to want to meet some fellow scruffs?

[IntergalacticHussy]

Maybe I'm just having a bad day, but lately i've started to feel like i'm the only person in the world who doesn't look like they've just stepped out of a catalogue

I mean, not that there's anything wrong with that, if it's what you want, but didn't there used to be other ways of looking?

I was going to this meetup, (i'm new round here) organised by the Other Place, and i'm afraid I just bottled it. Probably says more about my judgypants than anything else, but my heart sank when I saw everyone else turning up, perfectly groomed in brand-new looking clothes, immaculate and pushing buggies that looked like they'd been purchased yesterday. I just suddenly felt like i'd spend the whole time feeling apologetic and uncomfortable so i sort of skulked away feeling crap.

It's not that i look terrible (i hope), i just don't mind if my jeans are a bit faded, or i'm wearing a top I bought two years ago, or if dd's going around in a pushchair that's seen better days. I quite like having things with a bit of history to them; second hand stuff/ the odd vintage thing. I avoid ironing if i possibly can and think dd2 looks perfectly ok in dd1's slightly worn hand-me-downs, unless we're off to a wedding or something.

And please dont' think i'm just having a go at other mothers, it's bloody everyone; all dads under 45 seem to dress the same way, all teenagers have the same floppy, assymetric haircut... when i were a lass we had actual subcultures; grungers, skater-punks, indie-kids, goths, trendies...

i know it's ironic to be a non-conformist wishing she knew some other non-conformists, but i can't help wondering if anyone else feels the same?

[noyouhavehadawee]

ooo just to add i am a lucky scruff for at work we have a uniform polo shirt that my non scruffy colleagues refuse to wear - i however am proud to wear it i mean wtf would i want to spend my own money on clothes just for work and perfume pffft although i never smell skanky i always smell of mens sure/ lynx or whateevr dh has on the go at the moment because i cant be f'd trying all the nice scents as part of my weekly shop BE PROUD BE LIBERATED AND BE YOURSEL!

[Mumwithadragontattoo]

I'm a scruff too! Just wear jeans unless it's a special occasion, no make-up (not even for work), get my hair cut about once a year, shower each morning but never blow dry hair even in depths of winter. I wear the same scruffy ballet pumps whatever. I usually drop DCs at nursery before have shower also. Other mums include a former model and a fashion buyer...

[Rowgtfc72]

I've started putting make up on and not wearing trainers to pick dd up from her new school. Trying to make the effort. Five minutes after I get in I've wiped the muck off my face, tied my hair up and I'm sat in scruffy shorts and t shirt. I work in a factory so I wear vest, shorts and steel toe capped boots. When dh and I go out everyone says how good I look, think its just a shock that I do actually scrub up ok when I put a bit of effort in. Have recently acquired a hair-dryer (I'm 39 ) and occasionally use it. When SIL visited she asked if there was a plug socket near a mirror to do her hair - it would never have crossed my mind !

[woowoo2]

I live in converse, jeans, tshits/hoodys.

When I first got asked on a date by dp it was after we had been friends for ages, he saw me out in town all dressed up and asked me on a date saying 'I had only ever seen you in your strides before, i didn't realise how hot you are'

Unlucky for him he now realises what a rarity it is!

[HecateGoddessOfTheNight]

I never look very smart. atm I am wearing grey wide legged trousers and a red jumper that has been washed so many times it has lost all trace of shape

It's comfy. Bugger it

[bangcrash]

Lol at the scruffy faced poster! I think I might have one too definitely got the hair and clothes.

[HedleyLamarr]

Charity shop jeans (£4.75! Bargain) and freebie 9 year old XFM t-shirt are the order of the day chez Hedley. It's not scruffy, it's shabby chic (I tell myself ) You could put me in a Gieves & Hawkes shirt, Saville Row suit and Lobb shoes and 10 minutes later I would be a dead ringer for Worzel Gummage. Or Gummidge. Or however it is spelt.

[VeryLittleGravitas]

I'm relatively smart today (track pants, faded running vest and grubby converse). I even had time to tie my hair up:)

This is a vast improvement on yesterday, when I collected DS from school in my filthy gardening jeans (I'd been digging out the compost bins) and snot-streaked t-shirt, cunningly accessorised with a splatter of milky vomit on the left shoulder (thanks to DD).

My children are equally dirty and unkempt. Nobody ever sits next to us on the bus

[dreamingbohemian]

oh gosh, this thread makes me feel so much better!

I hate buying clothes. I wear the ones I have until they literally fall apart.

I have a dress I still wear that I bought in 1994, it has come back into fashion three times now

[pyjamasinbananas]

I can't wear dresses. I have funny knees and sometimes forget to sit all ladylike and flash me pants at some poor bugger

[HappyFinnish]

Yes, yes! Scruff here, reporting for duty. Kisses you all.

[festiemum]

Oh no! Don't cry Verylittle - we'd sit next to you on the bus! My kids always look pretty unkempt and mucky too! Where do people get these immaculate children from?!

[TheSkiingGardener]

Hurrah! Scruff club!

I wear tracksuit trousers and polo shirts/t shirts. I have a smarter pair of trousers for work or I wang on a dress for black tie. Showers every morning and wash my hair, then a quick comb and off I go. Don't own make up, don't own a hair dryer. Friend who visited had to ask if there were any mirrors in the house!

Scruff, proud and happy!

[TipOfTheSlung]

I'm another of those people who even if dressed up to the nines would still look scruffy.

[TunaTiebacks]

I'm joining the scruff quiche too! Hair usually washed, very rarely in any semblance of a style, makeup virtually never and clothes are jeans and jumper as standard! DS always in eBay bargains.

That's sad you felt that at the meetup though. It doesnt make you inadequate. If it was anywhere near me (South) let's have our own scruffs meetup!

[pyjamasinbananas]

I'm south east (I think geography isn't a strong point ) and i think a scruff meet up sounds great but only if we invade somewhere posh and make them feel out of place

[Deesus]

I'm a scruff too!

Once when he got back from a trip overseas my boyfriend (now DH) couldn't find one of his favourite jumpers. Later on we met up. I was wearing said jumper.....complete with bean juice mark and an actual bit of baked bean stuck to the front

[RumpledTitSkin]

Oh yes, me me me!
Thank god I wear a uniform for work and I have to wear my hair in a pony, don't know how I'd cope otherwise!
I've just come home and swapped my uniform for jammers. Clean, scruffy and happy.

[pyjamasinbananas]

Beans are a bitch ain't they?! I think if I banned beans I may be slightly less scruffy. Then again if adult bibs were acceptable that'd be good too

[dandycandyjellybean]

I teach ds at home so no school run, (or early mornings if we don't feel like it!!! ) and my dh (biker=terminal scruff) is disabled and around all day, too. I gym regularly, and we have an allotment too, with chickens up until yesterday when the bastard fox got 'em - , so I am nearly always either in very scruffy gym clothes, or muddy allotment gear.

If we get really wet/dirty at the allotment, we come home and have steaming baths / showers, so we're often in our pj's at unusual times of day, too. Have been known to go the shop accross the road in pj's, ds regularly goes out in pj's but he's only 6 so that's not too bad!

I can scrub up as can the other 2, be we love to be 'natural' and positively wallow in our 'scruf' status. Long live scrufsssssssss!

[Pocketsocks]

Sometimes I get the urge to un-scruff, but it never works within the hour my hair gets away from me, the lipstick rubs off making the rest of my make up attempt look silly, the kids leave something unidentifiable on my outfit and I have to ditch the heels for something that hurts less, which is inevitably combat boots. In my world the only trousers are jeans and skirts/dresses involve a whole lot more work. I always where a black skirt at Christmas though so no one can spot where I've spilled the gravy....

[rycooler]

Op; you can be 'non conformist' without being a scruff.
It's hard to pull off the 'shabby chic' look but not impossible. I do it very well.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

I'm a scruff. I have no idea how to not be. I try to be neat and tidy and smartish but somehow I feel like I end up looking like a skinny version of Boris johnson.

[Himalaya]

Another scruff here. I scrub up ok when there is a reason - but I can't be arsed with it just for being at home, school run, around town, working from home.

But the whole normalising of GHDs, fancy manicures, highlights, false eyelashes-as-everydaywear, just makes is regular scruffs look all the more unpolished.

I'm waiting for grunge to come around again.

[Ormirian]

I do start the day Monday to Friday with the best intentions. I like to try to look professional(ish). So I wash and dry my hair, moisturise and put make-up on, dress smartly (as smartly as I can manage anyway). But I find that by about 11am I am Scruff-Woman again. I think there is a world of magic potions out there that people use to keep the Smart thing going all day - but no-one told me where to get hold of the stuff. Or do people really keep popping to the loo to do their make-up and comb their hair and spray themselves with perfume?

I do try. Honest. Anyone remember the hideous country women in French and Saunders - the ones who would bind up the stump of a severed finger in a dish cloth?. I thirnk there is too much of that in my genetic make-up And not enough chic sophisticated womanhood. My great great grandmother was my great great grandfather's Parisienne mistress. Which sounds so glamorous - but sadly she looked like a less attractive stumpier Queen Victoria I am a lost cause.