A female burn survivor who was left with scars all over her face and body – and lost her hair due to her injuries – let her ‘crush’ remove her make-up and wig in an emotional video posted on YouTube.
22-year-old Shalom Nchom, who goes by the name Shalom Blac online, hoped the the experiment would help her feel more confident.
She was badly burnt at nine years old in her native Nigeria, when a pot of hot oil fell on her and her sister in her mother’s grocery store.
As a result, Shalom lost most of her hair and has scars on her shoulders, chest, and face, which she usually conceals with make-up.
After the accident, Shalom spent four months in hospital. Her aunt, who lived in the US, brought her, as well as her mother and sister, into the country for surgery.
In her latest video, Shalom explains how, at the time, she got the feeling her aunt had found her face ‘so horrendous’ she was worried whether her niece would find someone to marry her.
As years passed following the incident, Shalom struggled to cope with her appearance and was the victim of cruel bullies.
However, she knew she wanted to feel confident and to live her life without worrying about her appearance, and so, began to challenge herself.
In the video, Shalom states:
I started really wanting to work on myself and to be comfortable and confident, because I wanted to feel free,’ she said in her video.
I wanted to be able to do whatever I wanted. I wanted to be able to wear clothes that I want to wear. I used to be in long sleeves 24/7 because of my scars.
Before she let her crush take her make-up off, the 22-year-old explained what an important challenge this was to her.
Shalom’s been challenging herself non-stop to become more confident, which is why she decided to record a video with her fellow vlogger, J Cook, and ask him to use make-up wipes to remove her cosmetics, before allowing him to take off her wig.
She continued:
I basically wanted to challenge myself to strip my make-up in front of somebody that I might be a little crushing on, you know? I think he’s cute.
Shalom was motivated to devise the challenge after revealing people often leave cruel comments online, suggesting she’s trying to ‘catfish’ people – deceiving men by wearing a wig and make-up – and claiming they would be disappointed to wake up next to her and see her without her wig and make-up.
Towards the end of the video, Shalom removes her fringe from her face, allowing J to wipe off the make-up from her forehead.
She repeatedly states how she’s looking for confidence, and not validation, because ‘external validation only lifts one’s spirits for a finite amount of time.’
J can be heard saying:
I like the scars, and they’re soft. This is dope. I feel honoured to be able to do something like this.
The pair share a hug and then as J gets onto his knees, he gently removes Shalom’s wig, revealing her bald skull:
Oh, that’s dope. I have to give you a hug.
Shalom expresses her delight and being proud of herself for going through with the challenge.
She exclaims:
Oh my God, I f*cking did it!
The vlogger has already planned her next challenge, which will consist in going out in public without a wig.
What an inspiration!
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