Friday, January 20, 2006

The things women do

I thoroughly annoyed Christian tonight by painting my toe nails as we watched the cricket.
He can't understand why I do it. The smell alone, he tells me, should be reason enough to cease the activity.
To this I replied 'Women are born immune to the fumes of nailpolish!'

This led me to wonder about those small differences between men and women, especially when it comes to what I'll loosly brand as 'personal products'.

For example, when I shower I use the following products: shower gel, a shower puff for applying the gel, shampoo, conditioner, face wash and (every second night) face scrub. Then when I have gotten out of the shower I use moisturiser on my face and legs, toner when I can be bothered and then various creams for the skin problems I get from my allergies. This is not including when I will give myself a facial (and might I add that I don't particularly think of myself as a girlie girl - I don't wear makeup for example)

Christian, when showering uses: shampoo.

That's it. He'll only use soap when he's been working on the car or playing sport as he thinks a good scrub with water alone will get him clean, and he'll only use a moisturiser when he's gotten sunburnt.

I just don't get it. It seems I put in a lot of effort and get very little to show for it but if I only went to the effort that Christian puts in, I would resemble Madam Trashheap from the Fraggles.

I don't know. I'm sure it's one of those 'mysteries of the universe' that will never be solved, but I still think it's a tad unfair.

9 comments:

Charybdis said...

Mmmmmmmm.... what? Oh, you're done talking about showering now? Okay, I guess I can leave then.

Anonymous said...

Hear, hear, Nettie. I can see when we go travelling, half our suitcases will be filled with toiletries.

Nettie said...

I'm glad I won't be the only one Smerk!

Hieronymous Anonymous said...

I'm pretty much the same as you, Nettie, except I use a few less items in the shower. I love to paint my nails, but I'm hardly what anyone could call a 'girly girl' either.

Anonymous said...

People shower?

I don't know, Nettie, I suppose a lot of it is just due to cultural conditioning. Women are expected to have lots of little bottles of stuff, and are bombarded with advertising and movies and books that reinforce the notion.

Charybdis said...

Boo is a girly girl, Boo is a girly girl.

Anonymous said...

Boo is a girl??? When did that happen?

Hieronymous Anonymous said...

*sigh*
I'm not a girly girl. I can weld.

LaMa said...

I'm like Christian. I use shampoo in the shower. Nothing else. No soap, just plain water (I have a tendency to get skin irritations from soap).

After shower: a deodorant. And after-shave ("Axe Africa") after shaving.

That's it.

I always look with amazement to the amount of stuff the GF's use. J. was a bit of an exception to that, she hardly used make-up either.

Acci: nowadays here are whole lines of make-up thingies etc. targetting males.....