Candace Castro

Old age doesn’t begin at 60 or 70. It doesn’t necessarily start when you retire. It begins slowly, when your world shrinks to the walls of your home. It starts when curiosity fades — when you stop wanting to learn, explore, listen, or grow. When you choose isolation over connection. When “I don’t want to” replaces dreams and plans. There is no fixed number that defines old age. Some people are eighty and radiant with life. Others are forty and already weary. In the end, old age isn’t counted...

There was a time in my life when everything looked perfect from the outside. Beautiful home. Financial security. Social life. Two children. Travel. Privilege. And yet inside, I felt entombed. I lived in what felt like a narrowing tunnel. My world grew smaller and smaller, not physically, but energetically. I stopped reaching outward. I stopped wanting anything. I stopped feeling much at all. Eventually, I moved into a tiny guest room in my own home. It had just enough space for a bed and a...

A Story of Survival and Self-Discovery History and culture have shaped so much of who we are — and hair, perhaps more than we realise, has been woven into that story for centuries. In the Bible, Samson's strength was said to reside in his uncut hair. In ancient Egypt, elaborate wigs signified wealth and rank. During the French Revolution, women cropped their hair short in solidarity with those who had gone to the guillotine. The bob of the 1920s became a radical declaration of female...