This is an impulsive post, not one that's marinated for a few days. So I'm already arguing with myself about whether it's true.
For example, sweatpants and leisurewear certainly dominated the fashion blogs this past year, due to Covid. There's a huge emphasis on clothes being easy and comfortable at the moment.
Maybe Covid turned a huge amount of this on its head. In my mind, I was writing this picturing women heading into a conventional office for a 9-5 job.
You're right about the double bind. If one doesn't maintain a fit body, that's bad and one must be shamed. But if one maintains a fit body (especially as a mom), get ready for some snide comments about priorities or sad lives without cake.
I wonder about all of this, because my personal experiences feel so unrepresentative. I am wildly un-maintained by what I understand to be conventional standards, and I don't feel much pressure to be better groomed, but I may just not be picking up the pressure because I'm generally kind of peculiar. I don't really have a sense of how much time other women actually are spending on the hair/skincare/whatever thing, as opposed to how much time advertisers are trying to make them spend.
Tl:dr -- this whole topic confuses me.
And I think a lot of moms have internalized those comments so deeply that they run the tape in their heads against themselves, regardless of whether anyone actually says it outloud. The degree of mom guilt carried by many mothers in this country is pretty pathological.
If I had to wildly generalize what's "normal" for a woman who works, but doesn't have to be the face of an organization, I'm guessing:
- morning shower, shaving 2-3x a week?
- 5 minutes of make-up?
- 5-10 minutes of blow drying hair?
- Total dressed and ready to go in 30-60 minutes, depending on the shower, and not including breakfast?
- maybe putting up with shoes that hurt their feet and slow down how quickly you can walk and move? I think the shoes can be a really big issue.
1.2: Folks in my line of work have to dress up on occasion -- I myself wear a suit maybe three times a year -- but otherwise, I'm a bit peculiar for wearing a tie to work every day. I don't think that practice is going to survive the pandemic.
On the fitness front, there's also a flattening of reasons for prioritizing fitness when looking at women; it tends to be read as solely about catering to the male gaze. I've been running a whole lot over this year, and some of it is just "weird tense year, taking it out in weird tense obsessive behavior". A big chunk of it is neurotic fear of aging and death -- my parents have gotten a lot older, in terms of physical capacity, over the last few years, and I would like that to happen to me as late as possible. I know being in good shape doesn't stop aging, but I haven't got any other ideas. And some of it is vanity in the showoffy sense of being vain about what I can do, rather than what I look like -- I'm slow, but I can trudge along slowly for a very long time.
Almost none of it is related to looking prettier, because it's not super effective for that. My leg muscles probably look detectably different than they did this time last year, but not a hell of a lot -- I'm stable at "looks okay for an untidy middle-aged woman."
6: The shoes thing is the closest I get to wanting to be prescriptive about how other people dress and groom themselves. That uncomfortable shoes are a norm makes me insane, even though I haven't worn heels for years and years.
And a certain amount of grooming signifies respect for others. Like, if someone with means showed up at a funeral wearing sweatpants, I'd be kind of offended that they could not be bothered. McSweeney's did a satirical take on the CDC's mask guidelines where, instead of being about how safe certain situations were with a mask and without, it was about how safe it is to wear sweat pants in different situations. I don't think it's desirable for everyone to wear sweats *all* the time.
I also really dislike it when men allow their nose and ear hairs to grow out. I probably dislike that because it's a sign of age, but, man, am a I grateful when that's cleaned up.
Oddly, just minutes ago I read this article by the inimitable Chicken Kiev which seems apropo
https://www.businessinsider.com/get-ready-for-blob-girl-summer-2021-4
10: Yeah, I agree that there's something socially valuable about meeting norms of grooming and dress. It's all about figuring where the bar should be placed.
It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets social ostracism.
The time penalty thing is something I have wondered about specifically w/r/t elaborate skin care regimes -- 10-step Korean snail-slime masks and serums and so on. I fundamentally do not believe that anything beyond washing yourself and using lotion if your skin feels dry does much that's visible (exception for acne treatment). At which point I wonder if the popularity of wildly complex skin care regimes is driven by women who, for whatever reason, feel that they're doing something improper if they don't devote a significant amount of time to appearance maintenance, but who do t actually need that much time to make themselves look what they think of as acceptable for appearing in public.
Agreed with 1, this is a weird year to ask about grooming habits, fashion, and fitness. Or maybe it's the perfect year because the worldwide change of routines will make everyone reevaluate things? Or maybe the reverse, people will appreciate the return to "normal" and double down, I don't know.
I've noticed some of this myself despite being a cishet guy. If I were dating I'd probably worry more about my unibrow and less about my nose hairs. The former looks silly, the latter tickles Cassandane sometimes, the second matters more these days. Early in the pandemic I was a lot more lax about shaving but eventually it becomes a "a stitch in time saves nine" sort of thing. Shaving daily takes 5 minutes. Shaving every 4-7 days takes 10 minutes but I'm more likely to cut myself and I feel like razors wear out faster if the stubble is longer. Shaving every month takes 30 minutes, I have to get out a specialized tool for it, and it makes a huge mess.
Sorry to take the topic back to cishet guys. I can report that Cassandane grooms more and dresses better than me these days, while still being more relaxed than she was at the office, but her job has a lot more video calls than mine so I wouldn't generalize too much from that.
Not elaborate, but clearly careful skin care plan: http://www.unfogged.com/archives/comments_16357.html#1990106
A while ago during an anxious period I fell down the rabbit hole of ASMR videos for relaxation (which I'm less into now because the pandemic makes me sad and then relaxation makes me sadder), and there's a big overlap with female beauty culture ("my daily makeup" "doing your makeup" etc.) which has given me a rather different perspective on all this beauty-work stuff that I used to not really understand. It seems like there's a big part of it which is that a lot of people enjoy having daily morning and evening rituals, even aside from whether it's beauty specific. It also sometimes seems to function as a shared topic of fandom and conversation, the way that sports fandom functions in typical male circles. At any rate, unsurprisingly as a young person I was rather negative about makeup, and I've never dated anyone who has a daily makeup routine, but now I feel like I understand a little better and am less judgemental.
To tie this in with the original post, I'm a little surprised your kid is talking to you about this stuff instead of learning everything from youtube like I thought the youngs did.
I've stopped shaving during the pandemic, instead I have a short beard that I trim every two weeks (once a month just the beard, and once a month also the hair to the same length as the beard). I haven't decided what I'll do after the pandemic, not shaving is really nice.
17.last: frankly, me too. I think it's really nice, but so not what I did at age 12. I was very secretive and embarrassed to ask questions, so I biked down to the drug store and bought myself disposable razors and just sort of invented a routine that was passable. There was no generational- or peer-passing down of knowledge.
18: The weird thing to me was seeing the doctor (on ZOOM) whom I'd never seen without a beard, clean shaven, because you can't wear an n95 and have to get a PAPR, if you have facial hair.
A podcast? Accusing everything under the sun of complicity with the celebrity culture buttressed by said podcast's nose-to-window examination in a classic move that Cora Diamond had a term for? Now I've heard everything!
I've grown and shaved several beards during the pandemic. I look like Grizzly Adams now but I'm going to shave it before I fly back to the US so I can wear a N95 mask during the flight.
re: 14
About 2 years ago, when I was at peak weight loss, I started doing a bit more skincare. I'm a lifelong skeptic about most of that stuff and was lucky when younger to not really have bad skin. Nothing extreme, it took me about 5 minutes, but it involved 2 or 3 different things on my face.* I did it for a few months, and was prepared to discover it didn't really do anything.
Sad to say, it was clearly visible. I looked noticeably younger and more healthy.
I've since stopped because I'm fundamentally a bit lazy, and I prefer to use those 10 minutes in the evening for doom-scrolling on my phone. But, I do think I should start again.
* some sort of cleaning product, some kind of anti-aging serum or retinol thing, some kind of moisturiser or oil. I had a few different things I swapped around.
I've had a beard for about the last 15 years or more, and some kind of beard-like facial hair for longer. It changes length, but it's always there.
I would like to just shave it all off and see what I look like. I would be a bit jowly at the moment, so I'd like to lose some more weight before I did, but before and when I first had a beard, I did actually have a fairly presentable square jaw, rather than some kind of Henry the VIII thing happening.
My beard has gone all white, which makes me look older with it than without. But the last time I shaved it off, I looked in the mirror and realized my options were to grow back the beard or get a chin tuck.
I had this insight the other day. Incels complain that women can make themselves more attractive with makeup - an option that isn't acceptable for men in our society. I realized that facial hair is what men get to have instead.
I tried Proactiv once and it made my face swell. But not in the good way.
I've been on camera a lot more this year, with video calls and remembering to include remote workers as a new norm -- before, I got to miss most meetings, and the ones I attended were phone calls. My wife sometimes mocks my clothing, because I took to heart a friend's comment about the subtle power of dressing for the office helping concentration and feeling professional -- so, most days, I still wear engineer appropriate shirts and in fall to spring, slacks. (In the summer I wear shorts, because I can skimp on air conditioning when I do; 78 + a fan is plenty, while I'd want it at least 4 degrees cooler with pants and socks.)
It's still weird to me to think of makeup as something that makes people more attractive. Like, I can appreciate now that it's a fun way for people to play with their appearance, that it's un-feminist to hate it, and that I can learn to appreciate it in a way that makes it not unattractive, but it still seems totally weird to me to think that someone could be unattractive without makeup on but attractive with it. Like, clothes can look really cute, but if I'm attracted to someone it's not like I'm going to find them less attractive with their clothes off.
To lean into the sort of the work that it takes to maintain American Beauty standards would get like pretty uncomfortable.
Haven't looked at the link but there's an enormous difference between "American Beauty standards" and "Miss America Pageant standards." Same with "clothing model standards" or "singer standards," etc., etc. Billie Eilish's career vis a vis idiots loving or hating her based on how she dresses or whether she's "too fat" or whether she's betrayed the feminist movement by appearing sexy on a Vogue cover is about tiny clumps of people whose hot takes have little to do with how people in general feel about whether someone looks good or doesn't.
Spoken as someone who really let the beard and hair get away from me during the pandemic, not to mention BG's 10. I find myself now going back to daily shaving, etc., almost as training for rejoining the world. (In the before-times, I was actually an outlier in my office because I always wore a dress shirt and dress pants to work.)
29: I have similar feelings about makeup, but I'm used to hearing women say that that they look "scary" without makeup. I've given up on trying to persuade them otherwise -- "I know you're just trying to be nice, but I know what I look like."
That Toast essay someone wrote suggests there is basically no place where professionally beautiful people stop and say "I'm where I need to be."
it still seems totally weird to me to think that someone could be unattractive without makeup on but attractive with it.
I had a Spanish flat mate when I was at university who was basically two different people with make up on, or off.
I think that's more of a thing now, with very elaborate make-up regimes driven by Youtube/Instagram, etc. but it was fairly shocking to me, then. I was used to my high school girlfriend wearing very dramatic Goth-y make-up, which made her look completely different, but it was entirely obvious that it was a "look" and she did still basically look like herself. But this flat mate used to wear a lot of quite heavily toned foundation, and did a lot of contouring and shading, false lashes, etc that made her eyes and cheekbones look completely different. She wasn't unattractive without makeup, she just looked like a completely different person. I think we lived together for about 6 months before I even saw her without makeup.
Without makeup, she looked like a pale, slightly elfin early 20-something who could have passed for Scottish. With it, she looked like Penelope Cruz in Volver or something similar. Very Spanish, but also about 15 years older than she actually was.
I could easily imagine someone finding one of those people attractive and the other not.
The skin on my legs is bizarrely sensitive to razors, so when I do shave I have to use a brand-new razor, plentiful emollient shaving cream, and put lotion on them several times a day or they will itch like a nightmare. You can imagine how often I force myself to do this. (A nurse once recommended waxing instead-- presumably at a salon? I smiled and nodded.) If I shaved my legs every three days or so-- which maybe some, many, most women do??-- I think the itching and irritation would destroy me. So there is one data point for you about Other Women In America.
Porn stars before and after makeup. (Safe for work)
My impression is that most men have no idea what most women look like without makeup and are basing an opinion on a small number of women that they see so regularly that they don't really get a unique view of each time they see them.
The link in 35 is a weird scroll. It starts to look like People vs Cartoony Snapchat Filters.
It's all the same markup artist, so it's a lot of the same effect. But there are many versions of that post out there.
Yeah, of course porn star makeup is a whole different thing than normal make-up. In most cases I find it quite off-putting, porn-y, and unattractive, but that doesn't say much at all about non-porn makeup. 10 though is a good example of a look that's cute and genuinely looks different than no-makeup. In most cases even with makeup that dramatic who I find attractive isn't changed much by the makeup, and when there's an exception (18? maybe 19?) it seems to be as much about hair as makeup.
I think a lot of women who engage in daily 10-step skincare regimens or elaborate makeup do it because it's fun and they like it. It may seem like a waste of time to someone who isn't interested in cosmetics, but a lot of hobbies seem that way to outsiders.
Like, I spend a lot of time thinking about clothes and fashion. Who's wearing what, how would it look on me, how is it made, should it be altered, fabrics, patterns, eras, what should I wear tomorrow, what should I wear a week from now. Would I save a lot of time and mental energy if I didn't think about fashion so much? Sure, but what would I be saving my time for? It's one of my favorite things to think about.
My wife didn't bother shaving except when we had to go to fancy occasions, but when we lived in enlightened Europe laser treatment was so cheap that she had five sessions and it's relatively permanent. Stray hairs return but overall she hasn't had to do any further maintenance.
For comparison, one session in the US seems to be about $300, which was the price of five sessions in Spain.
I forgot to shave my legs for my wedding.
I think a lot of women who engage in daily 10-step skincare regimens or elaborate makeup do it because it's fun and they like it. It may seem like a waste of time to someone who isn't interested in cosmetics, but a lot of hobbies seem that way to outsiders.
I think sometimes it can become, "I enjoy it on a day when I've got 20 minutes to spare, I resent it on a day when I am feeling overburdened, but I don't want to show up looking way different than I usually do."
42: If there's ever a day you're probably wearing a long enough dress not to worry about it, your wedding day is it.
Traditionally, weddings are for cleavage-forward clothing.
Well, I also forgot to shave my cleavage.
My hair seems to have mostly rubbed off my legs as I've gotten older. I shave my shins every now and then.
Anymore, I see this as signaling, rather than "better" vs "untidy"; the people who are visibly done up are telling other people what tribe they belong to. Of course, they might think they're doing it to look better, but that's just in their corner of the world.
What Heebie described in 6 is basically me, with everything at the low end of the time spectrum & with relative ineptitude (ie, I do dry my hair but it takes me two minutes and I do not do the elaborate blow out thing with brushes etc - I just put my head upside down and blast). I have been doing pretty much the same thing even while at home, minus make up and wearing more casual clothes (mostly because my work clothes often involve tights and tights and cats don't mix well). I do really like very minimal make up because my eyebrows have done something a bit funky as I've aged and my face as a whole looks better if I use a bit of pencil there, and I look less tired if I put mascara on. Probably confusingly to other people, I don't bother to fix with make up what other people would probably consider much bigger flaws. Eh. I guess it's all about making my face pleasing to myself.
I get exceedingly grumpy about the time necessary to like, do skin care or the like, even though I notice a difference and think it's important....like, I like having painted toe nails but really, what a pain in the ass. I mainly just find it all pretty boring to do, although not to think about. Because I do like the results, I have been trying to convince myself it's a worthy use of time ... or at least non-boring if I listen to an audio book at the same time?
Relatedly, I dislike having to get ready multiple times in a day. I am a get dressed once and that's it person, and don't like changing when I get home or that sort of thing. I'm sure some of my resistance to many forms of exercise is the need to change and/or bathe afterward. Which is weird and strange and not something I get...I mean, what's the big deal? And yet. I hate it.
Having to take a crash course on all this stuff has been both fun and exhausting, though in my case it starts from a fairly practical baseline of "how much work do I have to do to lessen the odds of being misgendered in public," the paradoxical aspect of which is kind of maddening, like, how much artifice is necessary in order not to be taken as other than what one is, or, man, did you ever think, it's like everyone wears makeup... all the time... without realizing it... like, without makeup, is there even a real you (cough cough)
Masks obviate some of the difficulty, but there's still all this business around eyes and hair, trying to cover up beard shadow, figuring out what different clothes do to your silhouette. The laser treatments are effective but indeed expensive in the US and hurt like hell, at least on the face. Most of the other hair removal involves areas not for public consumption, at least not until summer, and it does take forever but I don't actually mind the time. There's this new element of asserting ownership over your body.
I get that using lasers for hair removal is helpful for lots of people, but why has science done that before making a blaster?
Sure, but what would I be saving my time for?
Smugfulness and revolution, of course! Do you like in-person shopping at all? I'm idly wondering what would make me like it more. I haven't bought an article of clothing in a physical store other than REI in years.
you can't wear an n95 and have to get a PAPR, if you have facial hair.
Amadea's brother is a parole officer, and has a full beard. (He's also fully vaccinated and has been for a while.) A few weeks ago, he had to apprehend a guy who he was told had tested positive for COVID, so he had to wear an N-95 despite being vaccinated, but of course he couldn't get an N-95 fitted over his beard, so he had to shave it off. He looked quite different for the couple weeks it took for it to grow back. Also, it turned out the guy he was apprehending didn't have COVID after all.
I see this as signaling, rather than "better" vs "untidy"; the people who are visibly done up are telling other people what tribe they belong to.
This is certainly true, as is the inverse: in my professional subspecies, it is the overwhelming norm that women do not wear makeup. (There's a lot of classism and sexism behind this norm -- in my office (and in the office I worked at before this), only the secretarial employees wear visible makeup.) If I were to walk into my workplace in eyeshadow and blow-dried hair, people would definitely negatively judge me.
I do need to paint my toenails soon -- I bruised both of my big toenails black running, and that is going to look kind of gross in sandals if I don't hide it.
They're fine except for really, really long runs -- the two runs that did it were 18 and 20 miles respectively, and I'm not going that long anymore. But yeah, if I changed my mind and started training for a marathon I'd buy a half-size bigger.
6: I'm high maintenance for an academic who isn't aggressively pursuing a Style, but I'd say: 5-10 minutes makeup, virtually zero on hair (curls, airdry), and flats because the hell with wearing heels. But if I were contouring I would look like I were auditioning for HR, so, I'm with ogged: at least some of this is signalling.
I do think Youtube/etc has made it a lot more common for women to wear tons of heavy makeup. Some of this is surely regional (heavy makeup = probably Mormon) but the pancake+contour seems to be everywhere.
Do you like in-person shopping at all?
I like shopping in person.
The point being: Vanessa Williams is very pretty and talented.
The "aggressively pursuing a Style" point is an interesting one. A lot of academia is quite accepting of Eccentric Behavior, and enough of a Style puts you into Eccentric Professor territory rather than auditioning for HR territory. My trapezist former colleague wore a lot of very femme looks with noticeable makeup around the department, and it all just fits into the "oh, yeah, there's one guy who wears a 3-piece suit every day"-territory.
Cedric Villani being the poster child for this kind of thing.
Our daughter, who arrives tomorrow (!!), has gone way way out there on the make-up. She makes her living on the internet, so she's signalling membership in a culture, I suppose. The wife was always very light with it, and I don't think she's doing anything but lipstick these days.
I'm pretty certain that no one cares much what I look like, and if my ear hair bothers anyone, I consider that 100% their problem. I've grown a beard for the first time ever this last winter, and was thinking I'd shave it off in a month or two, but people seem to like it on me. When prompted. I've had a mustache since the 70s, and neither wife not kid has even seen me without it.
I got a bit of a sunburn yesterday, and I'm just not sorry. It was glorious sitting on a patio, drinking a beer after work with a friend, wearing shorts and a t-shirt, and keens. It might snow in the mountains tomorrow night, but yesterday was summer. My skin has experienced plenty of this over the decades, but maybe I'll die of something else (the 40 lbs I ought to lose being implicated) before skin cancer gets me.
Mooseking in 28: so, most days, I still wear engineer appropriate shirts and in fall to spring, slacks. (In the summer I wear shorts, because I can skimp on air conditioning when I do
I was reluctant to try this last summer. When I spent six years working from home full time (2004-2010) I used clothing as part of my signal to myself that I was at work, so collared shirts and slacks every day. That's still a bit more formal than my office usually runs, but it's worked for me since then. The climate-control situation in my home office is terrible, though, so maybe I should make a conscious effort around that this summer. It's going to feel very weird with the usual shirts.
A friend in a group I belong to was so aggressively oblivous to not only his luxuriant extra-nasal hair but also to fairly pointed inquiries about it that at one get-together most of his friends/guests stuffed clumps of white pine needles into their nostrils and circulated. I wasn't there but the way I heard it he did not notice that either. Wait, what were we discussing?
41: I knew someone who got emergency dental care that was excellent and inexpensive - maybe free His plan was that if he ever need major dental work he would take a trip to Italy. The savings would cover a large portion of hist trip.
Laser hair removal on legs sounds great. I get bikini waxes, but I would be uncomfortable making a permanent decision on that. I heard about women who had electrolysis to permanently remove all the hair when Brazilians were in style and then wanted transplants to grow it back when fashion changed.
So, if I can time it properly, I'll go on vacation and get my hair removal done at the same time. I feel better when my legs are shaved. I don't know if that's just about how it looks.
I find leg stubble uncomfortable. Shaving semi-regularly is fine, not shaving for months straight is also good, but every couple of weeks is annoying.
57: The thing I like about pedicures is that they are better at trimming my nails so that they are tidy and short. If I wait too long, my feet are less comfortable in my shoes.
"Our daughter, who arrives tomorrow (!!)"
Congrats on the newest unfogged baby!
Do you like in-person shopping at all? I'm idly wondering what would make me like it more.
I dislike in-person shopping. I like window shopping, but going into a dressing room and taking off my clothes (and shoes!) and putting on different ones, in confined conditions and under harsh lighting, is awful. I do almost all my shopping online. But even trying on clothes at home is a chore.
I noticed recently that most of the clothes I've purchased in-person are from other countries. Maybe my mindset when vacationing is more pliable to otherwise-unpleasant tasks? That's not helpful advice. Sometimes when I'm shopping with my sister or with a friend, and she's inevitably taking forever in the dressing room, I try on some clothes myself, very slowly, for spite. So maybe try that.
I've ordered two ThredUp "goody boxes," where you give them your preferences and sizes, and they send you a box of used clothing in good condition to keep or return. I enjoy it a lot more than shopping in person.
I adore looking at clothes in photos but hate shopping in person. Loathe it. With the exception of shopping with one specific friend. And actually, I also like tagging along on shopping trips for others, I just don't enjoy it for myself.
Watching the (now old) documentary Good Hair really made this time/money issue so much more obvious and it's why I recommend it to everyone. The amount of time and money that Black women put into their hair just totally blew my mind.
Just like the movie quoted something like $1200 to get your hair done into a straightened style that you then had to get redone in a couple months? And like everyone was expected to have this kind of look?! Imagine if you could get credit for that, instead of getting to do that to be still treated not as well as white women.
Shopping online sucks so much I hate it. How can get a sense of the fabric weight and feel?
Epilating is great but I still want the lasers.
My New Year's resolution every year is to wear more lipstick. I go in spurts with makeup in general but always wear brow gel since my brows are a bit more old man than ideal (also one goes weird directions right quick).
Face nonsense totally does work! The Ordinary make some really cheap, good exfoliators that make a big difference (I like lactic acid 10%).
I need some face nonsense. I am projecting sad emotions onto my face.
I feel like retinol works really well, but I don't like being more sensitive to the sun.
Yeah the sun sensitivity is annoying. And more so somewhere where it's not raining or winter most of the year I imagine.
Apparently the trick is Asian sunscreens or other chemical UV blockers because they don't leave a white cast and are way more comfortable. Hard/impossible to get in the US due to FDA regulations and a lot of the Amazon sellers of Asian ones are counterfeit. I used the classic Biore UV stuff and it was absolutely amazing, like a lightweight moisturizer and I didn't burn after hours in the sun. I found it at a random Japanese store in my town. So I'd bet you can find it in one of the bigger towns your near.
76: so my favorite sunscreen for the face is from a company called Neogen Day Light. It's Korean but sold in the US. It used to be available at Sephora, but it's on Amazon, maybe Ulta too. Because I hate Amazon, I just ordered directly from their website. Sokaglam might sell it too. I'm going to try their new Airy version. I don't know what the availability in Canada is.
Ihherb carries it too, but I stopped shopping there, because they no longer have telephone customer service. If your package gets lost or the shampoo leaks everywhere, then you still have to interact with a chatbot, but they do ship to Canada.
80: Cool I'll check it out. We can get chemical UV blockers here in Canada so I actually have a Neutrogena product that's spf 60 but isn't white at all. Kind of greasy looking but 'glowy' skin is in.
I use a Nivea sunscreen that they don't sell in the US, and I pick up when I'm in Europe. It's going to kill me, right?
I have a stupid hat, but mostly we don't have sunshine.
I use an Ulta physical blocker that I'm pretty happy with.
Too bad we can't ask Tawny Kitaen about this topic.
82: The Neogen is zinc oxide and some titanium oxide, not chalky, and lightly moisturizing. If you are younger and have oily skin, you would not need a moisturizer. I think it's what they call cosmetically elegant. Much nicer feel than neutrogena.
I do use the neutrogena spray on the go. For hard core all-day in the sun, summer activities I use blue Lizard. Elta MD looks great texture wise compared to Blue Lizard, but it's so much more expensive. If I'm going to be out with a hat on a hot sunny, July day fir a while, I need the mineral sunscreens.
I have the opposite experience. The thicker the beard, the easier the shave. Though I never go full yeti, like 10 days' growth at most.
Also, a thing in my hyperdense city is innumerable hole-in-the-wall salons, which AFAI noticed don't do makeup, but do do hair and nails and massages. There's one within 2-4 minutes' walk of everyone's door. Perhaps they change people's lives. But I'll never know, because male privilege.
88-9 me. Also, I have oily skin and am still getting daily zits in my 30s, which is bullshit. Advice appreciated. Helpfully, I live in Asia.
I am petty sure I've used those things and I've never been to Asia.
I am major sure those things are ubiquitous here.
For zits: BHA and/or those little clear patches that are infused with something that'll deflate the pimples.
Also this lady is great https://labmuffin.com/video-my-top-5-acne-tips/
CosRX Pimple Acne Master Patches is the one I know but that might just be because it's available in the States (a Korean brand).
The United States, a Samsung Subsidiary.
Not sure what exactly is available to you, MC, but I like Kiehl's acne spot treatment. If you can find something with similar ingredients (10% sulfur and vitamin B3), it works really well applied 2-3x/day.
Since I wear surgical masks (and now double surgical masks!) all day, my skin is a mess. I use cheap soap, then LaNeige toner, then the Kiehl's, then a moisturizer. Morning and evening, but I wash my face as soon as I get home from work and do all the other stuff before bed. Right now, it's Dr. Jart Teatreetment moisturizer. Before that, it was Murad skin perfecting lotion, which was on a huge sale. I have no loyalty to a brand, but I looks for anything that says "acne-prone" or similar and contains hyaluronic acid because it doesn't feel oily to me.
For what it's worth, this takes less time than putting on makeup, which is utterly pointless with the mask + safety glasses combo.
(I think both LaNeige and Dr. Jart are South Korean.)
I guess I don't have a favorite topical acid.
Oh, one more. I am using kind of fancy but mild things now, but Differin (0.1% adapalene) is an over-the-counter retinoid that works super well. I had really bad acne as a teenager, and Retin-A, the classic stuff, made my face turn red and peel. This worked well enough that I don't have obvious permanent damage.
100: It's part of a chemistry Ph.D. defense. Favorite topical acid, favorite acid to ingest, favorite acid to dissolve sublingually . . . Also, favorite alkaloids. No one asks about your favorite alcohol, though. Everyone's answer is the same.
It's not actually acne, just oil and climate, if that makes a difference.
No one asks about your favorite alcohol, though. Everyone's answer is the same.
Menthol?
105: Ha! I want to make a bad joke about the unbearable whiteness of grad school now.
Apparently lab ethanol in punch doesn't poison you nearly as much as I thought it was supposed to.
103: I suspect the microclimate created by well-sealed masks is not all that different than your environment. Anything that works well for me is noticeable in about a week. I've spent the past year buying and trying lots of products, because it's pretty uncomfortable. (Least attractive mask issue: the skin at my nostrils splits and won't heal. Ouch!)
I wonder if a lot of this is just an outlet for some kind of 'obsessive behaviour' and whether rituals become important for the same reason.
[Not actually obsessive - but the equivalent of the parasympathetic need to touch your face occasionally that had to be suppressed during covid].
I have just been informed I have David Hasselhof hair. Sometimes one is just at a loss.
How much of facial care is just either you exfoliate, or you don't ?
108: I was in TJ Maxx yesterday, and I noticed a skin product called, "DON"T HATE EXFOLIATE". Can this be the slogan for the new Democratic party coalition? I can hear the crowds chanting
Say no to Racism!
Say yes to Self-Care!
Don't Hate!
Exfoliate!
2-4-6-8
Who do we exfoliate?
The Democrats! The Democrats! YEAH!!
EXFOLIATE THE EXFOLIATORS!
SKINCARL, NO?
I debated between Skincarl and Skinkarl, but it's obligatory to read the latter as Skink-arl. SkinKarl, maybe?
"Old SkinKarl Marx? 'CamelCaseKarl', we used to call him. Looked like he was going to be some great political theorist - always muttering about some regime or other. Turned out it was a skincare regime..."