,
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Speaker 4: and I'm like, what did you do to me? But
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Speaker 4: it changed me. I felt like I couldn't not see myself.
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Speaker 4: And I talk about this in the book and that
15:32
Speaker 4: the reader will obviously hear about it, about the hater,
15:36
Speaker 4: how we speak so poorly to ourselves. But it changes
15:39
Speaker 4: it because like, now I recognize that little boy, and
15:43
Speaker 4: I would never speak to anyone else like that. So
15:45
Speaker 4: I'm like, why would I speak to myself like that?
15:46
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
15:47
Speaker 4: So now I was still spiral. I still had triggers
15:49
Speaker 4: where you're like, oh I look older, I feel fat,
15:52
Speaker 4: or you know, I'm not fit enough, or I'm not
15:55
Speaker 4: doing well. You know, we all have these human things,
15:58
Speaker 4: whatever it is we're triggered by. But now the volume
16:01
Speaker 4: used to be at ten. Now it's at like a two,
16:03
Speaker 4: and I can actually just come back to myself and
16:04
Speaker 4: I'm like, I'm just doing that thing. I do. You
16:06
Speaker 4: know it says that boys that hater, I call it
16:08
Speaker 4: the hater, And you can kind of turn it down
16:10
Speaker 4: and come back to your adult self because really all
16:11
Speaker 4: you're doing is resulting back to that. I was resorting
16:13
Speaker 4: back to that like little kid. Yeah. So like that's
16:17
Speaker 4: very powerful and like I like sharing it. I mean
16:19
Speaker 4: for some people it might be a bit heavy, but
16:21
Speaker 4: it actually is really powerful to know.
16:24
Speaker 2: I don't think it's heavy at all.
16:25
Speaker 3: I mean I think that in those moments where you
16:28
Speaker 3: can sit with yourself and acknowledge, you know, go back
16:31
Speaker 3: to your inner child, that's where like the real work
16:34
Speaker 3: takes place totally.
16:35
Speaker 4: It is brutal.
16:36
Speaker 2: It is brutal, but there's peace at the end of
16:38
Speaker 2: the time.
16:38
Speaker 4: What did you say to your younger self? Did you
16:40
Speaker 4: did you do this child thing? Like yes, what did
16:43
Speaker 4: you think you wanted to do as a kid?
16:44
Speaker 2: And I and I sobbed as well.
16:47
Speaker 3: And you know, I was a very strange child in
16:52
Speaker 3: the sense where like I would be watching like the
16:54
Speaker 3: Disney Channel, and instead of just like watching the Disney Channel,
16:57
Speaker 3: I would beat myself up over the fact that they
17:00
Speaker 3: were all actors and making money and I was just
17:03
Speaker 3: sitting watching and like I wasn't good enough and I
17:07
Speaker 3: was lazy and I'm a young child. So now I'm
17:11
Speaker 3: thirty five and I still talk to myself that way,
17:15
Speaker 3: and we've accomplished way more than I ever thought that
17:19
Speaker 3: we would totally.
17:20
Speaker 2: And when I did this.
17:22
Speaker 3: You know, inner child work, it was like to go
17:25
Speaker 3: back and and you just want to like cradle that
17:31
Speaker 3: person and like you said, let let that inner child
17:36
Speaker 3: know like.
17:37
Speaker 2: You are gonna be okay, You're good.
17:39
Speaker 4: Enough, good enough. Yeah, I think we all want to
17:41
Speaker 4: know that, or needed to hear it more. Yeah, you know,
17:44
Speaker 4: And I think now we're so much more aware of
17:46
Speaker 4: these things. And I'm sure your parenting will be different
17:48
Speaker 4: to what you had. It's not that anyone did a
17:51
Speaker 4: bad job. It's just it's just what we knew, you
17:53
Speaker 4: know what I mean, everyone just kind of knew it
17:54
Speaker 4: used to be. Remember like these to say kids should
17:56
Speaker 4: be seen and not heard. It's like things.
17:58
Speaker 2: Changed, everything has change, and thank god.
18:01
Speaker 4: Yes, but you know, some of us are still dealing
18:03
Speaker 4: with what we didn't get. And it's just great to
18:07
Speaker 4: know some quick and easy techniques of being able to
18:09
Speaker 4: a not feel alone. B You know, if you do
18:12
Speaker 4: you can feel like you can relate to others and
18:14
Speaker 4: see just be able to come back to yourself even
18:16
Speaker 4: when you do have those moments.
18:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, you said that you came out later on in
18:32
Speaker 3: life and in your book. I mean, I'm not laughing,
18:37
Speaker 3: but it is just wild because your mom said to you,
18:41
Speaker 3: and you remember this, being gay is when two men
18:43
Speaker 3: get together and there's this thing called age which makes
18:47
Speaker 3: you sick and die. How old were you when your
18:49
Speaker 3: mom said that to you.
18:51
Speaker 4: I think I was like a maybe eleven. It was
18:54
Speaker 4: like one of those conversations where let you sit down
18:58
Speaker 4: and you talk about sex all called conversations, okay, whatever,
19:03
Speaker 4: and they it was a conversation around like gay men
19:07
Speaker 4: and you know, they have sex together, but there's this
19:10
Speaker 4: thing called HIV which at the time, because I was
19:12
Speaker 4: born in eighty three, like at that age there was
19:15
Speaker 4: people didn't really know about gay I remember being from
19:19
Speaker 4: a small town in England and back then, I remember
19:22
Speaker 4: there was like a pub that there was like on
19:25
Speaker 4: the outskirts that the gay people went to. But it
19:29
Speaker 4: was like it was like society said that was like
19:32
Speaker 4: the weird, like you know, it was the gay area.
19:34
Speaker 4: And I remember at the time around the time I
19:38
Speaker 4: don't know, or it was still just relevant. The Princess
19:41
Speaker 4: Diana like took her glove off to shake the hand
19:44
Speaker 4: of a man with HIV and it made worldwide news
19:47
Speaker 4: because people thought you could catch it like that. People
19:49
Speaker 4: thought you could catch it from the toilet or like
19:51
Speaker 4: the previously didn't know. So it wasn't that like my
19:55
Speaker 4: mum was, you know, saying anything. She didn't know. It
19:58
Speaker 4: was just as a society, that's all we at the time.
20:00
Speaker 4: It was gay men and the gay JV. It wasn't
20:02
Speaker 4: spoken about. It wasn't TikTok. There wasn't Instagram, it wasn't
20:05
Speaker 4: We weren't as knowledge. Sorry, we didn't have as much
20:08
Speaker 4: knowledge as we do now. So it was just like
20:11
Speaker 4: passing thro away information like oh, you know, gay men HIV.
20:14
Speaker 4: And I just remember from my age thinking, oh my god,
20:16
Speaker 4: I don't want that.
20:17
Speaker 2: You know, did you did you? Did you know that
20:21
Speaker 2: age that you were attracted to boys?
20:24
Speaker 4: No? I didn't know. So from a young age I
20:27
Speaker 4: started doing hair. So I did my mom's hair from
20:29
Speaker 4: the age of like nine, and I remember being like, wow,
20:32
Speaker 4: I'm good at this. Because I was dyslexic at school,
20:34
Speaker 4: so I was felt a little well, I was just
20:36
Speaker 4: told I was stupid, you know, the teachers. If you
20:38
Speaker 4: didn't learn the way everyone else did, you were stupid
20:40
Speaker 4: or lazy. So I got put in the special needs class.
20:42
Speaker 4: Like the special I mean the fact I called it
20:44
Speaker 4: special needs. I mean like I carried that, you know,
20:47
Speaker 4: a special need. I felt different. I didn't feel like
20:49
Speaker 4: everyone else. But I knew I wasn't stupid because I
20:52
Speaker 4: was very articular, but that wasn't really recognized then, and
20:55
Speaker 4: I was very good at being creative, drawing, painting, but.
20:57
Speaker 2: Again, intelligence was measured differently.
21:02
Speaker 4: Of course. Yeah, it was like you learn from the board,
21:04
Speaker 4: and if you don't, then you're stupid or lazy or
21:07
Speaker 4: you know, just annoying. So I felt all those things.
21:10
Speaker 4: So when I started doing hair, I was like wow.
21:13
Speaker 4: I saw my mom and she stood up taller when
21:15
Speaker 4: I did her hair because I tried to make a
21:16
Speaker 4: look more glamorous because it was far from the life
21:18
Speaker 4: we lived. And I remember being like, wow, it's just
21:21
Speaker 4: like a superpower you get to make people feel really good.
21:23
Speaker 4: I saw a stand up taller. I was like, I'm
21:25
Speaker 4: going to do this, and I'm going to do it
21:26
Speaker 4: to the best of my ability. So then I got
21:28
Speaker 4: a job at the age of like twelve thirteen, and
21:30
Speaker 4: I remember the kids found out at school. I had
21:34
Speaker 4: a job, like a Saturday job, and I did hair.
21:37
Speaker 4: But again, if you did hair, then as a man,
21:40
Speaker 4: you were gay. So all the kids were like, oh,
21:43
Speaker 4: you're gay. You're gay, you know. So that that started,
21:44
Speaker 4: and they weren't saying in a nice way. They were like,
21:47
Speaker 4: you're gay. Like again, it was like a bad thing.
21:49
Speaker 4: So I just remember thinking, no, I'm not. I hadn't
21:51
Speaker 4: even thought about sexuality. I didn't even you know, I
21:53
Speaker 4: was like young and just sort of I was just
21:55
Speaker 4: happy playing with my friends and didn't It wasn't really
21:58
Speaker 4: it was premature. So before I even kind of explored
22:01
Speaker 4: that was like, well, I'm not that for sure, not that.
22:04
Speaker 4: And I think I just got so focused on like
22:06
Speaker 4: showing everyone that I wasn't stupid and I'm not gay,
22:09
Speaker 4: and I'm not weird and I'm not special needs, like
22:12
Speaker 4: I'm gonna show up one and I just really just
22:14
Speaker 4: put my head forward. And I think, you know, your
22:16
Speaker 4: brain's really powerful. You know, you can convince yourself at
22:21
Speaker 4: things that are not actually true. And I guess Like
22:23
Speaker 4: I said, I went through most of my adult life
22:26
Speaker 4: teenage life sure, not looking in the mirror and never
22:29
Speaker 4: seeing myself. I got really good at making up with people,
22:31
Speaker 4: look doing the best for them, and making it always
22:33
Speaker 4: about everyone else. But it wasn't until like you know,
22:36
Speaker 4: I was like twenty six, twenty seven, That's when I
22:37
Speaker 4: actually stopped and looked. Because circumstances sometimes made you two.
22:42
Speaker 4: And once I saw myself, I couldn't see it. I
22:44
Speaker 4: couldn't stop it, and I couldn't understand why I couldn't
22:46
Speaker 4: get back to be. I was like, what, I wasn't
22:48
Speaker 4: hooking up with guys. I wasn't watching Gayborne, I wasn't
22:51
Speaker 4: thinking of men like I was fine until I wasn't.
22:54
Speaker 4: And it was like once I'd stepped into it, I
22:57
Speaker 4: kind of couldn't get back, and that was really hard
22:59
Speaker 4: because I was like, well, I was normal, I had
23:01
Speaker 4: a life and I loved it well, but get back
23:04
Speaker 4: to it.
23:05
Speaker 2: Because you had your you were very young when you
23:08
Speaker 2: became a down nineteen nineteen.
23:11
Speaker 3: So what was that conversation because I know in your
23:14
Speaker 3: book you said that you had like down a bottle
23:16
Speaker 3: of gin. Oh yeah, that moment of having to not
23:21
Speaker 3: having to, but being being ready and being feeling brave
23:25
Speaker 3: enough to say like, this is who I am, this
23:27
Speaker 3: is what I like, and then going to your wife.
23:29
Speaker 2: At the time, you guys were married.
23:31
Speaker 4: Right, I never married. Okay, we were together for ten
23:34
Speaker 4: years and we're best friends. We're still best friends now.
23:36
Speaker 4: But our relationship broken around, had broken down, and I think,
23:40
Speaker 4: like as a couple with you know, separated, yeah, still
23:43
Speaker 4: kind of just figure out what that meant. And yeah,
23:46
Speaker 4: it was really hot. I mean telling other people was
23:49
Speaker 4: one thing. I was also telling people, and people then go, well,
23:51
Speaker 4: you must have always known, and I was like, I
23:53
Speaker 4: didn't know, idea, I didn't, It's not as I was
23:56
Speaker 4: thinking about it, and I've always been hiding it. I
23:58
Speaker 4: was happy and selahlationship broke down, and it's like, you know,
24:01
Speaker 4: when your relationship breaks down, sometimes you do things that
24:03
Speaker 4: you don't normally do, like the revenge haircut, chop all
24:06
Speaker 4: your hair off because you just don't want to see
24:08
Speaker 4: that person anymore. Yeah, you want to cut away the pain.
24:11
Speaker 4: So I kind of just was. I remember I was out,
24:12
Speaker 4: I was in Barcelona. My job was kind of taking
24:15
Speaker 4: me away a lot more. And one night some guy
24:18
Speaker 4: tried to kiss me. It was like at the end
24:20
Speaker 4: of the night we'd all been drinking. It was always
24:22
Speaker 4: around gay guy, so I didn't really think a lot
24:24
Speaker 4: of it, and I just remember thinking, like I remember
24:27
Speaker 4: going back to my hotel and I was like brushing
24:28
Speaker 4: my teeth and brushing my tongue. I was like, oh,
24:31
Speaker 4: I was just drunk. I was just drunk. I was
24:32
Speaker 4: just like, you know, it, just drunk. Whatever. But we
24:35
Speaker 4: became friends, and he didn't live in the country, but
24:37
Speaker 4: we had like communication. We spoke on the phone a lot,
24:40
Speaker 4: and it was the first time i'd already had a
24:42
Speaker 4: gay friend, and I think I kind of like started
24:45
Speaker 4: to open up and relax and feel comfortable and like, oh,
24:48
Speaker 4: he's not weird, he's not this, he's not that. But
24:52
Speaker 4: one step forward, it was two steps back because then
24:54
Speaker 4: I was like no, no, no, no, this is wrong. So
24:55
Speaker 4: I go back to that younger self, like gays wrong,
24:59
Speaker 4: like you know, all these things, like I got really
25:02
Speaker 4: afraid of that, and I kind of try and know
25:05
Speaker 4: I'm I can be normal. I can be normal. I've
25:07
Speaker 4: always been one way, So I don't know why this started.
25:10
Speaker 4: But then once you kind of open up truly who
25:12
Speaker 4: you are once you like look at yourself and see
25:14
Speaker 4: yourself in the mirror. You can't unsee yourself, you know.
25:16
Speaker 4: But it's just the process. It doesn't just go like,
25:19
Speaker 4: oh okay, I see myself here. It takes time, and
25:23
Speaker 4: it takes time to understand how you got to that point,
25:26
Speaker 4: like why you were never actually allowed to explore that,
25:30
Speaker 4: you know, why you felt so much shame of fear,
25:32
Speaker 4: And that's like all the inner work you have to do.
25:35
Speaker 4: It doesn't it doesn't just come overnight. But I felt
25:39
Speaker 4: like I needed to share some of my moments in
25:41
Speaker 4: the book so that people reading it can maybe relate.
25:43
Speaker 4: You know, that was sexuality, but it might be, like
25:45
Speaker 4: I say, a relationship. It might be this is a
25:47
Speaker 4: job you're in and you hate. But maybe as a
25:49
Speaker 4: kid you were told you should be a doctor, or
25:51
Speaker 4: you should be a dentist, or you should work here
25:53
Speaker 4: or you know, for anyone that's ever just thought is
25:56
Speaker 4: this it, it isn't, And there is more. You just
26:00
Speaker 4: have to start, you know, change a lot of people
26:02
Speaker 4: are afraid of. They're like, how do you change? I
26:04
Speaker 4: don't even I don't know how to change. Well, change
26:07
Speaker 4: starts with just knowing that you need to change something.
26:10
Speaker 4: There's something is unhappy, something is not right, and you
26:14
Speaker 4: kind of got to figure out what that is.
26:15
Speaker 2: And admitting the problem is the first step.
26:17
Speaker 4: Totally.
26:18
Speaker 3: So I hate putting people in boxes. You can totally
26:22
Speaker 3: shut me down if this question is out of bounce. Yeah,
26:25
Speaker 3: do you identify as gay or by? Do you still
26:28
Speaker 3: look at chicks? Or is it just about the person?
26:32
Speaker 3: Am I allowed to ask that?
26:33
Speaker 4: Yeah, you can ask what you want. I'm I'm gay.
26:37
Speaker 4: I think you know if you'd have asked me when
26:39
Speaker 4: I was that age and I'm by or I don't
26:43
Speaker 4: want to be labeled. I just didn't want to see it.
26:46
Speaker 4: I wasn't ready, you know. I had to go through
26:49
Speaker 4: the process of knowing what I like because I'd spent
26:51
Speaker 4: twenty six years in my life, you know, programmed to
26:54
Speaker 4: do what society told me to do and how to
26:57
Speaker 4: be and like what was normal. So I had to
27:00
Speaker 4: figure out what that was. It was rewired, catching up,
27:03
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. Like, So, no, yeah, that
27:07
Speaker 4: I think I feel fully I'm with that confidence.
27:10
Speaker 2: Because you should baby.
27:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, No, totally. I think you know a lot of
27:14
Speaker 4: people still have questions like is he by? Because I
27:16
Speaker 4: always will.
27:17
Speaker 3: But I think that's all of us that are wishful
27:19
Speaker 3: thinking there ladies over here, we're like, are you sure?
27:24
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm sure I couldn't. I'll try it.
27:27
Speaker 2: Who knows, can I tell you? Give me a few podcasts.
27:30
Speaker 3: And we don't know what will happen, you know, really
27:33
Speaker 3: hoping for their baby.
27:36
Speaker 4: No.
27:36
Speaker 2: When I when I was a drinker, no one was safe.
27:40
Speaker 4: We call it, oh yeah, really, oh yeah.
27:42
Speaker 2: We had a heyday baby really? Oh yeah?
27:45
Speaker 4: What age though? How did you get?
27:48
Speaker 3: I got silver when it was twenty eighteen October so
27:53
Speaker 3: I had just turned twenty eight?
27:54
Speaker 4: Wow? Yeah cool? What was their final thing where you
27:58
Speaker 4: were like, I've got to stop, Like.
28:00
Speaker 3: I just I got wasted at disney World, and I
28:06
Speaker 3: remember being on a jet home and letting the kids
28:10
Speaker 3: color on my legs and do my makeup, and I
28:12
Speaker 3: got we landed, and I looked at myself and I
28:15
Speaker 3: was like trying to scrub everything off of me so
28:17
Speaker 3: that the next morning there was no remnants of like,
28:20
Speaker 3: what a horrendous nightmare the entire because everyone was having
28:24
Speaker 3: the greatest time, and I was just consumed with, like
28:26
Speaker 3: how many roadies are there in the car for me?
28:28
Speaker 3: Is there a bar when we get to Disney World.
28:30
Speaker 3: I was just inebriated and I woke up the next
28:34
Speaker 3: morning after that and I just identified as an alcoholic
28:37
Speaker 3: and said, like, we're done. I will never go back
28:40
Speaker 3: to this.
28:40
Speaker 4: Yeah, but it's interesting, like that's probably your looking in
28:43
Speaker 4: the mirror moment where you see yourself and you're like,
28:45
Speaker 4: I got to change something, like absolutely not where I
28:48
Speaker 4: want to be in my life. You know. Yeah, sometimes
28:51
Speaker 4: you look, and you can use tools in the book
28:53
Speaker 4: to look, but sometimes life just makes you look anyway.
28:56
Speaker 4: You know. I think you always end up coming back
28:59
Speaker 4: to yourself, but sometimes we're forced to, and sometimes you
29:02
Speaker 4: choose to make a change.
29:03
Speaker 2: Yeah. And I love.
29:08
Speaker 3: Since getting sober, and there are obviously moments that I've
29:11
Speaker 3: had that I'm not proud of, where there is guilt
29:14
Speaker 3: and shame and I've lost myself. And I love that
29:18
Speaker 3: you added that into your book about looking in the mirror,
29:21
Speaker 3: but like not just not just for like what's here, Yeah,
29:24
Speaker 3: because there are many times that I look in the
29:27
Speaker 3: mirror and I go, are we happy with what we see?
29:29
Speaker 2: Like beyond all of this? Yeah, do we know what
29:31
Speaker 2: we stand for?
29:32
Speaker 3: Do we stand behind what we say, and it's a
29:35
Speaker 3: powerful thing totally.
29:37
Speaker 4: It really is. It makes such a big difference to
29:40
Speaker 4: your everyday life, the decisions you make, the way you
29:43
Speaker 4: allow people to treat you, the way you treat others,
29:47
Speaker 4: like your goals and aspirations in life. It's such a
29:51
Speaker 4: small thing, but like once you see it, you can't
29:53
Speaker 4: see it, or it just stays with you, and when
29:55
Speaker 4: you become allergic to the bullshit that doesn't work for
29:58
Speaker 4: you or it's wonderful. Once you were attracted to and
30:01
Speaker 4: you know, want to see, sometimes you like can still
30:03
Speaker 4: get attracted to those things. Sometimes you can still be like, oh,
30:06
Speaker 4: I'm drawn towards I don't know if you like a drink,
30:09
Speaker 4: like oh, that looks fun. But then you very quickly
30:11
Speaker 4: can be like, yeah, but I know where that leads.
30:13
Speaker 2: Where's that lead that goes?
30:14
Speaker 4: And I'm just good. You come back to yourself. It's
30:17
Speaker 4: just fixed and everything's like kungy dor. You still get triggered,
30:21
Speaker 4: but you can come back to yourself.
30:22
Speaker 3: Life still happens. Yeah, do your kids live in a
30:25
Speaker 3: way yeah, I.
30:25
Speaker 4: Mean they have their own plays now, they've their own
30:27
Speaker 4: partners and doing their own thing. But you know, like
30:29
Speaker 4: me and Kitty are going to an event tonight. It
30:31
Speaker 4: is so fun. I'm like, oh, come to this thing
30:33
Speaker 4: and like the best day ever. It's so fun to.
30:36
Speaker 2: That is the best date ever.
30:37
Speaker 4: She knows who everyone is. I'm like, who's who? She
30:39
Speaker 4: like knows everyone.
30:40
Speaker 2: Oh, I know. I love that for you.
30:42
Speaker 4: But also how she's grown. They say the best thing
30:44
Speaker 4: you can do for your kids is let them leave
30:46
Speaker 4: the hometown that were brought up in, because you again,
30:50
Speaker 4: like start to take on the values of what especially
30:52
Speaker 4: if you're from a small town. You know that you
30:55
Speaker 4: work nine till five, you get married at the age
30:57
Speaker 4: of twenty one. You know, you have kids by the
30:58
Speaker 4: age of twenty five if you think, or by the
31:00
Speaker 4: age of thirty five forty, then you're like, oh, what's
31:02
Speaker 4: going on? You know, like being able to like travel
31:05
Speaker 4: and experience things. I remember my daughter when she first
31:07
Speaker 4: moved to la at the age of seventeen, Like she
31:10
Speaker 4: couldn't even make eye contact with the waiter and like
31:12
Speaker 4: she wouldn't look down. You know, I could see how
31:14
Speaker 4: she wasn't confident and she was and I say, hey,
31:17
Speaker 4: talk to the way to look at the waiter. And
31:19
Speaker 4: she's grown so much, like living in La Live. You know,
31:23
Speaker 4: she's worked at Kim's place, at her office when she
31:26
Speaker 4: had the skin line, and she's worked with different persons.
31:29
Speaker 4: She can now walk in a room and you know,
31:31
Speaker 4: greet people and say hi and have a conversation. And
31:34
Speaker 4: you know, I think she's grown so much. It excelled
31:37
Speaker 4: so much just being out of you know, her comfort
31:39
Speaker 4: zone was when she you know, was in our hometown,
31:42
Speaker 4: the thing to do for kids was go to the
31:43
Speaker 4: park during smoke weed. You know it, there wasn't much
31:47
Speaker 4: opportunity for her. And I think it was so good
31:50
Speaker 4: to come out your comfort zone. And I think it's really
31:51
Speaker 4: great to be able to do that and see how
31:54
Speaker 4: different people do things then like, oh, well, as a kid,
31:56
Speaker 4: I saw this dynamic, like especially with your parents, But
32:01
Speaker 4: like I see these people have a different dynamic, and
32:03
Speaker 4: they have a different dynamic. Can you realize that just
32:06
Speaker 4: because you were told something as a kid doesn't necessarily
32:08
Speaker 4: mean it was right. It just means that's what we knew,
32:11
Speaker 4: you know. So to be able to leave and have
32:13
Speaker 4: new experiences and opportunities, especially for someone younger, I think
32:16
Speaker 4: he's great and it's really powerful.
32:17
Speaker 3: When when did they move from the small town Telly.
32:22
Speaker 4: When they were seventeen and eighteen.
32:25
Speaker 2: So okay, so they spent quite a bit of time there.
32:28
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely, Yeah, I mean.
32:29
Speaker 2: When did you move here?
32:31
Speaker 4: Ten years ago? It changed me a lot, though, it
32:34
Speaker 4: changed me a lot. I think, I think I'm still
32:36
Speaker 4: who I am, but also coming to Hollywood at a
32:38
Speaker 4: young age, I didn't realize that, like I think I
32:43
Speaker 4: sort of started my gay relationships here, my gay experiences
32:46
Speaker 4: as well. Here as like just me that didn't have
32:50
Speaker 4: like a past, you know, because I could say I'm
32:52
Speaker 4: Chris Appleton and oh, nice to meet you. That's say
32:54
Speaker 4: I'm gay, Whereas I felt like in the UK it
32:56
Speaker 4: was difficult because everyone was always like, oh, here we
32:58
Speaker 4: had a girlfriend and now he's strengthened. It was always
33:00
Speaker 4: like whispers. But then I didn't realize, like, you're in Hollywood,
33:05
Speaker 4: you know, it's the land of dreams. A lot of
33:06
Speaker 4: people come here to be someone or be something, and
33:08
Speaker 4: I didn't. I kind of just thought everyone had the
33:10
Speaker 4: same intentions I did, but they don't, you know, and
33:14
Speaker 4: like you learn, you learn, you learn the pros and
33:16
Speaker 4: cons about living everywhere.
33:18
Speaker 2: Yes, of course, yeah.
33:19
Speaker 4: But Hollywood's Hollywood. I mean I love it. I think
33:22
Speaker 4: it's a magical way.
33:22
Speaker 2: I love it too. And every time I'm here and
33:25
Speaker 2: I'm like, I got to get the fuck out. Why
33:27
Speaker 2: do we live here?
33:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then I go somewhere else, I'm like, oh
33:30
Speaker 3: it all makes sense.
33:31
Speaker 2: Get me back there.
33:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, what would you consider your big break?
33:45
Speaker 4: My big break? Yeah, it's interesting. I get asked this
33:48
Speaker 4: a lot. I don't know if there was one significant
33:50
Speaker 4: moment in my life that was It's always been like
33:53
Speaker 4: little little things, like the build that you keep building,
33:56
Speaker 4: and like, I don't know. I remember whenning British Headress
34:00
Speaker 4: of the Year. It was like a thing in the UK,
34:02
Speaker 4: and then I, oh, I did a TV show which
34:06
Speaker 4: was a bit like The Great British Bake Off, but
34:08
Speaker 4: of hair, and I won that.
34:10
Speaker 2: Oh sick.
34:11
Speaker 4: Let me just tell everyone. There's plenty of times that
34:13
Speaker 4: I didn't win, probably you know, twenty times before that
34:16
Speaker 4: I sat there and applauded the winner. But I kept
34:19
Speaker 4: going inuntil I got, you know, And I was fortunate
34:21
Speaker 4: enough to have a couple of wins, and I just
34:23
Speaker 4: used each opportunity to get to the next thing. And
34:26
Speaker 4: then one day I was just sort of started posting
34:29
Speaker 4: on social media because Instagram started. I remember saying like,
34:34
Speaker 4: how does it work, and like, well, you just get
34:35
Speaker 4: a picture and you post it, and I'm like, oh yeah,
34:38
Speaker 4: And so I just started posting my work. I started
34:40
Speaker 4: working with Rita Aura, and I was always doing something
34:43
Speaker 4: different with a hand and I just started posting it
34:44
Speaker 4: all the time. And then I had an email from
34:46
Speaker 4: Jlo's team and they were like I was in like
34:50
Speaker 4: England at the time, and they were like, oh, you know,
34:51
Speaker 4: Jennifer Lopez would love to see if you're available to
34:54
Speaker 4: do a hair for a Vega show. And I remember laughing.
34:58
Speaker 4: I just deleted the emails because you thought it was
35:00
Speaker 4: I thought it was bad. That was one of those
35:01
Speaker 4: things where it's like you've won a million dollars, just
35:04
Speaker 4: ring this number, you know what. I'm like, oh, oh cute.
35:07
Speaker 4: Oh just deleted it. And then I got another email
35:09
Speaker 4: and I remember being like, oh, maybe this is real.
35:12
Speaker 4: But then I was like, how does jaloh know who
35:13
Speaker 4: I am? Just Chris, you know, just Chris Appleton from Leicester,
35:18
Speaker 4: Like what? But then I kind of thought, all, she's
35:21
Speaker 4: obviously seen my work on social media. You know, people,
35:24
Speaker 4: your Instagram is like your portfolio. You know people look,
35:27
Speaker 4: you know. She obviously liked what I was doing, and
35:30
Speaker 4: I was like, well, maybe I could make Maybe I
35:32
Speaker 4: could go there, because my goal when I was a
35:35
Speaker 4: kid was to make my mom like a Hollywood star.
35:36
Speaker 4: Like I was always kind of fascinated by Hollywood and
35:39
Speaker 4: movies and the classics. And I was like, maybe I
35:42
Speaker 4: could do it. Maybe I could go to La and
35:45
Speaker 4: live that dream. So I moved to Hollywood. Literally, I
35:49
Speaker 4: think it was like the twenty fourth of December. We
35:52
Speaker 4: finished filming The X Factor. The last thing I did
35:54
Speaker 4: with Rita was on the twenty third. I packed two suitcases,
35:56
Speaker 4: I left my apartment, everything I just I just left
35:59
Speaker 4: and I was like, I'm going to make this work.
36:03
Speaker 4: And then they didn't do anything but like three or
36:04
Speaker 4: four moms and I spent all my money and I
36:06
Speaker 4: was like, oh, I'm going to go home. But then
36:07
Speaker 4: I got the call from Christina Aguilera's team to do
36:10
Speaker 4: a hair for a voice and I was like, Okay,
36:12
Speaker 4: I'm going to do this. It's terrified, so like felt
36:16
Speaker 4: so small, but like what am I doing here? Like
36:20
Speaker 4: and way above like my head's I don't know. I
36:23
Speaker 4: was just like syndrome to the Max and then I
36:27
Speaker 4: remember kate them over my kids, like I say, we're
36:29
Speaker 4: still best friends. I was on the phone to her
36:30
Speaker 4: and I was on the way and I was like,
36:31
Speaker 4: I'm so nervous, and she was like, Chris, if you
36:33
Speaker 4: don't make this work, like you're going to have to
36:35
Speaker 4: come home because I had two kids to provide for,
36:37
Speaker 4: you know. And I was like, you're right. So I
36:38
Speaker 4: got there and initially there was like three hours for
36:41
Speaker 4: glam and for whatever reason, I didn't go in till
36:43
Speaker 4: like the last twenty minutes before the live show to
36:46
Speaker 4: do her hair because you know, they're busy doing interviews
36:49
Speaker 4: and people are pulling them left ryan center. So anyway,
36:51
Speaker 4: I went in and I was like, she's like, what
36:54
Speaker 4: do you want to do? And I remember thinking like,
36:55
Speaker 4: I've only got twenty minutes and then you know, she
36:57
Speaker 4: needed to have a head on, so I prepped all
36:59
Speaker 4: these I was so organized, and I was like, you know,
37:01
Speaker 4: I think if we did this piece it would be
37:03
Speaker 4: good and I could like add her hair into it.
37:05
Speaker 4: And she's like, oh, I don't like wiggs and I
37:08
Speaker 4: was like, oh, yeah, of course you don't like wigs.
37:11
Speaker 4: And I was thinking, what wow would you like anything
37:13
Speaker 4: I've got to do. And I was like, she sees me,
37:15
Speaker 4: she sees Chris, she sees I'm just that little guy
37:17
Speaker 4: from Leicester, Like what what am I doing here? And
37:20
Speaker 4: I felt the fear, like in my stomach, I felt
37:23
Speaker 4: like paralyzed me, Like I felt like I couldn't move,
37:26
Speaker 4: and I was like, I'm a loser. I'm the biggest
37:29
Speaker 4: fucking loser. I'm an idiot, like you know all the things,
37:33
Speaker 4: the hater and the boys, and it was paralyzing me.
37:35
Speaker 4: I felt like I couldn't move. And then it's the
37:37
Speaker 4: only time that's ever happened in my career, but it
37:39
Speaker 4: was a lot. It was. It was honestly the moment
37:41
Speaker 4: that changed my whole life because I remember hearing Kate's voice.
37:44
Speaker 4: I remember just her saying like, if you don't make
37:46
Speaker 4: this work, you're going have to come home. Yeah, and
37:48
Speaker 4: I thought about my kids and it kind of just
37:50
Speaker 4: brought me back into my adult body. It kind of
37:52
Speaker 4: brought me back to myself of being like, look, I've
37:54
Speaker 4: been doing this for thirty years. I know what I'm doing,
37:56
Speaker 4: learn every aspect of hair. I'm so prepared. I have
38:00
Speaker 4: all these amazing pieces. I know I can do this.
38:02
Speaker 4: So I just kind of grab one of the pieces
38:03
Speaker 4: and I put it my head. I was like, you know,
38:05
Speaker 4: you've never tried one of these, let's try it. And
38:06
Speaker 4: she was like, oh, oh, I like it. And then
38:10
Speaker 4: the girl like behind me, the stylist, was like, I
38:12
Speaker 4: like it. So when I put it on and left
38:14
Speaker 4: the hairline out, and she ran off to do the show.
38:17
Speaker 4: So then it's live on the Voice and everyone has
38:19
Speaker 4: an opinion on it on social media and stuff. I
38:21
Speaker 4: was just terrified.
38:22
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, good, bad comment.
38:24
Speaker 4: And then I remember she came off and she was
38:27
Speaker 4: talking to the contestants and she saw me in the
38:29
Speaker 4: corner of her eye and she just looked over at
38:31
Speaker 4: me and she was like, everyone likes your wig, and
38:34
Speaker 4: then carried on talking to the oh my god contestant.
38:37
Speaker 4: But in that moment, I knew I'd done it. And honestly,
38:40
Speaker 4: if I had have not, if i'd have just let
38:42
Speaker 4: fear takeover, I would have done some crappy hairstyle because
38:45
Speaker 4: there was not enough time. She would have gone out.
38:46
Speaker 4: I wouldn't have made a statement with it. I wouldn't
38:49
Speaker 4: have she wouldn't booked me again. I wouldn't be here.
38:52
Speaker 4: I would have gone home. I wouldn't have written the book.
38:54
Speaker 4: I wouldn't be here now talking to you. And that
38:56
Speaker 4: was one of the honestly, such a significant moment of
38:59
Speaker 4: wow doubt, which we all have. We all have those moments,
39:02
Speaker 4: and I've had it plenty of times since. But being
39:05
Speaker 4: able to come back to yourself and like remember who
39:09
Speaker 4: you are and what your intentions are and how you
39:11
Speaker 4: got there, and put your feet back on the ground
39:14
Speaker 4: and feel your hands but your present is like really powerful.
39:18
Speaker 4: They changed my whole life.
39:19
Speaker 2: I freaking love that story.
39:21
Speaker 4: It was a second away from being a very very
39:23
Speaker 4: different outcome. Yeah, and I'm telling you, I won'n't be here.
39:26
Speaker 4: You won't know who Chris Alperton was. I want to
39:28
Speaker 4: written a book and I'd probably still be I'd still
39:32
Speaker 4: probably be living the life that people told me I
39:35
Speaker 4: should have just been drowning in shame and fear. I'd
39:38
Speaker 4: probably I don't know, I don't know what i'd be,
39:41
Speaker 4: but it won't be this.
39:42
Speaker 3: I love everything that you have said. I'm so excited
39:45
Speaker 3: for people to read your book. I think that is
39:49
Speaker 3: is amazing you guys. Your roots don't define you? Is
39:52
Speaker 3: out right now you can.
39:53
Speaker 2: Get it what you know wherever you get your books, baby.
39:57
Speaker 4: And its rusted. This enough for you.
40:00
Speaker 2: It's for you, Chris. Thank you so much for coming
40:02
Speaker 2: on my podcast.
40:03
Speaker 4: I appreciate it.
40:05
Speaker 2: You guys, I love you so much.
40:06
Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to another episode of Untraditionally Lala.
40:09
Speaker 2: I'm gonna catch you next week.
40:10
Speaker 4: Bye yay