By www.iHeartToby.com
May 18, 2021
With vaccinations on the rise and restrictions on those who get them loosening, hugs are making a comeback. Which is amazing news for grandparents that have been waiting to hug their grandchildren for months or couples that have been dating strictly over Zoom… But it’s not something everyone is looking forward to.
For people that love their personal space, the past year has been like Christmas every day. They’ve lived without the fear of some germ-ridden person enveloping them with little to no warning and without their consent. Take 27-year-old opera singer Shantal Martin for example. Standing at 5-foot-2 whenever she is involved with a hug her face is usually swallowed by someone’s chest. For her this year has been a reprieve from “being smothered by any of her aunts’ perfumes.”
Publishing date: May 15, 2021 • 7 hours ago • 5 minute read • A woman offers “Free Hugs” at the corner of Yonge Street and Dundas Street in Toronto amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Sept. 3, 2020. Photo by Peter J Thompson/Postmedia
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When Stevi Stephens was 5 years old, her grandmother bent down for a hug, and Stephens wondered if stepping on her foot would make her stop.
As a baby, her mother told her, Stephens cried when anyone held her; later, as a married woman, she used to get up and change sides of the bed multiple times each night when her husband would scoot over in his sleep to put an arm around her. “He was like a heat-seeking missile,” she says.
Personal-space enthusiasts are sad to see their year of living huglessly come to an end — even as they hold onto hope that some pandemic distancing habits might stick.
I don t know about you guys, but I ve been doing a lot of daydreaming about spring lately (with a clear focus on flowers blooming for obvious reasons), so when I came across
Shantal Martin s stunning floral-inspired makeup look, I simply had to know more. Luckily, the ultra-talented black beauty creator, who goes by @hairaconda on Instagram, was more than willing to share some details â including where her inspiration stemmed from, and what she wanted the finished look to represent. I ve been feeling very inspired by the psychology of colours recently, and because of that, I ve been letting my moods pick the colours I use, she tells me via email. Pink is often associated with love, creativity, and calming vibes, all of which I ve been feeling in abundance while on vacation in my home of Barbados. So I actually picked these flowers from my front yard garden and created a very romantic, yet graphic editorial eye look. [It s] definitely my favourite look to date.