Hair and makeup.

• Top: Maurices
• City Shorts: Maurices
• Boots: Payless (previously)
• Pantyhose: Just My Size via Walmart
• Necklace: Maurices (previously)
• Bracelet: Torrid (previously)

I felt really great in this outfit, but there are some things I'm not sure about. This button down is a little on the bulky side bordering on too big, but it can be cinched with the ribbon in the middle. I have seriously thought about removing that ribbon because I'm just not sure about it (As you can see, my bow tying skills are also a bit off as well...). If removed the ribbon would also be a pain to thread back through the fabric "loop" that contains it. I always enjoy everyone's feedback on my outfits, so definitely tell me what you think about this one!

In the previous post, Pamela from the awesome blog Call Me Ishmael asked a question: how long does it take wifey to do your hair and make up every time you take pictures and post? The answer is that it really depends. I normally wear my hair in a ponytail, and if I'm changing in the afternoon or evening and just going to wear one outfit and stay in, I'll just brush out my hair, but I do play around sometimes and try to fix my hair myself. I really want to be able to do these things for myself. (I also definitely intend to corner my stylist next time I get my hair cut and beg for lessons!) Likewise with the makeup. I want to learn how to do it myself. But most of the time for pictures I just brush out my hair and don't wear makeup (including the pictures in this post).

If we're going to go out though, I usually ask my wife to do my hair and makeup since she does a much better job than I do. I hope to get to the point where I feel comfortable doing it myself when I go out, but on the other hand, my wife does enjoy playing with makeup, so its not too much of a struggle to get her to help out there.

For makeup it normally takes about 15 minutes total. I start by shaving, and that takes maybe 5 minutes and then I take a break to let my face air dry. I should add that recently I have also experimented with using an epilator on my beard as well, but I still have to shave to get the hairs it misses. Fortunately, this experiment with hair removal went better than my last big adventure, I won't say its the most pleasant thing I've done though, but strangely enough it seems to irritate my face less than shaving (especially past the initial usage). I think I must have fairly sensitive skin. Anyway, with that done, we apply concealer for red spots/beard coverage, then use a loose powder foundation, blush, eye liner, eye shadow, mascara, and lip gloss. I could probably get away with less work on facial hair removal if I would use a heavier coverage foundation, but I don't really like any of the ones we've tried, and its been really difficult to match my skin tone on the heavier coverage too.

Hair takes a lot longer. Usually about an hour I think. I have fine, thick, straight hair, so it tends to take some work to get it to hold a curl. The last time my wife curled it in layers and used a spray gel before curling, and then hairsprayed it all when she was done. Its been tricky for my wife to figure out how to style my hair since her hair has a lot more natural curl.

And while this is not exactly what was asked, I do think I should add that the real time sink in getting ready is hair removal. Shaving my legs, chest, face, and armpits, plus using the epilator and tweezing just takes a while. I probably spend 4-6 hours a week on hair removal. So to go out for the evening like this post, I probably spend about 2 hours before getting ready, with my wife helping for about half of that time.

And of course my beautiful wife took the pictures for this post.