Women in finance what’s your health and beauty routine?

For the women in finance what’s your health and beauty routine? What do you do for hair and makeup? How often do you workout? What workouts do you do? What’s your diet like? How do you take care of yourself working so many hours in a stressful environment?

 
Funniest

In the morning, if my face is a little puffy, I’ll put on an ice pack while doing my stomach crunches. I can do a thousand now. After I remove the ice pack I use a deep pore cleanser lotion. In the shower I use a water activated gel cleanser, then a honey almond body scrub, and on the face an exfoliating gel scrub. Then I apply an herb-mint facial masque which I leave on for 10 minutes while I prepare the rest of my routine. I always use an after shave lotion with little or no alcohol, because alcohol dries your face out and makes you look older. Then moisturizer, then an anti-aging eye balm followed by a final moisturizing protective lotion. https://media0.giphy.com/media/QpAbvUz7jLFbq/giphy.gif" alt="patrick bateman" />

"Markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent."
 

Everything with a focus on being as low-maintenance as possible but still put together.

  • Hair: Daily vitamin supplement

  • Makeup: Foundation, contour, brows, liner, chapstick

  • Workout: HIIT once a week on the weekend (Barry's, OrangeTheory, etc.), run twice a week after work (30 min or so)

  • Diet: Coffee for breakfast, salad for lunch, protein and veggies for dinner

Personally, eating and exercising go a long way for maintaining my own mental health.

 
Most Helpful

Oh hell yeah. Finally. My FAVORITE topic.

I’m older than y’all, and I have quite a few M&A/PE professional women friends around my age – we have kept it together quite well. The following is comprehensive, but when you’re 45, you will come looking for me to thank me.

1) A lot of your health and beauty will come from excellent food and exercise first. This is easy. Vegetables, clean protein, fruit, water. If you start giving in to treats, heavier meals, eating too much, it’s very hard to reverse when you’re working so much. And you’ll be exhausted, and even start feeling sad/depressed - sugar and junk does this. Try to eat half of whatever you buy for lunch midday, and eat the rest as a 4 pm snack. Keep some fruit and almonds at your desk. Don't starve and by all means, enjoy some good food on weekends, but eat like you're an Olympian during the week when you are an IB-Olympian. My best health/beauty secret: I love juicing, and an occasional juice fast. If you buy the juice, nothing with banana and tropical fruit – it’s all sugar. As green as possible. This is insanely good for digestion and energy. You will be so much more effective - energy through the roof. The first day is hard – have some fruit or a salad if you feel “weak.” By day 3 you’ll never want to eat again lol. Don’t do a mega-workout on a juice fast, but walking/ calisthenics is fine. See how you feel. If you can afford a juicer or green smoothie maker, highly recommended. PLEASE you're all smart - look it up online and read about it. Do some research first.

2) Workouts – you cannot blow this off. Yes, on super busy weeks, do what you can. Take a walk at lunch. But if you give up exercise because you have to get up at 5am a couple times a week, your energy, clothes and skin will show it. Do anything cardio even for 20 minutes a couple times a week. Try HIIT – you can easily do this at home with some weights and pushups/lunges/burpees/jacks, etc - you know what I mean. There are videos or just put on music and kill it for 20 minutes. Power yoga, whatev. Hard breathing, heart rate, sweat. Add 5+ minutes abs, try to do daily. If you have weights, this is great. Long term, you cannot cannot cannot go without weightlifting. It is critically important. Only thing that changes your body. Trust, me I am far far too old to be in a string bikini, but I do and I can because I've put in the work. There are no limits if you take care of yourself. Honestly, workout varies week to week, but in quarantine I will do yoga and a bike ride or walk every day, some weights.

3) If you can stick in some yoga even 2x/week for a couple minutes, it’s great. We sit too much. It’s also strengthening.

4) You will hate me for this. STAY OUT OF THE SUN. Sun damage is the killer of all skin regimens. Use sunscreen. Don’t tan yourself. I know, shut up, old woman. STAY OUTTA THE SUN. You’ll thank me.

5) Skin care is paramount. The bigger stuff you do on a weekend when you have a little more time. Anything that peels your skin every 2-4 mo. is worth every penny. Glycolic or lactic acid peel. Microderm. HYDRAFACIALS (awesome). Microneedling. FACIALS ARE NOT ENOUGH unless they include some treatment to resurface the skin. This does not mean you will leave red and flaky. Peels are not like that anymore. I even did a Fraxel (for old timers) this year and it was nowhere near as bad as I expected. Talk to your derm or a good spa kind of place (not a nail salon). I promise promise promise you, these kinds of treatments are worth every single penny. Yes, you still need extraction/facials, but it’s usually a combo. I have been doing this since my early 20s with amazing results. Oh, and take care of your neck skin, too

6) I really recommend using cosmetics as sparingly as you can, and use quality brands. Absolutely positively I don’t care how exhausted you are, wash your face at night. CeraVe inexpensive products are totally fine. C-Serum is an excellent add for nighttime, get some eye serum and eye cream. Careful with moisturizers that they don’t make you break out, but you want to use some. Again, my derm recommends CeraVe, she and I both use it, her skin is like a baby’s. I love Chanel cosmetics and skin care products, have been using them since I was a teen. I love their super light foundation. Laura Mercier also makes a tinted moisturizer which is super light, has SPF and is excellent. No bed + makeup ; )

7) No sun. ; )

8) I always have a spare of my makeup in my desk, when I have a desk lol (concealer, blush, powder, lipstick, mirror). Minimal is easiest – when your skin is awesome, you don’t need much.

9) If you are commuting, even if you walk to work, consider a 15 minute meditation/visualization/gratitude thing. When you're doing exercise, do some affirmations. This is some New Age nonsense, I know...but I think it helps. It's so great if you can start your day with you running your day, not the day running you. If you grab your phone and start checking news, social media, e-mail instantly upon waking up, that stuff rules you. You lose control. The first 20 minutes after you wake up your brain is still in theta waves - this is the time to feed it good stuff. Gratitude, affirmations, meditation, visualization, planning. Set your brain to something positive before you are off in a lathered stress panic about work. Maybe when you're getting dressed, or when you do exercise, you listen to a youtube of affirmations/guided meditation etc. If you're at your desk and you're in panic mode, you can find a 5 minute one to listen to. It beats crying in the bathroom because then you gotta fix your makeup. Also - look up EFT-Tapping - this weird thing actually works..

 

Yea I agree on most of this being transferable to dudes. It's interesting how much men's skin care has taken off recently.

For us gym heads a different kinda of juice might be more appropriate. Kidding - look at this thread I ran into last week. I was laughing at Goldie's picture for a solid 5 minutes. Outrageous. https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/what-kind-of-shakes-do-you-like-… GoldenCinderblock you still make that shit bro?

Go all the way
 

Difference for guys would be diet IMO (women can get away with juice cleanse, men cant) which should focus on more protein but good mix of healthy carbs and vegetables as well.

Sun isnt as important IMO if you are a guy just dont over do it.

Most fitness should have a weight lifting component as well - again less important if you're a woman.

 

Thank you all for posting this stuff. As a man this is so enlightening to read on so many different levels because it is so different from anything I face in my life.

Reading this thread makes me tired. I cannot imagine the strength and stamina women have to even actually DO a fraction of this stuff EVERY DAY. And that’s on top of work, social life etc.

I’m still just like.... wow.

Kudos and SB.

I used to do Asia-Pacific PE (kind of like FoF). Now I do something else but happy to try and answer questions on that stuff.
 

I thought I knew you but all the women at my firm are not as disciplined asyou unless you work in Boston or Philadelphia lol

Will update my computer soon and leave Incognito so I will disappear forever. How did I achieve Neanderthal by trolling? Some people are after me so need to close account for safety.
 

Yes, this is to be expected.

There are many young men here. Women, the few of us that there are, and the challenge we face being women in the business, are still somehow threatening to them. So they have to throw shade, because they cannot handle even this.

There are endless threads about hot chicks here, with all sorts of comments, but one about women's health/beauty is a problem.

I really think that is weak of them. See the downvotes? WEAK, my man. Weak.

Gentlemen, the sooner you recognize and accept

WE ARE YOUR COLLEAGUES WE ARE YOUR BOSSES WE ARE YOUR STAFF WE ARE YOUR GIRLFRIENDS, WIVES & SISTERS WE ARE THE DAUGHTERS YOU WILL RAISE AND EDUCATE FOR CAREERS

the easier it will be for you.

 

I love this topic! I focus a lot on night time routine because I am not a morning person so I try to sleep in for as long as possible. So I am very envious of those people who wakes up at 4-5am and go to the gym and doing a 11 step Korean skincare routine.

Night Time: Always double cleanse!! Get all the dirt pollution oil and makeup off your face >Chemical exfoliator > Toner > Serum > Cream .. every 3 days or so I do a bit of a stronger peel like higher concentration of chemical peel (think dr Dennis peels and few others) to help resurface skin. I used to spend a fortune going to facials and getting clinical peels but actually it’s more effective to incorporate it in your regular routine. Because peeling at extreme concentration actually make the epidermis too thin. Day time: gentle cleanser to wash over night oil off. quick shower. usually it takes me 10-15 min to get out of bed and get ready. serum + sunscreen I try not to use foundation much, only for nose area as it’s a bit darker than the rest of my face. I find the more I use foundation the worse the texture my skin is. And trust me I’ve tried all the expensive organic magic stuff, some obviously better than others but the best is not wear any foundation at all. Focus on brushing eye brows upwards ( think fluffy brow) and I have LVL lashes so no need to curl them or mascara. I wear a bit of contour on the cheek to show the ‘I mean business’ cheekbones.

Hair I try not to wash hair every day. Every 2-3 days. It’s difficult esp if you are exercising. So time hair wash to the days you go heavy on the exercise. When I do wash my hair, I use the usual shampoo/conditioner. > Living Proof split end Mender > Oribe gold lust hair oil on tip > Olaplex 3 treatments sometimes. Purple shampoo every other week to maintain the balayage. Oh let me add: Dyson hair dryer! Honestly this has changed the hair as it dry your hair in much lower temperatures which is much better for your hair. I use the air wrap on low temps to create a nature ‘Victoria secret’ curls for special occasions. Exercise per week 2x HiiT 2x weights on the weekends I love doing outdoors stuff with friends so don’t really need to explicitly try I tend to burn easily 500 calories just walking/hiking/ swimming and playing games with friends.

 

after shower I use “alo vera” and “drops of youth” from the body shop. on my desk, I have vitamin c skin smoother from bath and body works ( put in on daily while having my coffee- noone notices) + skin moisturizer/lotion +lip balm where I keep my pens. I shower with Dove milky body wash. over the weekends I go to the sauna and do full body scrubs. My routine is simple and might not be perfect but I do it with consistency. I also take 7 almonds daily to work in a zip bag (can be pre-packaged once a week and left in your draw). I have a face cleanser and face mask in my bathroom for when I have time. plus I keep makeup removal wipes next to my bed so I don’t ever sleep with makeup on.

 

Thank you everyone! It’s really nice to hear you can still take care of yourself in such a demanding career. I also love how real everyone is being. These tips are amazing and I’m going to start incorporating some into my lifestyle.

 

It's good to build habits are easy to sustain and will have a meaningful impact. Here are ones that I felt were like easy to maintain despite a busy schedule:

1) Wear moisturizer and sunscreen every morning at the mimumum

2) Keep things in the fridge/kitchen that you can use for a quick, easy, and healthy breakfast/lunch/snack (e.g., instant oatmeal, fruits, yogurt, sandwich stuff, etc.)

3) Try to fit in a workout. I had a gym in my building (may not be as applicable if you don't have a gym nearby) and if I knew I had 10-15 minutes, I would run down for a quick run. It definitely helps you focus when it's getting late and doesn't take away too much time from working if you're extremely busy

4) Try to eat healthier (e.g., salads, cleaner dinners). If you can, use dinner budget for healthier meals that you can save for lunch as well

5) Having a therapist is great for mental health and self-improvement

6) I take vitamins for hair, skin, and nails plus women's daily multivitamin

7) drink lots of water! drink it with every meal and in the morning and evening

8) For hair, I use shhampo and conditioner with no sulfate / parabens and my hair gets less oily depsite a couple days of not washing it

9) Once a month, I'll spend a half day doing nails, hair, massage, body scrub, spa, etc. and pamper myself!

10) I try not to browse the internet before sleeping. Sleep is SUPER IMPORTANT so if I had a busy week, I try to meditate, read (5-10 minutes of a book I enjoy), or talk to my roommates and sleep immediately so i maximize my sleep time for the week

 

This is really good advice!

The one additional thing I’d add is, if you can (and it’s a big IF), try to have a routine. It takes up much less mental energy if you just “know” e.g. you do a gym class every Saturday morning - you don’t have to think about it, you just do it.

 

I take daily pills of vitamin B12 and D because of deficiencies. More vitamin D in winter than in summer.

Edit: Every year I have a medical check-up done with a blood sample where the doctor checks for hormone and vitamin levels.

Array
 

Magnesium does wonders for my sleep quality, and any probiotic is great for maintaining gut health especially for times when you're on an inconsistent or unbalanced sleep/work schedule

Array
 

I was also wondering this. What are healthy a meals and snacks that are also easy to prepare? Many people have also mentioned ordering food from seamless or another delivery service when working. What are some healthy dinner order ideas? What are healthy breakfast ideas when you don’t have time to make a big breakfast?

 

breakfast (all but avo toast can be eaten on the go!): - peanut butter toast - yogurt (preferably Greek) (add berries and/or granola) - oatmeal with fruit - overnight oats - smoothie - avocado toast (mashing avo and frying an egg takes ~3 mins and tastes restaurant-worthy with salt, pepper, hot sauce)

healthy snacks: - hummus & carrots/pita/pretzels - Apple & peanut butter or cheese - carrots/cucumber & guac - almonds/trail mix/other nuts

dinners: - salads (sweetgreen, chopt, dig inn, cava) - sushi - poke bowls - salmon/chicken & veggies (sweetgreen has new ‘plates’ which I can’t wait to try)

last summer I ate peanut butter toast and an apple almost every morning before my internship and brought nuts, fruit, and other snacks to eat during the day. all the breakfast options above take ~2 mins to make. I like buying the mini packages of hummus and guac from Sabra and Wholly Guac and eat them at work with carrots, pita, etc...def keep me fuller longer than chips and other crap. when I stayed for dinner I always tried to order a salad from one of the above places or sushi to keep it healthy (so many guys will order burgers, pasta etc - don’t give in!!) and i often had $ left on the seamless budget for a drink or snack too.

 

I'm so excited for this topic.

  • Hair: I get my hair Keratin treated. If you don't know what that is, it's a service at the salon where they add protein to your hair. It's a bit pricey, but it makes my hair straight for like ~4 months even if I sleep on it while it's damp. Other than that, I wash it every 3 days or after I go to the gym. I use Redken All Soft with Wen Cleansing Conditioner and Olaplex no. 3 treatments.

  • Makeup: I get eyelash extensions that last a month and my eyebrows are microbladed so it's ZERO effort most of the time. I keep a makeup kit at work and since my cube is pretty secluded, I'll just put on makeup there if I feel like it. I've been using cream products so you can just rub it into your face without brushes (Fenty Cream Blush / doubles for lip color, Fenty Contour, Glossier Concealer, etc.)

  • Skincare: Mornings - Toner, essence, moisturizer, sunscreen (even though I barely see the sun). Evenings - Double cleanse, toner, essence, moisturizer, eye cream (maybe sleeping mask).

  • Workouts: I'm not a morning person but I'll go to the gym 3-4x in the morning at like 8 AM for class. I usually go 1-2x during the work week and Sat and Sun. I have the most frequent tier on ClassPass. I find that work gets in the way too often if I'm trying to go in the evening. I'm not particularly good at working out on my own so I can only make morning class times. During WFH, I'm doing Chloe Ting or going on jogs (not in the mornings anymore).

  • Diet: I usually intermittent fast and eat lunch and dinner. I don't have the best diet. I usually justify eating anything I want for one meal by eating a salad from Sweetgreen, Chopt, Dig Inn for another meal.

  • Self Care: Massages, mani / pedi (in the massage chairs), etc.

Obviously, I drop the ball sometimes on these things if I'm having a super crazy week. There are times when the extra hour of sleep is better for me than an hour at the gym. I just try to pick it back up when work dies down a little.

 

Ok, forgive me - what is "essence"? And what do you mean by double-cleanse?

I do keratins as well - otherwise you spend forever drying/styling your hair. It does have some bad chemicals (formaldehyde), but I just cannot deal with it otherwise. I feel like doing my hair is the biggest PIA/time-waster of all.

Nice workout routine! Impressed with the IM, I would pass out. And I'm the nut with the juice fasts lol

I agree, this is an awesome topic...

 

Not a skincare expert by any means. So these are all part of a pretty extensive skincare routine originating from Korea but becoming popular in the U.S. a few years ago. Now you see products for these steps sold at Sephora.

Double cleanse is when you wash your face first with an oil-based cleanser and then a water-based one. The concept here is that oil attracts oil and water attracts water so your oil cleanser would be more effective in removing oil-based products and impurities and the water-based cleanser would be able to remove any remainder. Some oil-based cleansers include Farmacy Green Clean or the DHC oil cleanser (can come as a balm, where you rub it into your face while dry and rinse it off or an actual oil). Some water-based cleansers include the Fresh Soy cleanser or the Youth to the People Superfood cleanser (can come as a cream or gel format).

Essence is basically a really light moisturizer for your face, but can also have different effects depending on the ingredients. The concept here, to my understanding, is that you would put products from lighter to heavier on your face. Thinner product like essence would be able to penetrate better through your skin. Heavier product like lotion helps prevent moisture loss. Essence usually has a consistency close to water and you put it on before your eye cream / moisturizer. Examples of essence include SKII Facial Treatment Essence and Tatcha The Essence.

 

whatever your routine may be can I respectfully say Fillers/Botox / Facial plastic surgery have no place in a professional setting and should be blanket banned the way steroids usage is in sports. It is fricken scary having to look at voluntarily dysmorphic faces, nevermind take them seriously. Who cares if it empowers you or how it makes you feel - it ain’t pretty and you look worse than you would without it. Want to put that out there.

 

nah you definitely can tell. every time. they just look like aliens with foreheads that don’t move and you literally cannot gauge any kind of expression. or I am too busy looking at their lumpy lips to concentrate on what they are saying ... I don’t know how to explain it but something always looks off ... I guess it doesn’t look perfect as it wears off or something.

we had a woman who had fillers in her nose (?!) and somehow it had migrated to her forehead and she walked around with a lumpy forehead until she had it fixed. Clients saw her ... it was just like a circus show tbh.... I felt so sorry for her.

 

Thanks for the monkey shit but it’s the truth. how old are you? isn’t that the point ppl aging gracefully instead of morphing into circus freaks. These ppl don’t look at their faces every minute everyday to see how unnerving & disturbing it is and my point is that this should not be ok in a professional setting. and now I’m going to extend it to plastic nails, hair extensions, fake eyelashes, garish makeup like a drag queen. This is a serious profession not instagram. ffs

 

I'm a huge fitness / health junkie, so being able to maintain some level of that while working in IB was definitely a huge priority for me going in.

I think the biggest game changer for me was getting a meal delivery service. Not like Blue Apron, where you have to cook everything yourself, but having pre-cooked meals that you can just get delivered to your apartment or office. I found that there were a ton of new, smaller companies in my area that offered this so I just tried a lot of different places before I found the one that I liked the most. I usually will get these for lunch and then use my stipend to order a healthy dinner, and it makes eating healthy much easier when you're super busy. And I think it's pretty cost effective. I'm still a fan of eating unhealthy foods here and there, but I feel like maintaining a good diet can make such a big difference when you're lacking in other departments (i.e., sleep).

I also try to do resistance training throughout the week, which is good for your metabolism and not as painful as cardio (in my opinion).

 

How are the office gyms? What kind of equipment is there? Is it easy to work out during the work day during down time? Which gyms are the best? Which offices don’t have gyms?

 

Even though most of my time is dedicated to a very demanding job, I still find time for myself, and I'm always the best-looking version of me. Lots of my friends ask me how I manage everything. I don't have any "secrets," and also, I'm not perfect. I'm just responsible, and I know my boundaries. You have to find your motivation and avoid the things in your life that drag you down and make you unhappy. Because I was motivated, I graduated a make-up course at http://www.nwcollege.edu while working an 8-hour shift. There is no such thing described as impossible. Just find your motivation.

 

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