Lifestyle contributor Lori Culwell talks beauty. She’ll entertain you with "the things we do for beauty” while offering inspiration on how to achieve a healthy lifestyle.
I was having lunch with my neigbor the other day—she’s a similarly Type A personality, and we were talking about work, plans, life, and more work. You know—typical Type A fare. Then, out of the blue, she mentioned something so un-Type A, so uncharacteristic (I thought) of either of us, it dominated the conversation for the next twenty minutes.
The big news wasn’t that she’s getting married or having a baby or anything like that (though she does have many exciting work projects coming up!). No, on this particular day, the conversational topic was nothing more than the bathtub. Namely, she all of a sudden said she was thinking about something while taking a bath. She’s a bath person, which to me is the same thing as being from Jupiter. I don’t get baths, people. Don’t get it!
I know, I’m probably all alone in this, but I have reallyt never understood the “art of the bath.” It seems to me to be a time-consuming way to get clean, involving multiple products, and setup. I get antsy in there, the water gets cold, and then—don’t you have to take a shower after the bath anyway to really be clean? Also, my notebook, or magazine, or whatever I’m reading at the time gets wet. For this reason, the (very thoughtful) gift of bath salts given to me as a birthday gift two years ago is still sitting, unopened, on the edge of the tub. In fact, I only take a bath on the rare occasion when I have sore muscles and am forced into a bath of Epsom Salts to cure them.
Anyone with me on this? I don’t get it. I think yo’ure either a regular, die-hard, bath-taker, with all the good-smelling stuff, and the candles, and the long soaking period, or you’re like me and prefer the shower. So—bath people! Nature or nurutre? Should I try to force myself to relax, or would that be counter-intuitive?
5 Comments
Oh, good-- from now on, I'm going to just say "no, I don't take baths-- I'm going green!"
I only take baths when I am in a need of a relaxation time for ME. I am a fifteen minute or less kinda girl in the shower. Gotta save the water. Going GREEN!
That is totally me-- 5 minutes, then all antsy, like, "when's this going to be over?"
Not. Relaxing.
I think it's about whatever works for you. I enjoy both. Usually it's shower in the morning and bath in the evening, although the last few months it's been shower almost all the time. I have to have a hand held shower head though. A regular shower just doesn't cut it with me, since I am really big on the rinse routine. Now baths, yes I am the one with the books, etc in there with me. It's been part of my life for so long that I am totally prepared and my water is still steaming hot when I step in. My books don't get wet, I have a system for that, don't ask me to explain that one since I don't think I could if I tried. I generally have more bath salts, washes, scrubs, etc. then most stores do. Baths are relaxing to me, a way to wind down my day, especially if the kids are asleep when I get in.
Good reasons to take a bath to me are, relaxing of course, your legs shave better if you have soaked in water first, toenail trimming is easier, just an all around pampering for me also.
Before I got to the part is "anyone with me on this.", I was thinking 'I'm with you.'. I do the Epsom salts thing once a year, if and when I remember, and I keep putting hot water in the tub and I think I'm in there all of maybe 5 minutes....I get antsy and I think it's a waste of time (and water) and not very comfortable.
I think you have to be able to relax to enjoy a bath - bath salts, bath pillow, candles and all sounds good, but I never got into it. My vote is for Shower.
