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When you were younger, personal grooming was as simple and quick as taking a shower once a day, washing your hair when it got dirty, and brushing your teeth in the morning and before bed at night. When you were going out to play with your friends, you just got dressed; if you had long hair, you probably pulled it up in a ponytail.
Those days are as much a part of your past as Sesame Street and Barbie dolls. Now, your little brother complains about your stuff all over the bathroom you share, your mom is tapping her foot outside your bedroom door while you change clothes five times before school, and your dad just shakes his head and wonders where his “little girl” went.
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At your age, getting ready to go out takes a lot longer, and requires a lot more stuff and steps. That’s a natural part of adolescence, but young ladies are mindful that their stuff and their personal grooming habits don’t impose on other people’s space or time.
YOU DO
Keep your face, body, and hair products in one area in a bathroom that you share.
YOU DON’T
Scatter your things all over the vanity and tub.
Why
Bathrooms are contained spaces with limited shelf space. If you take more than your share, you’re not sharing at all; you’re hogging. You might keep all your products in a waterproof plastic basket you can put out of sight in a linen closet or your bedroom when you are not using them.
YOU DO
Talk to a grown-up before coloring your hair or piercing anything.
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YOU DON’T
Come home from the mall with pierced ears or emerge from the bathroom with platinum blonde hair and say “Surprise!”
Why
Piercings and hair coloring are dramatic changes and not easily reversed should you decide that, for now, you’re not that interested in wearing earrings every day, or that platinum blonde isn’t really your color. An adult will point out that spontaneous actions can have long-term consequences.
A lady clears the drain in the shower after she washes her hair.
A lady does not shave her legs in the sink.
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A lady styles her hair, puts on her makeup, and applies body products behind closed doors in her bathroom or bedroom.
A lady does not try to shape her eyebrows herself, but asks for professional help.
A lady removes or applies nail polish in her bedroom or bathroom, and never in a common space where the smell would overwhelm everyone.