Letting Myself Go

[oselle]

Last week I was so busy at work that I went three days without washing my hair. I just didn't have time in the morning and didn't have the energy at night. I was using this dry shampoo shit and don't let anyone tell you it "refreshes" your do. It don't. It's just sicky-sweet fragranced corn starch. If you have oily hair like I do it turns your hair into a sort of mass that would probably look kind of sexily tousled on a younger or more attractive person but just make me look like an unkempt drunk who never made it home the night before.

I've always been kind of rigidly fussy about my personal hygiene and appearance and I don't know why. It's never done me a whit of good. I discovered last week that, for now at least, I kind of like being dirty. It saves me a lot of time and effort and is a highly satisfying outward expression of how I feel on the inside. I've stopped showering in the morning altogether. I shower and wash my hair the night before and then in the morning I do the bare basics: comb hair, brush teeth, put in contact lenses, apply antiperspirant. I get dressed pretty much in whatever comes to hand. Last week I literally went to work in some clothes that had been piled up on the floor. Add to that routine a quick cup of tea and the mandatory morning crap and I can be out the door in one hour or less. This morning I was at the bus stop by 7:20 am. The sun was barely up. I felt a sort of weird, masochistic glee at standing there in the dawn cold all grungy and frumpy. If I hadn't had to stop off and buy bagels for a stupid office party I would've gotten to work at 8:00. Generally I've been getting to work around 8:15. Even my boss doesn't get in until half an hour later. She still gives me this look like, "What are YOU doing here?"

Most of the people in my office are latecomers. It's surreal to have to turn the lights on in the office and then watch people start to trickle in after you've already been there for an hour...or two hours or more. Even more surreal to watch the same people blithely sailing out the door at 4:00 or 4:30 (if they make it that far) and then listen to them complain about how busy they are. You're busy, huh? Maybe working more than five hours a day would help you out with that.

I don't know how long this will last but right now, like I said, there's something masochistically pleasing about it. I've been taking the Long Island Rail Road to work in the morning and I keep trying to catch an earlier and earlier train. I went from the 8:17 to the 8:01 to the 7:46 and, this morning, the 7:43. A new record. LOL, if this keeps up I'll be standing on that platform in the fucking dark. Bring it. I'll catch the five a.m. and pay off-peak fare. Dirty hair and all.

Comments

[sixth-queen.livejournal.com]

Unless you're somebody who sweats an awful lot (like fat college guys, ugh), there's nothing wrong with taking your shower at night. I starting doing that in grad school when I began exercising in the evening. 10 years ago. I can be out of the house in 10 minutes if I have to.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I don't know how anyone can go from bed to out the door in 10 minutes. Probably TMI but I've really gotta move my bowels in the morning and you just can't rush that.

[slipperieslope.livejournal.com]

Supposedly, Americans are too clean, to the point of being detrimental to our skin and hair. In the wintertime you can actually do your skin damage scrubbing every day. Maybe you should think of yourself as being more 'natural' as opposed to 'dirty'? Of course, the mental image of you grinning like a loon over your personal best 'rise & shine' on the railroad platform at five in the morning made me smile, too. Then again I'd be sleeping later instead of roaring into work that early, and I was the boss before I retired.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Now that this frigid weather has been dragging on it's harder to get out the door that early and the chill has definitely taken the shine off my lunatic grinning. I'm still getting in well before 9:00 though and enjoying the spiteful glee of looking so ratty on a daily basis.

[oxer12.livejournal.com]

My hair is curly, and I can't wash it every day, or it gets really dry. It's definitely a time-saver not having to go through the whole hair routine every day! Showering takes me 2 minutes when I don't have to do "hair."

To your other point - I just heard someone in my office say the other day, "I can't do everything, I'm only one person!" We all tittered into our hands, because she only works 3 days a week. She somehow managed to finagle Fridays and Mondays off when she negotiated her work schedule, and now she spends all her time complaining about she's soooo busy and doesn't have time to get anything done. *gag*

[oselle.livejournal.com]

The benefit of getting to work so early is that I am OUT of there at 5:00. I mean OUT. Luckily my boss is of the same type and doesn't expect me to put in post-5:00 "face time."

[i-o-r-h-a-e-l.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of that dry shampoo!

And I hate people like that, too. Thank goodness here in my dept most are quite workaholic. :D

[oselle.livejournal.com]

The dry shampoo is grotesque. It's basically just baby powder. Yech.

[mews1945.livejournal.com]

I rarely ever take a shower in the mornings. I worked night shifts for a long time, and I'd always shower in the evenings, so I got used to doing it. But I wouldn't be going to work early, I'd be sleeping later.

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

I've gone a few days without showering or washing my hair and it's been fine. Granted, I'm never so happy as when I step in the shower after that time :D...I run in the mornings, so I do tend to shower in the mornings now, but I know that if I need to, if I oversleep, I can be out the door in fifteen minutes...

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Hm, I wish I could be out the door in fifteen minutes but even without showering I still have too many necessities to take care of in the morning. The contact lenses and teeth brushing alone take about 15 minutes. I really need to work on streamlining my routine.

[cpsings4him.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure why, but this made me laugh out loud. My mental picture of you (though, I've no idea what you look like since I've never seen a photo of you) gleefully schlepping out of the house frumped out and greasy to catch an ever earlier train just tickled my funny bone. The expression I imagine you wearing is one that says clearly, "I don't give a rat's ass!!! What're you gonna do about it, huh??"

[oselle.livejournal.com]

It is now nearly a month since I wrote this and I'm happy to report that I still don't give a rat's ass. My earliest train was the 7:27, and I very nearly made the 7:15 that morning. I don't think I'll ever do better (or dirtier) than that.

[playscape.livejournal.com]

Before I got to the part where you write about the dry shampoo I was going to suggest that you just use some since it's what I do pretty much all the time. lol.

hi, by the way. :)

(Karen J in case you forgot whose screen name this is, delurking to talk about how I use dry shampoo and also enjoy being dirty.)

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Yeh, I know who you are, you lurker. You and your sister both.

Just FYI my personal best on the train was the 7:27, which I caught the day after I wrote this post. And that morning I WOULD have made the 7:15 if I hadn't stopped off at Dunkin Donuts. I decided there was really no need for me to get to work at 7:30. Since then I've relaxed enough to catch the 8:01 or 8:17. SO LATE.

Garnier used to make a great product called Surf Hair that was a much better no-shampoo option for my hair type than dry shampoo. Of course they discontinued it. Jerks.