While I talked about my food fixes as guilty pleasures in a previous post, I will now talk about my favorite self-pampering activity: bathing.
I am a girl of the I-don’t-care-if-I-look-like-a-Yeti kind. I used to go to school in our exams week unbathed. But even unpretentious girls like me are huge fans of hygiene. Though I disdain creams and even astringent, I drool at the mere thought of taking a “pleasure bath”.
A “pleasure bath” for me could be either hours in a tub, or a long shower complete with lots of scrubbing and a hair conditioner treatment. On a “normal bath”, I would only shampoo my hair, soap my body, rinse, then go back to the computer. But on a “pleasure bath”, I would shampoo, scrub with special body wash/liquid soap and loofah or scrubbing mittens, and finish off with treating my hair with heavy-duty conditioner. Then rinse, of course. :p On an extra-special pleasure bath, I would scrub for hours in my grandmother’s tub.
A girl’s tools in these moments are loofah or scrubbing mittens, divine-smelling body wash, hair pampering stuff like emulsions or even just heavy-duty anti-damage conditioners, and if the bathroom has space for them, scented candles are the perfect finishing touch for such a momentous event.
Not only does a special bath promote hygiene, it is my oasis in a day filled with chasing after deadlines. Whenever I get too stressed in my work, I stop, grab my towel, and take a bath. Yes, even at 2 in the morning, I would grab my towel and take a bath, if only to wash off the residues of work-related stress in my body.
I doubt I will ever want to go back to putting sunscreen on my face. I doubt I would ever use astringent, either. Maybe I might use lipstick or lip gloss again someday. But for now, bathing is the only vanity-related guilty pleasure in my life.. And washing clothes is my therapy. :p