7

Good Grooming

“If only she weren’t so sloppy.”

This remark uttered ruefully or indignantly has caused the downfall of many an attractive teen-ager. Girls whisper about it behind her back. Boys mutter about it in their locker rooms. The word gets around and dates come few and far between. And the pity of it is that such unpleasant ostracism is easily preventable. No girl need be pushed out of the social swim simply because she is too lazy to look after herself.

It’s no joke that you can’t be too careful about your personal habits. When it comes right down to the facts of the case, nothing can beat day-to-day attention to details. As a model, I realize how true this is. Nobody wants to book a girl with dirty fingernails or a torn blouse. And certainly nobody wants to work with a model who stints on bathing and doesn’t use a deodorant.

When you were a child it was all very well to skip your daily bath. It was a cute trick. But now that you are in your teens, such actions are no longer cute. They’re tiresome. A dirty child will be excused, a dirty teen-ager never. Even if she is wearing the most expensive clothes, no teen can look alluring if her hair is badly combed, her nails grimy, her blouse spotted and her body generally unwashed.

A daily bath or shower should be the minimum for everyone. When you are planning to go out on a date, a second tub or shower should be taken. In the summer two baths a day are not excessive. Remember, too, that the tub is not a thing to hop in and out of. Plan instead to spend some time there once you’re in. Soap thoroughly and really get the dirt off. Be sure also to remove all the soap and to dry yourself thoroughly from head to toe—and between the toes.

After every bath you should use a good deodorant. There is no time of year when this precaution should be omitted. In summer the heat makes it essential, as everybody perspires freely. The rest of the year the body gives off enough perspiration to justify a deodorant, particularly in winter, when hot houses and woolen clothing join forces. Remember, too, that woolens and sweaters should be cleaned often to remove any odor that may cling stubbornly to them.

If you perspire from nervousness, as many do, don’t be alarmed, it is just a normal bodily reaction. However, if you know that you are subject to this sort of thing, be scrupulously careful. If you feel the necessity sew protective shields in your blouses and dresses. No one should ever slip up on these simple procedures. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. A date once made uncomfortable or a friend offended by your carelessness will take a long time to forget.

In addition to deodorants, you should get in the habit of using a light scent—any flower cologne will do, provided that it is fresh and fragrant. Dab a little behind each ear and at your neckline and along the length of each arm. There is no need to fear a liberal use of it, since cologne is not perfume. Its fragrance is light and passing. Before a date, it is an especially nice touch to sprinkle your hair with a drop or two.

I can’t think of a nicer compliment than that of being told, “How nice you smell.” To achieve this distinction, it is necessary to get accustomed to the use of cologne and to a cologne that is right for you. Which is the right one, I cannot say. A little experimentation will decide that for you—cologne is an individual matter and you should choose one that fits you. But do experiment and do pick one out and use it in preference to a perfume which is too highly concentrated an essence to be used effectively when you are young. Perfume, if incorrectly used, has a heavy, oversweet odor, but cologne is always refreshing, always pleasant.

Next to a deodorant, daily use of a reliable mouthwash is important. I have spoken before of the importance of taking care of your teeth and I only want to emphasize the business of rinsing and gargling. This is such a little thing and so easy to do that it will forestall the possibility of bad breath. If you are meticulous in this habit, at no time need you fear that you are offending.

The necessity of using deodorants and mouth rinses is hardly disputable. They are as expected a part of daily routine as wearing shoes on the street. But when it comes to the question of to shave or not to shave, many teens find themselves in the toils of conflicting theories. Some think they should, others think they shouldn’t. Some are afraid that if they do, the hairs will grow in blacker and bushier.

From the point of view of good grooming, I feel that one should shave. Even if your hair is very blond, I still am convinced that legs and underarms are sleeker and more dainty if they are clean-shaven. Furthermore, it is not true that shaving will cause the hair to grow back thicker or any darker in color. It may appear to do so, but that is only because the stubbly ends are more bristly to the touch than the fuller-grown hairs are.

If you decide on shaving, you must then determine to keep it up. You should shave your legs at least once a week and your underarms less often, though in the summer you should be careful to keep after them when you are wearing sleeveless dresses and bathing suits. In the summer also, you may want to shave the whole length of your leg if your hair is exceptionally dark. Otherwise you can shave just to the knee and bleach the rest.

You will never hurt yourself when shaving if you follow these simple precautions. Before you take up a razor, always lather your skin well. Make sure that all the hair is damp and well softened. Then take the razor and shave against the grain, which means from ankle up, holding the razor firmly and pressing gently against the skin. Go slow on curves, take it easy at the anklebone and shin-bone, where the skin is close to the bone. You will come out unscathed if you take time, but should you cut yourself, a bit of tissue applied to the nick will take care of the bleeding. When you finish shaving, apply hand lotion to the skin to soften it and prevent chapping and the roughening effects of exposure.

These few paragraphs sum up the basic requirements for personal daintiness. Cleanliness and clean-shavenness will go a long way toward making you an attractive teen-ager, but they won’t go the whole way. Coupled with a clean body must be clean clothes. I can not overemphasize how necessary it is to be neat about what you wear. In fairy tales, Prince Charming may have discerned Cinderella’s beauty under the soot and ashes, but the chances are against a modern young man poking through layers of dirt to find his own true love.

Tidiness in dress starts with the very first things you put on. Your underwear should be fresh and neat. You should change it daily and have enough in supply to take care of emergencies. With nylon it is easy to keep your things up-to-date, because it dries so quickly. Even without nylon, you can still keep ahead of the game if you wash each night the things you wore during the day.

As to what to wear under what you wear over, I am firmly of the opinion that almost every teen needs a girdle—not a whaleboned ironclad trap, but some sort of lightweight affair to control the curves. Depending on your girth, you can range all the way from an elasticized panty girdle to a well constructed two-way-stretch job with a fabric panel for extra support.

Don’t turn up your nose at the idea of wearing these modern aids to figure beauty. Today’s girdle is a far cry from the cantankerous corset Grandmother wore. Nowadays a girdle is so light you scarcely know you have it on, and designers of these garments have whipped up cute little tricks that especially adapt them for young figures.

The reason I am so adamant about girdles is that I know of no other way to keep a figure well in hand. Even a teen with a trim figure needs to coax her curves a bit when it comes to wearing slim skirts and slacks. To me there is nothing more repellent than a protruding fanny or a bulging tummy marring the outline of a narrow silhouette.

So buy a girdle and try a girdle. You’ll like the effect. And remember this bit of advice: buy a girdle that fits you. There are many kinds available, all designed to do different jobs. To decide on the one that is best for you takes time. Ask the salespeople in your favorite store to give you some help. Don’t be shy about it; that’s why they are there.

Good fit is essential in a girdle. And no one girdle fits all teen-age types. There are those who need high waistband models to control midriff tires. There are those who need models with thigh control, those who need the support in the rear, and those who need it in front. So buy what you need and buy it in the right size. A too-tight girdle will only make you bulge all the more, and a too-loose one accomplishes nothing. A good rule to follow is to buy by your waist measurement, but if your hips are larger than your waistline by more than ten inches, then use your hip measurement as the guide.

Just as I advise teens to wear girdles, so do I advise teens to wear bras. Your own bust development will determine what you should select. Here, as in girdles, your figure dictates what kind of bra you need. You may require only a simple bandeau, or you may need the added support of a firm underband with well-shaped cups. Whatever you need, find one that fits and then wear it. Remember also that in summer (and for party formals) you will probably need a strapless job, so don’t overlook that department.

Bras and girdles come under the heading of underwear and should be laundered as often as you wear them. Girdles need special care; they should be washed only in lukewarm water, well rinsed, and dried in a towel. Do not wring them dry.

Hang them to dry just as you would anything else, but select a light and airy place.

Stockings are not precisely underwear. They are actually outer wear, but they demand the daily attention lavished on all lingerie in general. Rinse out new stockings before wearing. It helps strengthen threads. Always wash your stockings after each wearing. Use lukewarm water and mild soap flakes. Be careful not to snag them with rough or broken fingernails while pulling them on or off. Given good care, stockings, even the sheerest, should wear a long time.

Stockings and girdles go hand in hand because from one hangs the other. In hitching up your stockings to your garters, be careful to get your seams straight. Take care to fasten the garters at the reinforced top of the stocking, not in the sheer part beneath. Stockings should fit properly so that they don’t twist about the leg and so that the reinforced top naturally meets the garter. To look sleek and slim, stockings should fit your leg like a second skin, and they will do so if you take care when you shop to select the size you wear, not the one you guess you wear.

Good fit is important in everything you wear. You probably think about it only in relation to your outer wear, but it is equally essential in your underwear. A baggy slip will bungle the lines of a sleek dress or skirt. A too-long slip hitched up at the waist will make you seem thick—but even that is preferable to a slip that hangs below the hem of your skirt.

In looking for good fit in slips make sure that you have adequate room for movement without so much room that they seem ready to fall off. A slip should slide on smoothly, should not pull at the shoulders or hang lopsided at the hem. It may seem like a small point, but remember also that color is important. All white is a good basic, but you should have a few dark ones to use with dark sheer dresses. Try to choose your slips as carefully as you do your accessories that show. If you do, you’ll never slip up.

When it comes to honest-to-goodness accessories that show—hats, shoes, bags, gloves and scarves—remember to keep them clean and well pressed. Shoes should never get run down at the heel. All leather goods need to be polished—a little elbow grease and some wax will work wonders and make the leather last longer too. White scarves, gloves, and collars—basic standbys—should always look fresh and sparkling clean. Be on the lookout for any torn seams, rips or jagged holes and repair them at once.

All good grooming means attention to details. It is the sum total of all the little things—the neat glove, the sewed-on button, the clean blouse, the freshly pressed skirt, the straight seam, the trim figure. It means looking after yourself and your clothes. It means hanging up your things when you take them off—a skirt that has lain rumpled on the closet floor all night is not going to look like a million dollars the next morning. It means using a clothes brush to remove dust and lint, and it means taking time to remove a stain with a cloth and some spot remover.

Most of all, good grooming means looking well put together. The girl who looks helter-skelter, whose colors don’t match, and whose clothes are all awry is not well groomed, nor is the girl who is all pinned together, a perambulating pincushion, bristling like a porcupine at every seam. Pins are all right in their place, in an emergency, but they should be supplanted with something more permanent as soon as possible. You’ll never get to be a pin-up girl if you depend on pins to keep you in your clothes.

Here is a morning check-up that you should try before you start for school.

1. Underwear—Is it clean? Does it fit?
2. Blouse or sweater—Is it clean? Does it smell fresh?
3. Skirt—any wrinkles, any spots or stray dirt?
4. Shoes—Are they polished and are they trim at the heels?
5. Stockings or socks—Are they clean? Is the seam straight?
6. A last look, to straighten out a lock of hair, check on nose, chin, and lipstick, and you’re off.