A Medium Maintenance Woman

When did I become medium maintenance?

There’s a set of terms that many people use to describe women in relationship to how much energy and importance they assign to their appearance. High maintenance women spend a lot of time doing their hair, fret about getting wet in the rain, try on multiple outfits in the morning before finding the perfect combination… Low maintenance women don’t value looking nice any less, they just don’t care to spend as much time on it. They often choose a hair style or clothing for practicality over trendiness and don’t worry about wearing the same outfit for both a game of Frisbee golf and dinner at the local bar and grill.

I am historically a low maintenance woman. Sometimes to a fault. Though in recent years, I’ve tried to care a little more about looking attractive. I’ve shopped for sexier clothes, I’ve tried out more flattering hair cuts… My recent perm is a step in this direction. I love how it looks, but it does require a little styling for optimum curliness.

Don’t get me wrong, though. To achieve the best curls, I do use product and blow dry with one of those crazy diffuser thingies. BUT... It actually ends up taking me less time to dry my hair than it did when it was straight.

So, I’m calling myself a medium maintenance woman. I still prefer the low maintenance lifestyle in almost all cases, but I’m spending a little more mental energy on my appearance than I use to.

The thing that weirds me out is that I’ll actually think twice before shoving a motorcycle helmet on my head because it will flatten my hair. I carry a blow drier to the gym, so I can re-style my hair after a swim workout. Considering prioritizing my perm over freely doing something fun or active is strange for me.

I’m working on coming to peace with this. I’m sure it’ll all balance out in the end. Like the force. Come to the dark side, Missy. Right? ;)

Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Swim 1000 yards
100 warm up, 8x25 sprints, 4x50 sprints, 4x100 threshold, 100 cool down