The Assumption of Effortlessness
I’ve written quite a few articles about hair, makeup, and fashion. In fact, I’ve covered everything from the best heated tools to use to how beauty standards are evolving.
It’s safe to say I’m no stranger to the power of beautification.
The interesting thing about writing these articles is that readers can form opinions about me from my words alone. Most of them will never have the chance to confirm or challenge those assumptions because we’ll likely never cross paths in real life.
I bring this up because my writing about being a hair-styling enthusiast or someone tuned into the beauty world might lead people to assume I am always polished and put together. And while that may be true in some ways, it’s far from accurate when it comes to my everyday style.
Sure, now and then I’ve been known to throw together a decent outfit. Still, more often than not, you’ll find me wearing something that looks like athleisure and comfort walked into a bar, already tipsy, and left completely unrecognizable. That should paint a pretty accurate picture.
I gave myself an excuse to wear my awkward outfits and to throw my frizzy, unkempt hair into a claw clip day in and day out for most of my college career. After all, I was balancing many things, including a D1 sport, law school preparation, and graduate-level sociology research. I was in a constant state of fight or flight, and the way I looked was the last thing on my mind.
The Shift: Choosing to Show Up
But as I enter my final quarter at UCSB, my schedule, and honestly, my mindset, have started to shift. I no longer feel like I’m sprinting just to keep up. And with that change came the realization that I didn’t really have the same excuse to neglect how I showed up for myself. So, I decided to pivot.
At the start of this quarter, I made a simple promise to myself that I would get ready for the day at least 4 out of 7 days a week. Not in a dramatic, full-glam, new-outfit-every-day kind of way, but in a small, intentional way.
Setting aside time in the morning to look like I care, even just a little bit.
The Science Behind Getting Ready
I’ve only been doing this for a little over a week, but the results have already been noticeable. Before I get ahead of myself, though, I should say this wasn’t entirely surprising. I had some background going in.
A couple of years ago, I learned about the concept of enclothed cognition, which is the idea that what we wear can influence both how we feel and how we perform. Coined by cognitive psychologists at Northwestern University, the term describes the systematic effect clothing has on our psychological processes. In other words, what you put on your body doesn’t just change how others see you; it changes how you see yourself.
What Changed (And What Didn’t)
I had read the studies, and I knew the theory. But it’s one thing to understand something intellectually, and another to actually experience it. So, naturally, I decided to test it on myself, purely for research purposes, of course.
Almost immediately, I noticed a shift. On the days I put even a little effort into my appearance, I felt more motivated to go to class. I sat up straighter. I participated more. I wasn’t preoccupied with whether I looked disheveled or out of place. Instead, I felt like I was presenting the version of myself I actually wanted people to see, which made me more confident in speaking up.
What surprised me most, though, was that none of it was really about how I looked. I still wore the same jeans three days in a row. My eyeliner wasn’t always even. But I felt more like myself than I had during the months of rolling out the door in anything resembling an outfit. It turns out getting ready isn’t about the result. It’s about the ten minutes you spend telling yourself the day is worth starting.