The Importance of Being Groomed - Mesdames!

The other day I saw in one of the glossy magazines a very serious article about grooming.
There was a happy lady, who had a budget of around 2500 Euros to try everything under the sun to make her more groomed and therefore, hopefully, more happy/attractive/beautiful. The poor girl  had such a terrible schedule for stripping, zapping, perming and colouring, that even a CEO of a major word enterprise would have paled facing those tasks. My sympathies and interest dwindled in due course as  the result of all those guineepig-actions was her affirmation that she would definitively hang on to do  - on a regular base - her "Eyelash Perm". Yes, you read right. Apparently it has to be redone every 6 weeks and you should be prepared to lay down 250 Euros, at least. And then you have that sexy swing in your eyelashes, or better, should have. Perhaps I need spectacles to read more clearly, but it looked like this figure.

Well, I leave this all to your personal preferences and also to your personal taste. Lucky the people who have good genetic eyelashes! One problem less in their life.
And to be fair: I hope for our guineepiglady, that her beauty, or let us say, Essential Grooming Regime (EGR), has in the meantime found some other source than the magazine to pay for her necessities, the simple bare necessities etc. etc.

 I thought all this definitively worth for a serious word about grooming to us girls. After all the saying goes, that you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. So lets work on that and on maintainance.

Nothing new under the sun, that we all need to take a shower/bath regularly, that underware needs to be changed  OFTEN and that a good shampoo does not have to be expensive, but applied regularly. Actually, the opinion goes that the less stuff you smear on yourself, the better your skin will be.
So lets get through the things one by one.

From top to toe and some generalities for fun.
Hair should be glossy, well cut and washed regularly. If you colour your hair, please please take care of those roots - one of  THE Nr.One killerfactor in good grooming. Better to be a silverfox than a horribly dyed middle-aged woman. A good haircut can be expensive, but does NOT need to be redone every two weeks. Actually you can see, if  your hairdresser knows his job, if your hair normally looks even better when washed the first time at home after you have been for a cut and a brushing. If your hair does not live up to your expectations after the visit and first wash, perhaps you should look out for another hairdresser, but not start to pur even more stuff on your hair to make it look like you expect it to look. A good hairdresser will cut your hair for you, and you alone, and not like it is shown in a glamorous magazine under the title "One for all". This reminds me, that I wanted to write a post alone about haircuts... please do remember me..
Back to grooming.

Dandruff on your shoulders is not good. Take care of that, look at your diet and perhaps even go to the doctor, should the problem persist. Very often a change for a gentler shampoo and letting hair dry naturally is enough to get rid of snowy shoulders.
Concerning the grooming of your face, there are many possibilities and in our age one should have slowly slowly found the routie which makes your skin glow and happy, well nourished and clear. Important is the routine, religiously followed  - this is the big secret of good skin, nothing else.
Good grooming does not need too much make up neither - and if you use make up, use it so, that it is your face who looks well and nobody takes you for Winnetou on his warpath. Do take good care of your teeth!!! Very important - regular visits to the dentist are a must and no luxury. As goes for a good maintainance of those eyebrows - quickly done, once you have found the shape which goes well with your face.

Never forget wo take care of your neck... poor old neck is often the stepchild of a grooming regime. But it needs only soap, water, a good cream and a regular "skin polish", i.e. peeling. Does wonder! A perfect peeling also for the body is the good old recipe of some good oil and a cup of sugar mixed and rigorously applied all over your body. If you want, put some essential oils in for fun. Your skin comes out of the shower all soft and clean.

We talked already about washing yourself regularly - a good bar of soap is your best friend in more than one cases. Depilation is also a question of personal preference, but wearing sleeveless shirts in summer make some epilation necessary - shave, wax, whatever makes you more happy.  Same goes for the odd legs... Some people are luckier than others, in any case do not look like a pin-up for "Welcome in the Hairy World"....!A bottle of bodylotion is essential - and a dry brush. Another good way for getting this poor old body  exfoliated and soft. The sugar thing is more practical, as you are cleaned and creamed at the same time....

A word to hands and feet: Having a regular manicure and pedicure is no luxury, but keeps your extremities in good shape. I personally do not like long fingernails, and think that only impeccable lackered colour is worth the maintainancepain on short square fingernails. But this is a personal preference I have and with me painted fingers do last ca 20 hours, so it it not worth th effort and I prefer to buff them into some gleaming softness and put my beloved Dior Creme Apricot  on top for that groomed look. It really works!
Toes should be coloured, at least in summer. So much more fun. No effort to keep the poor old feet groomed, if you buffer them while sitting in your bath and put  also bodylotion on them, Creme Apricot on the nails. Works.

Clean clothing, some little colourcombining and a good-smelling scent, not overwhelming but agreable to seek you out, is another must for good grooming. As are shined  and cared for shoes and if possible, a handbag which may be old, but has from time to time a good coating in Nivea Cream and afterwards a good polish, with a lot of ellbow grease.
Take care of your jewellery, better less than more. If I see pictures out of the 80ies, we all had big earrings and chains and rings and bracelets, with big hair and many colours in our outfits. This is a nono today. If a bracelet, then earrings, if big earrings, than no chains, if chanins, no earrings  - you get the idea of less is more?

All in all, we do not arrive here at the budgetline of  2500 Euros, I am sorry to say. Let's have a look. You need a good bar of soap, a shampoo, some good face cream, a bottle of bodylotion, a scent, some lipstick ( which doubles as rouge), mascara and one good concealer, a scent, toothbrush and paste, a good hairbrush, 2 bottles of  vernis pour l' ongle, one red and one transparent, a buffer and a file, a shaver, a tweezer, a body brush and that is it. The budget line can go from 50 $ to 500$ if you want, but the essential factor is taking care of oneself, having respect for one's features and being kind to ourselves. Time spent in grooming is time well spent: all in a good ratio of effort and result....
AND: Have fun!!!

Autumn

It is really a pity, that I do not have enough leisure for the moment to get all those ideas on paper, respectively getting the post written I would like to talk about. So here just a quick word, so that you do not feel too neglected!

 It is right now the most beautiful time of the year - at least for me: the sky, if it is blue, is really blue and clear, the air is crisp and the trees are getting into a golden light. The days are getting shorter and the nights cooler. You still can have lunch outside in a cafe and get a sunburn, but dinners have to be inside now. People are busy,  but not hectic. The first scent of roasted chestnuts are in the air. Time to start the fire in the chimney and also to start thinking about those Christmas Presents.. not to talk about the cards...! Those of us, who do not have the pictures already selected are in trouble ( I for one...). Every year Christmas comes as a surprise, it seems. Nobody has been seeing it getting up on the horizon latest from the first of september...

The Opera in Munich in early octoberlight

But back to Autumn - I do not know, why I love it, but I do, always have. It is also the ideal time for city traveling, visiting friends and going to museums to see the just opened new exhibitions. Have a stroll and look through the galleries and then also through the shops.  In an ideal world, we would all have enough time to stroll more and see more beautiful things around us. I cannot say it often enough, how important it is for the soul, to see and do beautiful things. Beauty is essential for a happy life.


And to be a bit mondaine: the nicest thing is that one starts again to get dressed as one should be. Elegance is coming back and with it the feeling of wanting to be well groomed and in a good mood is essential. So off ou drag yourself to the hairdresser and get those boots you have been contemplating already for the last 6 weeks.
And not to start about scent again...

Oh, I really need some more time to write some posts...

Why don´t you...? 9

Some new food for thought!

Why don´t you:
- do more "Kitchen-Dinners"?
Not the latest newest thing to do, but always great fun and not too difficult to organize. Just make sure, that the kitchen does not look like a battlefield and that there is enough space for everybody to sit comfortably. The big advantage: the poor cook does not have to slave away alone, but can enjoy the talk while carving the chicken...

- do more "Music at Home"?
Just invite some good friends over, open a bottle of wine and get copies of songs all of you now and off you go. If you have a piano and one friends who knows to play it, even better. Great fun and after an initial shyness the most entertaining evening you will have passed in months, loads of laughter and fun guaranteed...

- do more "Little Travels"?
Even just a day away from your ordinary day to day life is refreshing. Going to Paris for lunch with a friend sounds complicated, but is not the end of the world: Just jump in the train and here you go.  Or to London for buying some tea and having a sip with another friend over there? If you plan well ahead tickets are affordable and the exitement of being alive and seeing the world gets you going for another 2 months in the daily treadmill. If you can stay overnight by all means do: it is a real break and feels much longer than only 24 hours. Proof that time is definitifely "relativ"...

- do more "Tea Parties"?
Even less work that an kitchen dinner, it is the ideal way of spending a lazy sunday afternoon in the company of good friends. The advantages are serveral: not only is the timeframe generally a shorter one than for a dinner, children are welcome, so there is no problem with babysitters, food preparations are minimal, as you in the last of all events can rush out and buy some cake, toast and butter. Some juice for children and really good quality tea in huge quantities for the adults make a feast for every one without the stress of formal entertaining with a 8 course dinner. Highly recommended also for inviting new aquaintances - just the right thing to decide whether you will be friends or stay better on a more formal footing...

- do more "Operas and Concerts"?
Get some friends together and organize between yourselves the concerts and operas you would like to see. This is a good incentive to go out to hear good music and do it in good company. Much more fun, than sitting in your pijamas alone at home with a CD or, even worse, alone through a Wagner Opera, without anybody to comment on the horrible soprano or share with you the  desperate glas of bubble in the intervall...