My Stance on Makeup

The other day a friend unintentionally gave me a great compliment. She was explaining to me why she has less in common with me than a few of her other friends. "You're more low maintenance then my other girlfriends," she told me. "You don't take much time to get ready and you don't wear makeup." I guess I hadn't really thought about it before. But I liked the way that sounded. Low Maintenance. I spent the next few days thinking about her words.

I remember when I first realized just how long women spent to get ready. It was when I first moved into college dorms. Other girls my age were spending an hour to achieve a certain look. This was so confusing to me. What could you possibly want to do to your face and hair that would take an entire hour? Well as I lived in the dorms for a longer period of time, I learned from observation what females do. Insecure and surrounded by pressure from girls my age who I found quite glamorous, I began to do what they did. I laboriously worked on my hair and makeup everyday before going out of the building, even if it was just for one class. It's just what everybody did. I didn't really like myself during that period of my life. It didn't feel like me.

My friend Julie never saw the point in wearing makeup. Of all my friends, I can't think of one that I have more fun with than Julie. When I was around her, I never felt pressured to dress up or look perfect. Her self confidence was contagious. With her, I could wear a t-shirt and shorts and feel so naturally beautiful. That competitive edge I felt with so many other female acquaintances was non existent.

If you ask my husband what attracted him to me originally, he will tell you it was how natural and fresh I looked compared to so many girls he knew that slathered on makeup. If there was ever a "low maintenance" period of my life, it was the summer that Josiah and I met. A friend at the time admonished me, telling me that I should attempt look more feminine. "I love you Carly, but you really should put more effort into your apperance," she told me. While these words hurt at the time, I laugh now because little did I know then that I had already caught the eye of my future husband. He apparently found me feminine enough.

Don't think I'm all that self-confident. I don't think I'm such a beauty queen that I look perfect without makeup. But I also know that if I look acceptable without it, why wear it? It takes time (would rather spend it elsewhere), effort (I am chronically lazy), costs money (and obviously a cheapskate), and the people that truly love me will accept me with or without it. I guess that is the definition of low maintenance.