Appearance Threshold

Before anyone gives me grief about not making any "training" posts - I can assure you that I am making some progress. I mean it's piddly-ass pathetic progress, but progress nonetheless. I'm walking as much as possible, generally pushing the Gremlin in the stroller around the neighborhood at a brisk pace to get the heart rate up. I've also been doing some walk/run workouts when BJ is home to watch the Gremlin. Santa is going to be sending us a sweet jogging stroller so as soon as it's safe, I'll have more flexibility to workout with the Gremlin during the day.

Today, I want to talk about ... for lack of better description - your personal appearance threshold. What is your level of comfort with how you must appear before leaving the house. We all have our own personal rules for how we have to look and what we wear and it changes based on where we're going whether it's to work, out for the evening, a quick errand, trip to the grocery store etc. It's most likely not something we even think about, it's so ingrained.

For men, it's things like do you need to take a shower? Or shave? Or is it acceptable to just throw a hat on?

For women, it's far more complicated. Not only it is a question of showering, but in regards to shaving - can I just get away with shaving my pits? Do I have to shave my legs?
Am I washing my hair? If I wash my hair do I have to dry and style it or am I going to just throw it in a pony tail?
Do I need to put on makeup?

I remember back in my younger days I wouldn't even leave the house to run quickly to the store without my contacts in, and full makeup and hair. I was scared to death that someone I know would see my in my "raw" state. I was always fully cleaned and made up, the only variable was my clothing. Ripped jeans, Birkenstocks and a t-shirt were completely acceptable for trips to the store and quick errands for example.

As I've gotten older, my threshold has been greatly altered. I don't really care so much about what people think so I don't worry so much about how I look. There's also the change in my work environment from being a government 9 to 5'er who had a lot of contact with the public to a nurse working the night shift. My work uniform went from business casual to pajamas a.k.a. scrubs. In general, I still like to put my full makeup on when I go to work, but I generally choose to wear glasses (more protection for my eyes from ick) and for infection control purposes I no longer can wear nail polish and my hair has to be pulled back.

I started pondering all of these issues this morning when I had to run to the Post Office to pick up a box. I wasn't worried about being unshowered and having no makeup on, but I did feel the need to brush my hair (if my hair had looked nasty, a ballcap would have been employed) and brush my teeth. As for clothing, I was perfectly content to wear the tshirt that I had slept in, I didn't bother with a bra, but I did feel the need to take the jammie pants off and put on clean underwear and jeans. I went through this ritual without really thinking about it and I realized just how high - or is it low? - that my appearance threshold has become. Gone are the days where I shaved my legs daily and feared being caught without my makeup. Of course I don't think you'll ever find me nastily in need of a shower, and this morning if I had more errands to run and was going to be out a few hours, I would have definitely showered ... though unless I was going to the Mall or another non-grocery store, I wouldn't have bothered with makeup.

I know that there's this idea that once you get married and have kids you "let yourself go," but I don't think my preferences have anything to do with this. It's more that as I've gotten older, I've become more comfortable in my skin and I'm not so superficial. I'm pretty sure that gazing upon my clean, non-made up face is not akin to staring at Medusa - so I don't sweat those things as much. I will certainly admit that the busier I get and the more demands I have on my time, the less often you'll find me in full makeup and hair glamour, but by golly I'll always be showered, have my teeth brushed, clean underwear and have my armpits shaved - you can at least count on that!

So what's your appearance threshold? And has it changed as you've gotten older?