Slick Woodstakes our Zoom meeting standing up.
She’s wearing all black; a roomy hoodie and baggy pants.
She’s got a few silver chains around her neck.
Paola Kudacki/Trunk Archive
The kind that makes you wonder where she came from.
She eventually takes it off.
But it’s more than that.
Getty Images
It reminds me of a neighbor or a friend I haven’t seen in a year.
Woods is easy to talk to.
But one thing she doesn’t want to talk about?
Getty Images
The 24-year-oldmelanoma survivorlikens it to asking someone about a scab.
“You wouldn’t ask somebody, ‘how’s your scab doing?’
You know what I’m saying?”
So, I say, “Let’s talk about life, then.
“That’s a subject more in her wheelhouse.
“I’m just trying to live the best of my years.
I’m here for now I’m here until I’m not, and that’s it.”
And while she’s here, Woods is focused mostly on her two-year-old son, Saphir.
But of course, her mom instincts take over.
“When I see him, I [hug] him up.
Munch on his little cheeks.”
She hugs the air to demonstrate.
“Chemo is a bitch.
I just opted out.”
To Woods, “It’s part of life, you just accept that,” she says.
“You battle it.
Chemo is a bitch.
I just opted out.”
And make no mistake she’s comfortable with her decision.
But Woods always had a penchant for pot.
She grounds herself by spending time with her son and being with her friends and chosen family.
“I’m very well endowed when it comes to friendship.
I’m engulfed in loyalty.
I give a shot to just keep that same energy with everybody,” she shares.
But you won’t catch her doing some kind of 10-step routine.
When I ask her if she wears sunscreen, she says, “Yeah, now I do.”
But she’s notlovingit.
“I wear a ski mask every day,” she says.
“I got it from [rapper] Plies, actually.
He wears his ski mask rolled up.”
She only pulls it down over her lips when it’s time to get into an Uber.
“I always lose my [face] mask, so I got to put a ski mask on.
Woods takes a similarly minimalist approach to the rest of her beauty rituals.
She has about five products in her bathroom drawer overall.
She doesn’t spent that much time in the mirror anyway.
“I really don’t look in the mirror when I go in the bathroom,” she says.
“Maybe it’s a vanity thing.
I’m just so secure in myself, I don’t need to recheck.
I know what the fuck I look like.”
With a face like hers, it’s hard to forget.
This story is part ofAllure’sSurvivor’s Guide to Melanoma.
Read more articles from the series:
Now, watch Nigella Miller’s wash day routine for psoriasis:
