Being high maintenance to be low maintenance means you invest your time and money into areas of your daily beauty and wellness routine that eventually lead to a low maintenance and sustainable lifestyle. Now, this might look different for everyone but that’s the beauty of it: you do whatever works for you. Some might consider a high maintenance routine to be getting monthly lashes done, laser hair removal, hair blowouts, and mani-pedis, while others may simply add more sustainable skincare products to their routine and start a consistent gym schedule. I’m in the middle! I first started incorporating this practice when I realized I would take so long to get ready for school in the morning. I’m someone who feels the most confident when I look my best, so I make an active effort to get ready in the mornings. However, lots of times I would find myself being late to class because of this or even staying home because the thought of having to do my hair and makeup etc. every morning was too much. I slowly started incorporating small changes in my routine to prevent this and while it was time consuming at first, I can confidently say it’s worth it. Some of my high maintenance practices include:
Skincare
I had a habit of buying random skincare products that I didn’t know anything about or if they were even suitable for my skin type. After seeing a dermatologist, she recommended I double cleanse, moisturize, apply tretinoin, and use a face mask once a week. And most importantly, stay consistent! It took a while for me to get into the habit of doing this everyday, but once I started, my face has gotten visibly smoother and clearer after a couple months. It gives me more confidence in my natural bare face and now in the mornings I just do light makeup that takes roughly five minutes. Simply incorporating these consistent products into my skincare routine minimizes the time I spend on makeup in the morning, which I consider a good investment. You can even take this further by investing a bit more money into more sustainable makeup products! I was a victim of buying the cheapest product that I saw without researching the ingredients or brand. Now I spend a bit more time and money researching and investing in my products, which might seem annoying at the first, but I promise you, the difference shows in the long run.
Haircare
Now, this is a tough one that I’m still trying to implement. I have naturally wavy hair and I usually use a straightener or my Revlon blowout brush to style it, as I don’t like how it looks naturally. But after daily use of these hot tools, not only was it time consuming, but I noticed how dry, dead and thin my hair got. After consulting so many hairstylists, I’ve been working on the perfect hair routine to use minimal heat and repair the damage. Thus, my hair wash day looks like this: oil my hair with coconut oil for at least two hours, shampoo, use a strength bond repair mask, condition, hair oil, and lastly diffuse. Yes, it sounds like a lot but I’d rather do this than spending 20 minutes every morning damaging my hair with my Revlon brush. I do this routine every five days and if I’m too lazy to diffuse, I sleep in those $5 heatless curl rods and it does the same trick.Â
Health and Wellness
Last school year I would get sick every month like clockwork. It would put me out of commission for almost a week and leave me scrambling to catch up on work. I was tired of this cycle and decided to make small changes to my health and diet to avoid this. Firstly, it takes five seconds to take vitamins every morning. I take the gummy ones and (knock on wood) I haven’t had the cold for the semester. Secondly, I’ve started incorporating my favorite fruits and making tasty salads with yummy salad dressing into my diet. I would mostly survive off of ramen and Taco Bell last year, which I don’t think served me well in the long run. Lastly, I made a no-excuse rule to go to the gym three times a week. Some days I spend 45 minutes and others I spend over an hour, as long as you’re consistent, it’ll pay off.
Other things I practice are getting my face waxed once a month instead of shaving every week and getting my nails done monthly. As aforementioned, these routines look different to everyone. Once you start slowly integrating consistent practices to become more sustainable and see long lasting results, you’re on the right track to becoming a high maintenance to low maintenance girly.