How Long Does it Take You to Get Ready for a Date?

[ThereSheGoes]

So.....it takes me about 5 hours to get ready for a date.

 

Now, hear me out.

 

I'm at home a lot. Especially these days. And things like shaving my legs, my pits and plucking that ONE strand of hair out of my neck, is not something I do on the daily. Bottom line, I look an absolute mess during the week. At least I shower. Pretty much all I do, at this point.

BUT.

When I'm going out on a date.

I'm shaving, Nair-ing, waxing, exfoliating, polishing. I have thick curly hair, and during the week, I just don't give it much attention. So on date day, I have to force it in to submission. I'm really into the vintage look, and for the past couple of months I've been in to the Rita Hayworth hair, from Gilda. So that takes a minute to put in to form.

 

I'm mostly the 1940's and the early 1960's. I love how elegant, demure and feminine the women during those decades styled themselves. So, I always make sure that my nails are done (I literally have a whole nail salon in my closet. I do my own acrylics, and I have all these different powders and stones, glitters, decals, polishes.....I should go in to business)  So I'm always showing up with a fresh manicure and pedicure. But I usually do this the day before, so......add on another 4 hours to that 5.

It takes me about an hour to do my make up.

I press my clothes......oil and scent my body. Also, gotta pick out the outfit, press and steam it. It's usually a dress or skirt. For instance, on my last date, I wore a black pencil suspender skirt, with a white, long sleeve off the shoulder top that had ribbons on the cuffs, and red open toed slip-on heels. You don't wanna know how long it took me to come up with that outfit, though. 😑

So yeah.....on date day, it's about 5 hours.

The down side to doing all this, is that I show up looking fabulous, and he's just in jeans and a T-shirt. 😐

 

How long does it take you to get ready?

[LivingWaterPlease]

Shower, wash and blow dry hair: thirty minutes. Make-up: five-seven minutes. Dress: ten-fifteen minutes.

Answering phone,  texts, etc. checking to see if windows locked, checking my work or whatever I've been accomplishing that day: fifteen minutes or so.

About an hour.

[Wiseman2]

Yikes! What if you start to date regularly?

How can you have a relationship if each encounter requires a 5 hour overhaul?

Tastes vary but the a more natural look works for me. Some guys may like drag queen levels of preparation but a simple nice outfit, reasonable makeup and hair seems to work fine.

It's sort of scary that this much goes into fishing/ catching but then what? They let themselves go?

Try some simpler ways to look/feel good on dates

Edited November 21, 2020 by Wiseman2

[Blind-Sided]

30-35 min tops.  I guess guys have it easier.  We are expected to be "Rough" a little.  But I don't really have hair, so I "Buzz" it once a week.  If I know I'm going to have a date... I do it the day before, just so I can see any spots I missed.   

Basically... shower, shave, brush my teeth, and throw on some clothes. Really it's just my normal morning routine. 

[Trail Blazer]

About twenty minutes.  I waste little time.  Ten minutes for a shower, nine minutes to dry myself and put on my clothes.  One minute to slap a bit of product in my hair and a few squirts of aftershave.

I clip my beard and conduct general manscaping on a semi-regular basis, usually weekly.  This doesn't generally coincide with going on a date, though.

[Happy Lemming]

3 hours ago, Trail Blazer said:

About twenty minutes. 

 

Same here... I'll do a quick shave to get rid of the 5 O'clock shadow, then quick shower, dry off, brush teeth, jump into my clothes and out the door.

[Ruby Slippers]

About an hour - take a bath, shave, wash hair, blow dry hair, makeup, perfume, dress. If I want to do anything special with my nails, I do it the day before, takes half an hour tops.

The only thing that takes a little longer for a fancy date is doing a special hairstyle, and I only do this for boyfriend dates, not first dates. The last time I did this was curling my hair last New Year's Eve. My hair is long and thick, so that takes about half an hour.

[ThereSheGoes]

So it seems like the fellas are literally just washing up, and heading out the door. LOL.

[ThereSheGoes]

6 hours ago, Wiseman2 said:

Yikes! What if you start to date regularly?

How can you have a relationship if each encounter requires a 5 hour overhaul?

Tastes vary but the a more natural look works for me. Some guys may like drag queen levels of preparation but a simple nice outfit, reasonable makeup and hair seems to work fine.

It's sort of scary that this much goes into fishing/ catching but then what? They let themselves go?

Try some simpler ways to look/feel good on dates

 

Well, for one. I make it known that I don't accept spur of the moment dates or come overs. If you want to see me, you have to schedule an outing with me. Partly, because I want to make myself presentable, and partly because I have so much going on with school and family, I'm always being tied up in to a pretzel.

But also......I'll wake up early enough to make sure I'm ready by the time he hits my door. So if he says he'll be at my place for 8 a.m., I'm going to wake up at 5 a.m. I used to do this when I was in a relationship.

[LivingWaterPlease]

I'll add one thing to mine. If I need to buy a dress or outfit that adds a way lot more time. But, that's rare for me. I have pretty much all I need (classics) at this point. In the past I have spent too much time shopping for "the" perfect outfit and found it really didn't make a difference to the guy! I think it was more for me.

 

[basil67]

For going on a date night - 25 minutes 

Figure out what to wear 5mins

Shower, quick shave if I think of it  7mins

 dry, moisturise face and neck, dress,  5 mins

straighten any wayward bits of hair and rub a bit of product in 3 mins

basic make up, spritz of perfume,  5 mins

Done.

 

 

[Shining One]

9 hours ago, ThereSheGoes said:

Well, for one. I make it known that I don't accept spur of the moment dates or come overs. If you want to see me, you have to schedule an outing with me. Partly, because I want to make myself presentable, and partly because I have so much going on with school and family, I'm always being tied up in to a pretzel.

But also......I'll wake up early enough to make sure I'm ready by the time he hits my door. So if he says he'll be at my place for 8 a.m., I'm going to wake up at 5 a.m. I used to do this when I was in a relationship.

At what point in a relationship does the man get to see what you look like right out of the shower? When it comes to physical attraction, I care most about what women look like in that state.

[ThereSheGoes]

3 hours ago, basil67 said:

For going on a date night - 25 minutes 

Figure out what to wear 5mins

Shower, quick shave if I think of it  7mins

 dry, moisturise face and neck, dress,  5 mins

straighten any wayward bits of hair and rub a bit of product in 3 mins

basic make up, spritz of perfume,  5 mins

Done.

 

 

 

You can shower in 7 minutes??? I need at least 20 on a regular day!

[ThereSheGoes]

2 hours ago, Shining One said:

At what point in a relationship does the man get to see what you look like right out of the shower? When it comes to physical attraction, I care most about what women look like in that state.

 

I've had guys tell me this. I've ignored them. LOL.

Really, if I feel comfortable with them, I'll let them see me without the hair and the makeup. I have to be falling for them, in order for me to be like yeah, I'm gonna spend the night, I'm gonna sleep in, and no, I'm not gonna beat you to the bathroom in the morning. He has to be someone I consider to potentially be my life mate. Lol.

Edited November 22, 2020 by ThereSheGoes

[basil67]

13 minutes ago, ThereSheGoes said:

 

You can shower in 7 minutes??? I need at least 20 on a regular day!

Sure.  Water is a valuable resource in my drought prone continent and we learn to not hang about in the shower.    During times of water restrictions, 5 minute showers are recommended....and are not difficult to achieve.

[Shining One]

22 minutes ago, ThereSheGoes said:

Really, if I feel comfortable with them, I'll let them see me without the hair and the makeup. I have to be falling for them, in order for me to be like yeah, I'm gonna spend the night, I'm gonna sleep in, and no, I'm not gonna beat you to the bathroom in the morning. He has to be someone I consider to potentially be my life mate. Lol.

You remind me of a woman who slept over once. She actually woke up early enough to shower, reapply her makeup, fix her hair, and wash the pillowcase she slept on. I woke up while the case was in the dryer.

[ThereSheGoes]

3 minutes ago, Shining One said:

You remind me of a woman who slept over once. She actually woke up early enough to shower, reapply her makeup, fix her hair, and wash the pillowcase she slept on. I woke up while the case was in the dryer.

Did that change your mind about her?

[ThereSheGoes]

19 minutes ago, basil67 said:

Sure.  Water is a valuable resource in my drought prone continent and we learn to not hang about in the shower.    During times of water restrictions, 5 minute showers are recommended....and are not difficult to achieve.

Well that makes more sense!

[Happy Lemming]

28 minutes ago, basil67 said:

...5 minute showers are recommended....and are not difficult to achieve.

Yep... I owned one house (in the desert) where I had to haul water to a holding tank for household use.  For showers, I would get wet, turn the water off, soap up, turn the water back on for final rinse and I was done.

The less water I used, the less I had to haul on the weekends.

To this day, I take quick 5-7 minute showers.

[Shining One]

17 minutes ago, ThereSheGoes said:

Did that change your mind about her?

It was a New Year's Eve ONS. We both knew that going in, so no minds were changed. It's just a memorable occurrence since I never had a woman go to quite that length.

If I were to experience that again with a woman I was pursuing a relationship with, I'd probably bring it up after a couple times.

[Wiseman2]

Why not take care of yourself on a regular basis? 

Why schlump around most of the time, so much so that you need an overhaul just to go on a date.

People who aren't themselves get revealed sooner or later.

Unless every day is a day you take care of and pride in yourself, you are going to have a tough time with relationships.

This isn't about getting ready, this is about self neglect and managing that better.

If you are depressed or unemployed,etc fix those issues.

Self neglect may signal a problem. The other problem is the pretense and overcompensating.

 

 

Edited November 22, 2020 by Wiseman2

[Cookiesandough]

Whoa, lady.  I thought I was bad. I almost get now why you put up with so much on that last date. About an hour here. But you’re also counting breaks in between where I’m most likely loveshacking. Mascara probably takes me the longest time because I’m weirdly obsessed with getting both eyes even. 
 

 

[introverted1]

Shower - 10 minutes

Blow dry hair (just the last 20% percent, if at all - lots of times I just air dry it) - 15 minutes

Dress - 10 minutes

Make-up - don't wear any other than eye pencil, so 2 minutes

Shaving and grooming is done on the regular, so unless the date is the first-time sex date, no extra effort needed on that front.

[ThereSheGoes]

9 hours ago, Wiseman2 said:

Why not take care of yourself on a regular basis? 

Why schlump around most of the time, so much so that you need an overhaul just to go on a date.

People who aren't themselves get revealed sooner or later.

Unless every day is a day you take care of and pride in yourself, you are going to have a tough time with relationships.

This isn't about getting ready, this is about self neglect and managing that better.

If you are depressed or unemployed,etc fix those issues.

Self neglect may signal a problem. The other problem is the pretense and overcompensating.

 

 

 

Well, back when our lives were normal, I did kinda do the same thing? But the every day version of it. It would probably take me about two hours to get ready, every morning.  Thats eat breakfast, shower, shave (some days I shaved, some days I didn't. Depended on what I was wearing.) wash my face and brush my teeth, do my makeup (usually around 25-30 minutes), do my hair (usually about 15 to 20), moisturize, spritz some body spray, and then get dressed.  I also usually would iron everything on Sunday, so I wouldn't have to iron anything during the week.  So....I've always been into how I present myself. It helps with my confidence and how I view myself. But since we've been in Quarantine, I haven't been leaving my house for anything more than that one date last week, and a quick run for milk or eggs. I'm usually in sweatshirts and leggings and the most I do these days, is my nails. And my confidence has become a little affected by it, even though.....I don't see the point for shaving, when I'm single and at home 7 days of the week. Who am I trying to look put together for? Webx? Which, I'm always on audio anyway.

That being said, I also see a date as something special, with interview undertones. So I want to look my best. But I also believe that, attraction is very important. And even if we decided we were going to become official, I do think we both owe it to the relationship to maintain attraction. Not just for me, but for him as well. Now that doesn't mean I'm hiking through Austin in full Gilda or camping in Alaska in full Julie Newmar, but I'm definitely going to be wearing AT THE VERY LEAST a red lip.

 

So reasons why I take half a century:

1. It makes me feel good. I feel more confident.

2. First impressions mean everything.

3. I want to be his Glamazon.

 

[ThereSheGoes]

9 hours ago, Shortskirtslonglashes said:

Whoa, lady.  I thought I was bad. I almost get now why you put up with so much on that last date. About an hour here. But you’re also counting breaks in between where I’m most likely loveshacking. Mascara probably takes me the longest time because I’m weirdly obsessed with getting both eyes even. 
 

 

 

Have you tried using a credit card? I heard that helps in getting an even coating!

And yes, it can be a lot. Whats even more disappointing is when, you do all of this, and he just shows up in basketball shorts and dirty sneakers.