Grooming: From Low Maintenance to High Maintenance

[LizzieMaine]

I feel the same way. Clip, file, clean, and I'm done with my fingernails. I admire nicely polished and shaped nails on others, but a manicure lasts about a day on me.

Same here. I do a lot of heavy work with my hands, and it's hopeless to try and do anything with my nails other than keep them clean and out of the way. But at least I finally broke my teenage habit of biting them.

Don't get me started on Cro-Magnon feet. It isn't hard or time-consuming to do a home pedicure: every few days, I spend about 30 seconds in the shower scraping off the calouses with a tool that looks like a hand-held vegetable grater and put balm on my feet before bed. Every few weeks, I paint my toenails. That's about four minutes per week. Everybody has four minutes a week.

A good bathtub soak in hot water will also help with the callous removal, if one has a bit of extra time. Of course, around here there might be two weeks out of the year where it's warm enough out to go around with one's toes exposed...

 

[Lillemor]

Vintage isn't the only style I'm interested in but when I do vintage I cheat mainly due to lifestyle and financial issues. I just won't feel as sorry about tearing or staining a retro piece of clothing as I would a vintage piece of clothes. At present, some of the retro styles that are closer to vintage inspiration than street styles (less contemporary in appearance, more classic) are what I can afford and suit my needs of functionality. They're also easier to blend with other styles I embrace.

I tend to be creative with my make-up so it's neither trendy nor vintage.

My styles, especially when it comes to hair tend to be younger than what women my age would've worn in any golden era decade or just timeless, smooth updos which is what I've always preferred. I prefer, center parted, low buns, twists or braids so I'm having my parting moved tomorrow and as much of the layers cut away to a collar bone, blunt length. It's slim alice band or ponytail until my hair grows longer.

I keep my nails short, tidy, and I go for the light pastels most of the time and I use the 40 sec. dry ones so I can do quick fixes and wear doesn't show too fast.

My preferrences in maintenance standard changes all the time and these days I prefer a classic, tidy, low maintenance look. Taking good care of my skin and hair makes me feel so much better than any amount of make-up or hairstyling could. I never thought I'd say that. However, there's no way I'm going out without done brows, eyeliner and mascara! It makes a huge difference. I always wear spf chap stick. I've still got some scarring after my little lip injury so I'm still not confident enough to wear lipstick. So I've gone the route of heavy, colorful eyeliner to get people to look up. It's still low maintenance and nearly natural.

 

[chanteuseCarey]

Do I look high maintenance? Probably!

 

[Darhling]

I'm personally a fan of the high maintenance look that is actually low maintenance to do. I recently posted on the 'Before and After' thread, a link to my vintage hair tutorial that shows how I do a 1940s hairstyle that takes me a total of 10 minutes in the morning, and in it, I admit that if I can find a shortcut to that perfect look, then great! I'm taking the shortcut!

Paisley makes a good point about being organised, I totally agree, however, I myself am completely disorganised. What helps me is that I own no clothes that aren't vintage inspired, and though I am terrible about folding and neatly putting my clean clothes away, all my dresses dry on hangars so they need minimal ironing, and my iron is a good one so it takes me minutes to touch up stuff I want to wear. I have a few hairstyles that take me literally minutes to do (the above is definitely the longest) and look 100% vintage, usually utilising my rat, either as a faux bang, or as a roll at the back, so paired with my quickly put together outfit, dressing vintage every day for me is not remotely difficult or high maintenance. My makeup takes about 10 minutes too. If I have been ultra organised for once and washed, dried and set my hair the night before, even that takes 10 minutes to sort out once I am dressed.

All that being said, why am I always leaving the house later than planned every morning? Oh yeah, bragging about my 'low maintenace look' look on t'internet!! lol lol

I want to be you!!

High maintenance club here aswell.. but the time used to be spent on hair mostly since I have hair enough for 5 people and thickness suited for fur!! I used to take longer actually when I had waist lenght hair that I coaxed into their natural curls.. I can be ready in 20 minutes with everything done (but I might forget my buspass and I wont be wearing stockings then) and I can be ready in an hour and a half..

 

[pigeon toe]

I do a lot of things that fall under the "high maintenance" category, however, it doesn't ever take me very long. I take less time to get ready than some of my friends who don't do their hair or wear makeup! I guess I've been doing it for so long that it's become a bit of a routine.

The things I keep up with (nearly) daily are curling my hair, wearing powder, blush and red lipstick and penciling in my eyebrows. I can do all of this in 30 minutes or less, but somehow these things have a huge impact on my look and can turn me from a regular gal into a 40's pin-up!

Other stuff, like getting waxed, getting my hair dyed, shaving my legs, getting facials, etc. are more high maintenance (and expensive!) but I only do them a few times a year.

 

[Paisley]

Ped Egg?

I use a Revlon callus remover:

 

[Paisley]

I can't paint my toenails. Even leaving aside the way I seem to have recently done something completely horrid to my big toe, on my left foot, where its broken away at the base and attached to one side and not the other - which is new, and weird, and saddening - my baby toenails on both sides are too micro to paint.

Could it be a fungus? I'm pretty sure that can be treated.

 

[Viola]

AAAH! I thought I just broke it!

I've had a lot of trauma to that foot over the last year (stress fracture, diagnosed with arthritis, etc.) so I thought it was maybe just a protest in general at the amount of walking I've started doing now that it's healed - I'm doing 4 miles a day 5 days a week - but if its a fungus what do I do? Rubbing alchohol?

 

[Paisley]

WAAAYY fftopic:

Here's a site on toenails falling off. (Isn't it great how you can find anything on the internet?)
http://www.ehow.com/how_2060882_stop-toenail-falling-off.html

Here's another site on treatment: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/nail-fungus/DS00084

I had toenails fall off a few times when I was a kid. (They grew back on their own.) I don't think I injured them; I just went barefoot a lot, didn't have properly fitting shoes, and probably didn't clean my toes as well as I should have.

 

[The Shirt]

I was thinking about this question as a matter of process. It can be overwhelming to try and change from someone who spends little to no time on grooming to someone who enjoys a 2 hour primp before going out. I was thinking that as with all habits perhaps you need to try and incorporate something new and small into your routine for a couple of weeks. By that time you will have figured out an efficient way to do it, it will seem like a habit rather than an experiment. Maybe just focus on one or 2 things - 2 weeks of nails or eyebrows or even pincurls. Then move onto the next thing you want to complete your look.

I also think a trick to getting a vintage look with your hair is to determine what your hair naturally wants to do. Then try and find a style that works with it rather than against it for your go to everyday style. For me, my hair is relatively straight but holds a curl pretty well. A pageboy style with the sides clipped back takes minutes for me after blowdrying. Updos and rolls take a little longer so I tend to do those for evenings out or events. If I had more curl - I would go for a bob and sport a 20's/30's style.

The final comment I have would be to invest in some great versatile accessories. I feel much more put together when I have a vintage purse and vintage inspired shoes on. I'm still working on jewelry but a couple good pieces can really go a long way.

 

[AvaTrimble]

I was raised by a complete tomboy, so I pretty much had to figure out hair, makeup, and anything foo-foo on my own. I recently bought my mom her first new mascara in a decade (yikes) and consider myself successful when I can convince her to let me give her a pedicure once or twice a year! Having been raised by someone who real-quick blow dries her hair and-that's-all, never wears makeup except a swipe of mascara for weddings, and doesn't really believe in skirts, to this day I feel rather silly about spending a great deal of time on my appearance, and find that I sort of make excuses for anything that seems high maintenance - clarifying out loud that these things make me feel better about myself, contribute to my health (in the case of my increasingly elaborate oil cleansing experiments), increase my self-confidence, etc.

I sometimes set goals to try to wear at least a little makeup most days, do my hair in something other than a ponytail, and put on at least ONE piece of jewelry, consistently, but it varies based on my mood/motivation/sleep/etc. Sometimes I'll go weeks without much effort, other times I'm much more consistently high-maintenance. But in general, I find that whatever I'm doing, it's far less stressful when I don't put too much pressure on myself.

Getting all dolled up for a costumed event or something fancy is a fun occasion for me - I really enjoy the whole process of spending hours at the vanity table, for something special. That sort of thing was definitely significant in my transition from being very low maintenance to sometimes rather high-maintenance (I've been lazy of late because of the job I was working at, but am fancying up once more!) - there's less pressure in doing something occasionally than in trying to maintain it every day, and there's less concern about being overdone.

If all else fails - I do a full pedicure at least every couple weeks, keep my fingernails trimmed and clear-coated most of the time (they're too weak to be worth painting - they bend and everything chips or peels right off), pluck my eyebrows every week, do the oil cleansing thing at least once a day, and seriously steam my face once a week. If I catch myself getting much behind those basics, it's time for a serious pick-me-up, because I've found it's a sign that something's wrong. Even when I'm in foo-foo mode, I try to keep the makeup routine under 15 minutes, or I start feeling like sleep would be much better than eyebrows!

I'm curious as to what else everyone has to say on this thread, because I'm moving cross-country in August, starting over entirely, and am inclined to try being consistently somewhat high maintenance; e.g., pretending to be a person with proper eyebrows and lashes instead of invisible ones.

 

[lolly_loisides]

I also think a trick to getting a vintage look with your hair is to determine what your hair naturally wants to do. Then try and find a style that works with it rather than against it for your go to everyday style.

That's the best beauty advice I've heard in a long time. I long for a beautiful sleek bob like Mojito, or hair a la Fleur De Guerre, but that will never happen. I have thick curly hair, so these are the vintage looks I try to emulate.

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[Viola]

I'm curious as to what else everyone has to say on this thread, because I'm moving cross-country in August, starting over entirely, and am inclined to try being consistently somewhat high maintenance; e.g., pretending to be a person with proper eyebrows and lashes instead of invisible ones.

This is a brilliant idea because I'm moving next year and I should really think about this kind of "starting over" while I'm making so many other changes.

Generally I wear concealer, powder, eyeshadow, some mascara, and lipstick. No foundation or lipliner and no real cleansing/moisturizing/toning skincare routine at all, and I tend to fall asleep in my makeup. I try to keep my eyebrows neat but they're naturally thick with a strong arch so I just keep them sort of '40s-ish and avoid them going too caterpillar.

Ideally I think I should be looking at adding a bit of skincare, and maybe a colour for my hair, at least. Maybe finding a good foundation, too. Convince a lot of people I've never met that I've ALWAYS had clear skin and good hair. lol

 

[vintage_bel]

If I put my hair in pin-curls and sleep with them in, I can be ready in 45 minutes. But I won't have had breakfast and then I'm horrible for the rest of the day!

I find every morning I go to work, that I have to eat breakfast on the way to still leave on time. I don't think I'm high maintenance though, just lazy (I hit that snooze button way too many times)!

The things that allow me to spend more time getting ready in the morning are:

-getting my books ready the night before
-planning my outfit and shoes the night before
-packing my handbag the night before
-deciding what to eat for breakfast
-half making my lunch/have lunch ready

So to have everything I want done, I guess I need an hour. I think that's normal.

 

[Antje]

I do a lot of things that fall under the "high maintenance" category, however, it doesn't ever take me very long. I take less time to get ready than some of my friends who don't do their hair or wear makeup! I guess I've been doing it for so long that it's become a bit of a routine.

The things I keep up with (nearly) daily are curling my hair, wearing powder, blush and red lipstick and penciling in my eyebrows. I can do all of this in 30 minutes or less, but somehow these things have a huge impact on my look and can turn me from a regular gal into a 40's pin-up!

Other stuff, like getting waxed, getting my hair dyed, shaving my legs, getting facials, etc. are more high maintenance (and expensive!) but I only do them a few times a year.

I think this is the same for me.
I'm getting used to my routine so it is normal to me rather than "High maintenance"

If I do a set before bed than it is only the brush out in the morning it takes me les time than washing and styling it in the morning.

 

[TheDutchess]

All I have to say is thank heaven for hats! Sometimes having a high paced lifestyle doesn't give me enough time to always take the time to roll my hair. So i roll it every other day and the "off" days where the curls are super loose I pin it up and slap a hat on it and days where i just don't feel like wearing a hat I just do a nice up do or victory rolls. I've pretty much mastered putting on make up in only a few minutes, that just comes with practice and like what was mentioned before, knowing what you're going to wear ahead of time is a HUGE help.

 

[Lillemor]

Hmmm...I suppose I am actually high maintenance in skin and hair care and I'm willing to spend big bucks on timeless classic styles if they're also comfortable, durable and easy care. So the amount of time and money saved on not setting my hair, not replacing clothes every season/year is spent on function, prevention and care.

Had this online discussion with someone who's high maintenance in fashion and hairstyles who prefers to spend a lot of money on shoes that are purely aestetic and won't see a lot of use because they weren't built for actually walking in. We respect each other's priorities and choices, don't judge each other and don't really try to understand each other and we certainly don't try to convert each other.

I spend as much time contemplating hair care, hair trauma prevention as she spends contemplating haircuts, dyes, perm jobs and styles. Most people probably think both of us are mad for different reasons, for obsessing over our hair the different ways we obsess over our hair.

 

[Bunny]

Do I look high maintenance? Probably!

You look so FABULOUS!! I swear I actually just said that out loud when I saw your photos! Thank you for sharing!!

As for me, depends on the day, but I tend to like to be low maintenance and look like I've got a high maintenance look. I curl my hair with a curling iron every morning and leave wet sets and hot rollers for evenings out (although I'm now wanting Hot Sticks! Thanks to Fleur's tutorial!). I always wear my eyeliner, but tend to skip the red lippy due to the fact that The Boy can't kiss me when I'm wearing it . But I do like to wear Benefits Benetint instead. As for wardrobe, I am usually more vintage inspired than recreationist. There are days where I go all out, but most days I incorporate one or two elements to my outfit.
As other ladies have said being organized is key, I *always* choose my clothes, shoes, bag and accessories, iron them and lay them out the night before. This saves valuable time! Sometimes I lay out two outfits becuase I'm sure what I'll want to wear in the morning! Having a wardrobe that mixes and matches helps too!

 

[December]

I'm lucky in that my hair is naturally thick and curly. Sometimes I will pin curl it before I go to bed, but it's not always necessary if I'm tired.

So then it's just a matter of putting my make up on, which takes about 10 minutes, and getting dressed. I don't own anything that isn't at least vintage inspired, and I usually decide what to wear before I go to bed, so that doesn't take long either.

 

[Honey Doll]

since I only set my hair every other or every third day, that I actually spend less time getting ready in the am than I did in my pre-vintage, shampoo-blow dry-style days...and I look better for it.

As for nails, if I paint them, I usually use a quick-dry polish...just can't find an hour for all the dry time. Sally Henson makes a great deep red...I think its actually called Cinnamon,although it is a true deep red....dries quick and the brush gives great coverage. I use the nail polish remover that you dip your hands into rather than the kind you scrub off with a q-tip...also a time saver. I also have a couple of cheap nail brushes that I keep right in the soap dishes about the house...if they aren't painted a quick scrub when I'm washing up at least keeps things neat.

Honey Doll