I am a girl but I am not a ‘girly girl’ (although I use to consider myself one). I have fallen out of practice and like everyone who is lacking in some area I blame it on something. I blame my lack of femininity on my college. Yes that is right my college. It graduated from Johnson & Wales University with a degree in Baking & Pastry arts and a bachelors in Food Service Management. I wore a uniform to school. No one of those sexy little school girl uniforms, but unflattering, black and white hounds tooth, lack of shape or style chef pants. Then there was the white chefs coat. It was basically a white paper bag with a hole for my neck and hands. The uniform holds lots of history, function and I have the utmost respect for those who wear it but this post is not about that. This is about my losing my sense of style in college. Oh and did I mention that all out hair had to be pulled back in a hairnet? And we wore paper chef hats held together by staples? And if we forgot a hair tie that day we made do with a stretch of plastic wrap? Jewelry? Make up? Forget about it. Against health codes. Try wearing this for 4 years and see what happens to your girly-ness…
I would see other college students or other people in general and all the color they were wearing. I knew the styles were changing and I was just not keeping up. I could have tried. Buying clothing and accessories to wear on the weekends but keep in mind who you are talking about. This penny pincher didn’t see the point in making purchases just to wear a few times. I was to focused on my school, accomplishing what I had set out to do. and my volunteering schedule to spend any time considering my sense of fashion.
All this background comes to my point of sharing with you how I have started to come back around. Find the beauty that might still be there and be a girl with out breaking the bank.
- Maintain a longer length hairstyle. The longer lengths don’t need as much maintenance . I only get my hair trimmed and shaped every 3+ months.. None of this going to the salon every 6 weeks.
- Maintain a natural color. I use to get my hair highlighted with foils back in ‘the day’ but by the time I walked out of the salon my bill was skimming $100 and that is just not a good use of my pennies. Plus I felt I had to use the salon products to help maintain the color and that was an added expense. (I know you don’t have to, but I that was then….this is now)
- Pluck your own eyebrows. Shocking I know. Every 6 months or so, go and spend the $8 or what ever the price is in your area and have them professionally waxed or threaded or whatever your choice of pain is. After that they will start to grow back in. You will see them. Grab a pair of tweezers and pluck them! Just the ones that are growing back in. Don’t go crazy and pluck outside the lines but just grab the strays as they come back in. I wear contacts so I am looking at my eyebrows at least twice a day when I am putting in my lenses. So I am plucking twice a day. (Not kidding) It may take me a few minutes a day but it is also saving me $8 every 3 weeks…or how ever often eyebrows are suppose to be done in a salon.
- I paint my own Toenails. Yup, once a year on Mother’s Day I get a gift certificate to get a professional pedicure. When I am having them scrape all the dead skin off my heels, rubbing my tiered, sore calves, and then expertly painting flawless color on my toenails I am enjoying it to the fullest. I have my eyes closed, enjoying the magic chair that will rub my lower back and soaking in this little luxury of life. But once this moment of pampering is over it is time for maintenance. Just like the eyebrows I run a pumice stone or a foot file over my feet from time to time. Simple things can save big in the long run.
- Extend your mascara. Add a drop of saline solution to the tube and it extends the life of the mascara. I am not joking when I say I stretched a sample of mascara to over 9 months. I don’t wear mascara every day so that may also help with the life of the tube.
