Neuro Note 4: The Jordan Hand Challenge

     For this neuro note, I wanted to do something a little different. Rather than reading an article or watching a short film/ Ted Talk, I chose to put myself in the shoes of a girl who is living with a spinal cord injury (SCI). Jordan Bone suffered a SCI after being in a motor vehicle accident in 2005. She became depressed as a result of becoming a quadriplegic. However, in 2010, she turned her life around, started a blog, and began posting motivational videos on YouTube that focused on makeup tutorials. In 2016, she came up with the "Jordan Hand Challenge," which raises awareness for those suffering with spinal cord injuries and shows how she has overcome difficult obstacles, such as putting on her makeup. She has no motor function in her fingers or thumbs, which makes it extremely difficult to open things, hold brushes, squeeze foundation bottles, etc. Not only can she apply makeup, but she is phenomenal at doing so! I have two perfectly functioning hands and Jordan blows my skills out of the water.

     I attempted the Jordan Hand Challenge, and let me tell you, it's a lot harder than you think. Many women who participate in the challenge wrap their fingers together with tape so that they don't accidentally use them, but I didn't do that because I told myself, "Oh I'll be fine and won't use my fingers." However, I caught myself several times during the application process wanting to use my other fingers or grip the brushes normally. Looking back, I definitely should have wrapped them, but I tried to stay focused on my grip (or lack there of). Additionally, I usually use an eyelash curler like my life depends on it, but because of the lack of function in the hand, I couldn't find a way to make it work in the moment, so I did without... tragic. For my challenge, I applied a light, everyday makeup look (while Jordan typically does more of a full face glam) because of a few reasons: I am very minimal when it comes to makeup unless I'm going somewhere extravagant, and we are in the middle of a pandemic and makeup can be super expensive, so I didn't want to use a lot of it just to sit around the house. If you're curious how an individual with a SCI goes about daily tasks, I definitely recommend trying this challenge. It gives you a great perspective of the obstacles that people like Jordan have to go through on a daily basis. To learn more, visit Jordan Bone's blog (which is referenced at the bottom of the page), Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter.

Below is an introduction video, time-lapse, and an after photo. Enjoy!

#TheJordanHandChallege

Intro

Time-lapse

After photo

Reference: 

Bone, J. (2016, February 5). The jordan hand challenge. Jordan's Beautiful          Life. https://jordansbeautifullife.com/2016/02/05/the-jordan-hand-challenge/