Fourth Monday Susan Speaks

Personal grooming
in public

By Susan C. Price

Like PDA (personal display of affection), personal grooming in public (PGIP) is always fascinating to observe. Two recent examples.

Young woman seated in front of me on the LA Metro train around 8 a.m., applying some of her makeup. I observed her for about 10 minutes. She was applying mascara...and applying and applying. She utilized about five different mascara wands. (Women – even if you don’t wear much makeup, you probably have seen the ads for all the different types of wands. Men – there are approximately 27,000 different sorts of effects one can get with a mascara wand: lengthening, thickening, end-fluttering, etc. This does not begin to count the different colors available.)

    I was impressed, as I can barely manage, in the stable environment of my bathroom with a magnifying mirror, to put on mascara without getting it all over my face. This woman was applying on a moving, shaking train! It was also interesting to note that her hair had clearly not received the same level of attention (a messy ponytail, and not the “intentionally, cute messy” type) and it was held up with a regular rubber band, not a covered elastic designed solely for that purpose, or a ribbon. Her purse, which held the makeup bag that held all the mascara wands, had clearly seen better days, a faux Chanel quilted leather with chain strap. The hot pink of the leather (or not?) was very dirty all over.

And my recent favorite in this category. On a sunny Sunday, again on the Metro, we stopped for the brief 2 minutes by a downtown Metro platform. A narrow platform, fully open to the elements and view on both sides. It has narrow benches in the middle. On one bench sat an ample woman, dressed in a sharp white shirt and dark pants with a wide belt. This appeared to be some sort of uniform, maybe for a security job. She sat with her back to a light post and her legs stretched out in front of her. She had placed the long handle of a mirror in her cleavage and was utilizing the mirror's view to find and pluck her chin hairs with tweezers.
    She did not seem to care that she could be seen in this relatively intimate grooming ritual. And maybe this was the best light and the only time she could muster for the job.

Always interesting the things we choose to “present” to the world.

Copyright © 2014 by Susan C. Price