I find, from Kitty’s, Peter’s, and Cate’s comments on the last post, that I am fascinated by other people’s secret grooming behavior. Am I just now realizing that everyone has different levels of personal hygiene? Not really. But I am curious about it. It’s like housekeeping - some people are tidy but not clean, some vice versa. Some don’t mind a dirty kitchen but are compulsive about the bathroom. The same principle applies for personal toilette behaviors, and this enthralls me.

Personally, I always washed my hair every day because I used cheap (drugstore) shampoo. Every time I got a haircut, the stylist would OF COURSE recommend their fancy stuff to me, and I’d be all, “Pshaw! Mama didn’t raise no fool!” while I ran off to buy more Garnier Fructis or whatever it is.

But for some reason this hairstylist I now have in Savannah just seemed trustworthy, so when she suggested I buy a specific brand of expensive shampoo but just use it every other day, I went with it. And honestly, while I expected to look like I had black roots by the end of the second day (Cate, nice chicken-fried steak image, btw), it’s been working fine. Is this the nice shampoo, or a placebo effect? The world may never know.

There are certain things I am very big on, personally. I like my eyebrows to look very good. Every so often I decide to get them waxed, and that does necessitate letting them, er, grow out, but that is the sacrifice one has to make in order to get those perfect salon brows. So I don’t mind this at all.

Also, I am very good about washing my face and using spf 15 during the day, and zit cream at night. Even if I come home wasted, I will stumble to the bathroom and be all, “WHERE’S MY FACE-WASHING HAIRBAND I NEED TO WASH MY FACE OOF DRINKY DRUNK.” And I will proceed to wash my face like the Proactiv champ (chimp?) I am. But there are some things I am very lax/lazy about. (Peter, I know for a fact you are going to run off and hurl in like twenty seconds, because I know what your hot buttons are, so I am just warning you.)

I don’t give a shit whether my legs are shaved or not.

I mean, I REALLY DON’T CARE. And not in the sense that most girls say they don’t care, when what they mean is that they go for like two or three days in between shaving. I mean that weeks will go by and I’ll feel my leg and think, “Wow, it’s been a while,” and then four seconds later I’ll be back to sitting on the couch, watching Law and Order. Not running off to the bathroom to shave shave shave and then, like, flagellate myself for my unfeminineness, like I think a lot of girls would.

(By the way, I totally am not being uppity or condescending to any of you who ARE obsessive about keeping your legs shaved. I’m just pointing out how you could possibly gain more tv time in your life, is all.)

I just shave my legs when they get really hairy, but not necessarily for any special event. When I have a boyfriend, they figure out pretty quickly that I’m not going to go shave my legs every time we’re about to Do It. What’s the point? My theory is, at the point of actual intercourse, the guy should be really glad about the actual intercourse. My legs should be, like, 986th down on the list of thoughts going through his head.

The other thing I am sort of slack about is dyeing (coloring?) my hair. Let me give you an image: right now I have sort of ash brown roots and the rest of my hair is a joyous explosion of reddish/blondish/sun-bleached/slightly punky hot pink strands. Generally I realize that it doesn’t look too hot, but not enough to make that big ole trek to the drugstore to get more hair dye.

What can I say? When I first cut my hair short, in about 10th grade, my friends dubbed me a “boy-girl.” I guess I took it to heart. Now, you guys. Be nice and tell me your odd practices, so I don’t feel like such a freak.