Should girls groom?
All right, I know there are some girls lurking here, and I want your two cents. Guys, feel free to chime in with your opinions too, though I'm really hoping that some chicks de-lurk for this question.
Quandary: I've always used the gym at home in the morning when feasible, but now I'm at the point in my career where I can actually start leaving my desk and using the company gym. Let's say I have a 30-50 minute workout and a 5-minute shower.
Now, I know some girls don't sweat at the gym. They are usually the ones in the cute teal wrap tops with charm bracelets and inch-long fingernails. That's not me. If I'm there, I'm there to fucking sweat.
In this situation, would you do either/both of the following things?
- Take an additional 15-20 minutes to wash/dry/style hair or leave it sweaty in a ponytail?
- Take an additional 5-7 minutes to redo makeup or go bare-faced?
In the past I would have looked at my female peers and done as they did, but none of my peers in the group are female. (Girls might be 40% of top MBA programs, but they are not anywhere near 40% of working MBAs. At this firm, not even 10% of post-MBA hires are chicks. I'm not particularly alarmed by this, but it's sometimes inconvenient to not have another female point of comparison for normative purposes.)
Conflicting issues:
- I already spend too much time on grooming and want to find a way to decrease the time cost
- I never want to come across as less than 100% squeaky clean
- I think it might be weird/uptight to roll back in from the gym in the evening looking like I just spent half an hour on hair and makeup, especially if I'm going to leave for the night shortly thereafter
Assume: Not looking for a relationship, already established credibility in current role, performance reviews truly not biased by hotness or lack thereof (within reason).
I currently spend half an hour or more per day grooming and feel like it would be stupidly expensive (in terms of my opportunity cost per hour) to double that. But I'm also not a big believer in people walking around looking like they just came from the gym. Especially not me. (The guy whose signature is printed on all of our paychecks sits 20 feet from me. And it's a big fucking company.)
Going to the gym at work already means schlepping pants, sneakers, socks, panties, jogging bra, and t-shirt. Doing the full groom would mean lugging a bunch of truly ludicrous shit around with me.... and this is coming from someone whose purse is the size of her hand. It strikes me as pretty absurd to go from that to a f'ing rollaboard just because I want to go to the gym at work. But to be honest, if I saw another person (especially a chick) walking around with sweaty hair and a red face at work, my opinion of their professionalism might dip a little.
Like I said, guys' opinions are valuable here too; the logistical issues are pretty obvious even if you don't personally face the same issues. Would you drop the extra thirty minutes or not? Would you think anything of it if you knew that a coworker did? Or didn't?






Comments
You shower, right? So you are
You shower, right? So you are clean. Hopefully when you shower, you wash your hair. At this point, up in a tidy looking bun and you're all set.
Make up: I am not a fan to begin with. My make up is basically some eye liner. You do not need to go full on primer, foundation, concealer, powder, blush, eyes, cheeks, lips.
A cool shower should rid you of the redness, if not, apply some chamomile cream (takes 3 seconds?), lip gloss, and maybe a lil dab of bronzer?
My opinion is that professionalism has nothing to do with a full made up face and more to do with tidiness, cleanliness and attitude.
From a time management standpoint, a heavier set of squats rather than 2 lighter sets would do. I just saved 4-5 minutes and I can use the extra time to carefully apply my eye liner instead of going out looking all cross eyed and stuff.
I may not be on the Jedi Council, but I sure am great with the Force.
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This is called making a
This is called making a choice. This is something that only you can appropriately handicap- Is going to the gym mid-day* that important to you? If it is, then you've got to maintain the same professional standard as someone who did not exercise during lunch (or whenever) when you return. In sum, you should look fully professional after your workout, even if it means hauling a bag of supplies/accoutrements for cleaning up. If this is too much of a chore, then move your workout to after work or increase the amount you do before work.
*I assume this is mid-day workout, because if you are leaving for home immediately afterward this would not matter.
Bene qui latuit, bene vixit- Ovid
I am a female who uses the
I am a female who uses the gym every day...I leave between 5-6 and don't get back until 7:30-8 (I do fitness competitions so I spend more time than average). I always shower and use the blow dryers at the gym to minimize the sweaty-hair look, but that's it. I don't take my make up off beforehand (if you use good products, it should stay reasonably okay), and it doesn't look amazing after but I only touch up the lips.
I don't think anyone cares as long as you don't smell terrible and your hair is reasonably okay looking (like in a decently brushed ponytail). If you came back with completely undone hair and no make-up, I'd say that's getting into the realm of not okay. And definitely not okay if you don't shower.
With that said, if you are leaving earlier than this and there's any chance a client might come in once you've gotten back, I would spend much more time working on it.
Definitely depends how much
Definitely depends how much you sweat. If you sweat a lot, take a shower - dont blow dry, just put it in a tight bun, and do your make up. It won't take long but you'll, a - look much better and b - feel better.
Always in a rush, but never late
put the damn make up on. take
put the damn make up on.
take care of your hair.
this isn't a democracy
blastoise: put the damn make
put the damn make up on.
take care of your hair.
this isn't a democracy
Here I saw women's grooming
Here I saw women's grooming and was expecting to hear about trimming the hedges, landing strips, and Brazilian waxes
I eat success for breakfast...with skim milk
Even if there are no girls at
Even if there are no girls at your firm you can still get a sense of general decorum by looking at the guys and industry you are in. Do the guys wear nice, tailored, slim-fit shirts and quality ties? Is their hair well-coiffed and their shoes sleek and of high quality? Or does everyone dress like Dwight Schrute? Do you work at a megafund in NYC, or at Procter and Gamble in Cleveland?
In general I would keep the make-up light before and after the gym (heavy make-up looks like ass), and yes, you need to blow-dry your hair. You can maybe go for a simple hairstyle (tussled, hair-up look is actually pretty hot), but no wet hair bullshit (this actually applies to guys too). And don't underestimate the power of looking good as a female, regardless of what anyone says. We had a VP in our office when I was an analyst who made it to VP, and subsequently to director, largely because she looked damn good all the time.
Better yet, stop working out mid-day and hit the gym in the morning or at after work. Mid-day is very inefficient.
TonyPerkis: Here I saw
Here I saw women's grooming and was expecting to hear about trimming the hedges, landing strips, and Brazilian waxes
Why do you think she chose that title?
Her mission is accomplished, sir
I may not be on the Jedi Council, but I sure am great with the Force.
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Well even as a guy I wouldn't
Well even as a guy I wouldn't feel comfortable not taking at least a quick shower after sweating at the gym so I get that...guess I'd pretty much echo what Disincentivy said, now that I think about it. If anything, if I needed more time I'd just up the intensity of the workout and use the time saved to shower/recover/whatever. I guess there's some middle ground between doing nothing and taking way to much time that has to be found that one would be comfortable with, in my opinion.
Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?
I think if you are going back
I think if you are going back to work after the gym you need to look exactly how you did before you left. If not, make sure you go directly home after the gym (maybe some eyeliner and lipgloss in case you bump into someone on your way out) or just get it all over with before your day begins... I think any shortcuts here are an embarrassing moment waiting to happen.
"Dont compromise yourself; you're all you've got" - Janis Joplin
this doesn't belong in a
this doesn't belong in a finance forum
Dafuq?! Who asks this? if
Dafuq?! Who asks this? if you're dirty get clean....
I think I learnt this when I was 3 years old..
Soldier of Fortune: this
this doesn't belong in a finance forum
Says someone who triple-posts all of his threads, lol.
Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?
Disincentivy: TonyPerkis: H
Here I saw women's grooming and was expecting to hear about trimming the hedges, landing strips, and Brazilian waxes
Why do you think she chose that title?
Her mission is accomplished, sir
do you do this? the forum want to know as well as the chat room(they r to wussy to ask )
Nabooru: Soldier of
blastoise: Disincentivy:
I may not be on the Jedi Council, but I sure am great with the Force.
See my WSO blog posts
Disincentivy: blastoise:
Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?
Nabooru: Disincentivy: bl
I may not be on the Jedi Council, but I sure am great with the Force.
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Disincentivy: You shower,
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