To not believe women spend 55 minutes looking in the mirror every day

[LaurieFairyCake]

Story in the Daily Fart today that research says this.

I reckon I look in the mirror for 5 minutes to do my make up and a couple more times for a moment after eating to check theirs no cheese on my face .

Of course it's nonsense, it's an article designed to tell women off for being vain, while the next story down is a zoom lens picture of a sleb, pointing out every minute way in which she compares badly to the airbrushed-to-death fantasy we expect from women in magazines/newspapers.

Oh, us women, with our time-wasting vanity THEN complaining about the glass ceiling, when clearly if we spent all that time working instead of looking in a mirror there wouldn't be a problem

Now.. if this had read how many minutes on average do you spend on a sporn hunt?? Bwahhhhahhhhahhaaa..

I never wear make-up (hardly ever, anyway) so I'm doing well if I spend more than 10 minutes in front of it.
I look to brush my hair mop in a morning and to look if I've got owt round my mush such as my breakfast, or between my teeth but that's about it lol.
5 minutes, tops. Job's a good 'un. Done.

45 minutes to dry hair? Mine's waist length and i dry and style it in about 15! Should add that i need to look professional for work so it has to be properly styled not just a quick blast.

Now I'm worried I'm the weird one!

I have an hour and a half train journey to work so time is a luxury!

I honestly can't believe that people excuse this shitty Daily Mail/Jeremy Vine style of 'current affairs' newspapers and programmes, where every sentence has a nasty undercurrent of resentment, paranoia, spite and blame. It's revolting.

I definitely believe the statistic that each family throw £600 of food away each year - I know loads of people who throw stuff away.

I still moan about the one time a punnet of raspberries got forgotten about in the fridge and got thrown out

I don't usually wear makeup so I estimate I look in the mirror for 2 minutes (when I put on my moisturiser) most days, max. Maybe another 30 seconds for brushing hair.

That's a long old tooth cleaning session then. The only time I look in the mirror is at my teeth whilst cleaning them. So that's a max of 5 minutes a day. Who'd want to scare themselves by looking in the mirror for anything else? For a start, I might find myself looking at a nearly 50 something with grey hair and saggy bits instead of a twenty something with a promising future. Why spoil the day by confronting the reality?!

I hear you lowclouds

It takes me about an hour to get ready, but that's not an hour in front of the mirror. I'm in the shower, making breakfast, blow drying my hair is hardly preening time, putting on makeup is also not time when I'm just gazing lovingly at my own face... So what's the article about? That women spend this time just staring gormlessly into the mirror? I doubt that.

5 mins. 10 if also doing hair. Should really spend more time but cba. My nanny has taken to buying the mail so I've seen it quite a bit lately and I have been horrified by how vile it is. I mean I know it but it really does live up to its stereotype. There's a piece today - double page spread - made up of photos of Fergie looking fat, thin,fat and at every point the Mail basically pointing and jeering. What exactly has she done to deserve this horrible picking apart of her body which is a) perfectly normal actually and b) not something she claims is flawless and is therefore deserving of criticism?

Agree that this is the Mail's way of telling its readers "you are vain - oh and ugly".

I wonder...do people observe themselves in the mirror to:
a)reassure themselves that they exist
b)admire their beauty
c)apply make-up to disguise the true horror
d)ensure at a glance that they have zipped up flies/done up buttons?

To be vain one would have to be looking in the mirror to admire one's beauty and since beauty is in the eye of the beholder who are the Mail to say that the mirror lies?

I don't wear make up or blow dry my hair so 1 minute in the morning and 1 minute before bed to cleanse and moisturise my face and a quick glance as I'm leaving the house so 3 mins max.

I don't usually look in the mirror at all. Hair is the same every day and I put it up and can tell if it's neat just by touch. Don't wear makeup and don't have a mirror over the sink.

I have a massive mirror in my living room but I'm too short to see in it!

Certainly not. However I have just spent ten minutes looking at my flange sorting out some stubborn ingrowing hairs.

Are you sure that wasn't per week??

Laurie £600 of food thrown away each year? That's £50 a month. Now, I am bad at remembering to use things before they go off- particularly veg, whereas meat I will stick in the freezer if it's approaching the date and I don't think we'll get round to using it.

I did my shopping a couple of days ago, and when I put it away, I threw out the last couple of slices from the old loaf of bread as they were going stale, a matchbox sized piece of cheese that had mould growing on it and a cucumber that had gone squidgy. I managed to salvage some pork that was on the date and some carrots and onions that were just about to turn by bunging them in a stir fry.

But my food/grocery budget is around £250 a month, so to throw away £50 a month would mean throwing away 1/5 of the shopping I buy. But a lot of my budget is spent on non perishables. I would estimate that to throw £50 of food a month away, it would be the equivalent of me throwing away half of the fresh food that I buy!

YY CrohnicallyFarting, it sounds like I throw away a similar amount to you, or less, which is why I find the average so hard to believe, as it would suggest that to balance out people like us, some people are throwing away a lot more than £50 pm of food - who can afford to do that?

I would estimate that £1-2 of food is wasted per month in our house. Old bread gets put in the freezer for toast or breadcrumbs or to be used in things like meatballs.

Old veg gets made into things like soup. Leftover evening meals are used for lunches or frozen to be eaten later.

Well there's bound to be a few people who spend more tham 55 minutes looking in a mirror. I would hope they're talking about an average. But I think it's more likely that it's an average time, taking extremes into consideration, not the amount of time that an "average woman" spends mirror gazing. That's the only way I can think of where it might not be complete bollocks.

As for time spent here, if going out somewhere nice, 15 minutes. If not, probably about 10 minutes throughout the day, playing with the baby who thinks peek a boo in the mirror is hysterical.

I can quite categorically say that I don't.

Maybe 10 mins.

I spend 20 mins on make up 40-60 mins on blow drying and straightening my hair.. Then however many times I need to during the day but I'm clumsy and have two small babies so tend to have food/sick on me a lot

DD does, everytime I went upstairs she was sitting in the same position looking in the mirror just with different tops and hairstyles

If I'm not leaving the house I can avoid looking in a mirror all day. I probably should look in one more often, I think my hair is approaching cat-lady-from-the-Simpsons territory.

Some days I reckon I could clock up 55 minutes

Drying and straightening hair
Make up
Teeth brushing
Check for camel toe/clashing colours/outfit looks ok in the full length mirror in my bedroom
Make up removal/face cream gubbins application before bed
My mirror is above the bathroom sink so usually have a look when washing hands
I have a huge mirror on the kitchen/diner wall so will have a quick glance on my way to the kettle
Quick look to see what the mark is on my face that I can just about see from the corner of my eye and is annoying me

I'm not staring at myself lovingly, just habit half the timeI suppose