What's on your list?
Yesterday I went shopping with my Dad. It's something we do about every two months or so, and it works pretty well for both of us. On the surface: he buys me groceries, and I get to eat. Beneath that: he gets to see with his own two eyes that I'm still alive and kicking, and I get ten grocery bags full of I love you, brat.
Actually, he calls me honey more often than brat (really he almost never calls me brat), but there's always a general brat-feeling.
We hug when we say goodbye, and kind of not-kiss each other on the cheek. That's about as affectionate as we get. And like I said, it works for us.
So anyway, yesterday I came home with a trunk-full of grocery bags, and spent a good thirty minutes with muphinmadness unpacking everything and high-fiving over the spoils. Now we've got honey and ground beef and milk and cereal, and avocado and lettuce and chicken breasts and peppers, and stock cubes and pasta sauce and tuna -- and a whole bunch of everything else that'll keep two students fed for the next eight weeks.
I love grocery day.
But the best bit is always the little bag of swag I get to carry up to my own room. See, I don't tend to go through a whole bunch of, ah, 'personal products'. But after eight weeks there's always something that needs a re-stock. This time I got four things.
- Lynx 'Dark Temptation' antiperspirant
- Lynx 'Dark Temptation' shower gel
- Gillete shaving gel for sensitive skin
- Tampons
And yes, the first time I tried out Lynx's 'Dark Temptation', it was purely because it had my name in the title. I'm a fan of Lynx in general, though, despite the advertising campaign geared towards teenage boys trying to get a pretty, hopefully nekkid woman into bed. The scents are decent and keeps you dry, it lasts for a while, and the packaging is really cool -- which is all it takes for me. I'm an easy sell.
And I was wearing Dark Temptation the first time I ever met JB. So maybe there is some truth in that advertising. *laughs*
(Every time I smell it now, I get this serious flashback to standing in her bathroom, eying myself in the mirror, feeling nervous and excited and really hoping she'll like me.)
The shaving gel is a new thing. And mostly inspired by this post by Sugarbutch, who is a woman who shaves. As she says: "Chin, mustache, sideburns. Every day."
Body hair (which I just mistyped as 'boy hair', oh irony) is a tricky concept for a lot of women. Because yes, we grow hair. And no, society doesn't like it. I doubt I'd be wrong in saying that most women shave. But what they shave are their legs, underarms, stomachs (women get a happy trail, too!), pubic region, and so on. What women don't shave are their faces.
Why is that?
When I was about ten, I noticed that I had a very fine dusting of peach fuzz on my upper lip. I knew women weren't supposed to have hair there (oh sweet, naive, ten-year-old me!), and that I wanted to get rid of it. I also knew that my Dad shaved. And not only did he shave, but he had this awesome shaving kit and routine to go with it. He had a shaving foam brush, manQ And a kind of marble stand and base to hang his razor on. I can't even remember how many morning conversations I had with him while he was trying to circumvent the tricky bit under his nose.
So I wanted to shave, too. But I asked my Mom about it first, and was swiftly informed that a) little girls did not shave, and b) I didn't need to shave anyway, I was beautiful exactly the way I was.
I'm twenty-one now, and I still get that dusting of peach fuzz. I also get a couple of weird hairs on my chin, and two patches of dark brown hair on either side of my neck. The dark brown hair was mostly what tipped me over the edge. When I was a teenager, I fell in with a friend who also suffered from a minor mustache problem; we banded together and got one of those tubes of depilatory cream. It BURNED LIKE FIRE. But it damn sure did the job. This was in the pre-neck-hair days.
Nowadays, I don't especially like burning off an upper layer of skin every three weeks. But after the appearance of fine pubic hair over my jugular vein, I definitely felt the urge to get drastic. It was untidy, it made me feel unclean, and frankly, it was embarrassing.
Now here is where I should pause to talk about body hair in general. Because it's normal, it's natural, and everyone gets it. Everyone deals with it different. Some people love it. Other people prefer to be perfectly plucked from the eyebrows down. Most people use it as a gender-indicator: long hair on top for girls, short for guys. Waxed legs for the girls, free and bushy for the guys. Arm hair, chest hair, crotch hair...
And so on. Of course, some people like using hair as a gender-queering statement to subvert the social norm. Peach fuzz mustaches, sideburns, and chin fluff on girls. Long flowing locks for guys, maybe paired off with a set of perfectly shaved pins.
The point is, whatever particular style anybody chooses, it's all okay. Because seriously, it's just freakin' hair.
Of course, it's easy to sound that enlightened on paper. Much harder to live it out in real life.
Anyway, shaving.
Prior to reading Sugarbutch, and after the forays with depilatory cream which finally got too irritating and expensive, I used to just drag my leg-razor over my neck very quickly whenever I showered, and tried not to think about it too much. Post-Sugarbutch...
Dude, other women shave, too! And they do it properly, with shaving gel and decent razors, and possibly even marble stands and actual shaving foam brushes! And they (mostly) aren't ashamed!
So I'm trying it now. Chin, upper lip, sideburns and neck, every two days. I get a very fine kind of stubble after a while, and I almost kind of like it. It's guy-ish and it's not, which is fine by me. My face is also extremely sensitive afterwards, in a fun way, until I get used to it. And I don't exactly get a five 'o' clock shadow (not with blonde hair, anyway), but it's all good. It's just fine. It's just hair, and for once, I'm happy with it.
And seriously, there's something very gratifying about being able to hold a conversation with someone when you're trying to circumvent that tricky bit under the nose.
Lastly tampons. I actually prefer to use a mooncup, generally, because it's better for me, my wallet, and the environment. But it's always a good idea to have a back up. Or at least a decent supply laid in, just in case we're entertaining some unlucky girl who didn't bring her own stash. But mostly I like having them on my list.
Three-quarters subverted guy. One-quarter just plain woman.
Seems about right.
Actually, he calls me honey more often than brat (really he almost never calls me brat), but there's always a general brat-feeling.
We hug when we say goodbye, and kind of not-kiss each other on the cheek. That's about as affectionate as we get. And like I said, it works for us.
So anyway, yesterday I came home with a trunk-full of grocery bags, and spent a good thirty minutes with muphinmadness unpacking everything and high-fiving over the spoils. Now we've got honey and ground beef and milk and cereal, and avocado and lettuce and chicken breasts and peppers, and stock cubes and pasta sauce and tuna -- and a whole bunch of everything else that'll keep two students fed for the next eight weeks.
I love grocery day.
But the best bit is always the little bag of swag I get to carry up to my own room. See, I don't tend to go through a whole bunch of, ah, 'personal products'. But after eight weeks there's always something that needs a re-stock. This time I got four things.
- Lynx 'Dark Temptation' antiperspirant
- Lynx 'Dark Temptation' shower gel
- Gillete shaving gel for sensitive skin
- Tampons
And yes, the first time I tried out Lynx's 'Dark Temptation', it was purely because it had my name in the title. I'm a fan of Lynx in general, though, despite the advertising campaign geared towards teenage boys trying to get a pretty, hopefully nekkid woman into bed. The scents are decent and keeps you dry, it lasts for a while, and the packaging is really cool -- which is all it takes for me. I'm an easy sell.
And I was wearing Dark Temptation the first time I ever met JB. So maybe there is some truth in that advertising. *laughs*
(Every time I smell it now, I get this serious flashback to standing in her bathroom, eying myself in the mirror, feeling nervous and excited and really hoping she'll like me.)
The shaving gel is a new thing. And mostly inspired by this post by Sugarbutch, who is a woman who shaves. As she says: "Chin, mustache, sideburns. Every day."
Body hair (which I just mistyped as 'boy hair', oh irony) is a tricky concept for a lot of women. Because yes, we grow hair. And no, society doesn't like it. I doubt I'd be wrong in saying that most women shave. But what they shave are their legs, underarms, stomachs (women get a happy trail, too!), pubic region, and so on. What women don't shave are their faces.
Why is that?
When I was about ten, I noticed that I had a very fine dusting of peach fuzz on my upper lip. I knew women weren't supposed to have hair there (oh sweet, naive, ten-year-old me!), and that I wanted to get rid of it. I also knew that my Dad shaved. And not only did he shave, but he had this awesome shaving kit and routine to go with it. He had a shaving foam brush, manQ And a kind of marble stand and base to hang his razor on. I can't even remember how many morning conversations I had with him while he was trying to circumvent the tricky bit under his nose.
So I wanted to shave, too. But I asked my Mom about it first, and was swiftly informed that a) little girls did not shave, and b) I didn't need to shave anyway, I was beautiful exactly the way I was.
I'm twenty-one now, and I still get that dusting of peach fuzz. I also get a couple of weird hairs on my chin, and two patches of dark brown hair on either side of my neck. The dark brown hair was mostly what tipped me over the edge. When I was a teenager, I fell in with a friend who also suffered from a minor mustache problem; we banded together and got one of those tubes of depilatory cream. It BURNED LIKE FIRE. But it damn sure did the job. This was in the pre-neck-hair days.
Nowadays, I don't especially like burning off an upper layer of skin every three weeks. But after the appearance of fine pubic hair over my jugular vein, I definitely felt the urge to get drastic. It was untidy, it made me feel unclean, and frankly, it was embarrassing.
Now here is where I should pause to talk about body hair in general. Because it's normal, it's natural, and everyone gets it. Everyone deals with it different. Some people love it. Other people prefer to be perfectly plucked from the eyebrows down. Most people use it as a gender-indicator: long hair on top for girls, short for guys. Waxed legs for the girls, free and bushy for the guys. Arm hair, chest hair, crotch hair...
And so on. Of course, some people like using hair as a gender-queering statement to subvert the social norm. Peach fuzz mustaches, sideburns, and chin fluff on girls. Long flowing locks for guys, maybe paired off with a set of perfectly shaved pins.
The point is, whatever particular style anybody chooses, it's all okay. Because seriously, it's just freakin' hair.
Of course, it's easy to sound that enlightened on paper. Much harder to live it out in real life.
Anyway, shaving.
Prior to reading Sugarbutch, and after the forays with depilatory cream which finally got too irritating and expensive, I used to just drag my leg-razor over my neck very quickly whenever I showered, and tried not to think about it too much. Post-Sugarbutch...
Dude, other women shave, too! And they do it properly, with shaving gel and decent razors, and possibly even marble stands and actual shaving foam brushes! And they (mostly) aren't ashamed!
So I'm trying it now. Chin, upper lip, sideburns and neck, every two days. I get a very fine kind of stubble after a while, and I almost kind of like it. It's guy-ish and it's not, which is fine by me. My face is also extremely sensitive afterwards, in a fun way, until I get used to it. And I don't exactly get a five 'o' clock shadow (not with blonde hair, anyway), but it's all good. It's just fine. It's just hair, and for once, I'm happy with it.
And seriously, there's something very gratifying about being able to hold a conversation with someone when you're trying to circumvent that tricky bit under the nose.
Lastly tampons. I actually prefer to use a mooncup, generally, because it's better for me, my wallet, and the environment. But it's always a good idea to have a back up. Or at least a decent supply laid in, just in case we're entertaining some unlucky girl who didn't bring her own stash. But mostly I like having them on my list.
Three-quarters subverted guy. One-quarter just plain woman.
Seems about right.