The phrase “be high maintenance to be low maintenance” has been a term I’ve come across often on social media recently. While most videos are littered with 20-somethings seemingly living the dream life, this idea or concept can help women of all ages, in all occupations, save time without forgoing self-care.
What is the ‘be high maintenance to low be maintenance’ lifestyle?
This TikTok trend involves setting aside time for big tasks, like getting your nails or lashes done or booking a specific day of the week for your hair mask, so you can feel and look your best. In the long run, this saves you time in a myriad of ways.
For example, if you get a Brazilian blow wave or keratin treatment, you won’t spend as much time in the morning doing your hair. Or, if you get lash extensions, chances are, you can forgo makeup on the days you’re running a tad late.
Overall, the basis is that you’re temporarily “high maintenance”, so you can be as low maintenance as possible during your day-to-day!
@mireyarios Girly things ✨💗 #highmaintenance #highmaintenancefemale #beautyroutines #laserhairremoval #laserhair #tintedmoisturizer #girlthings
Here are a few tips you can follow to begin embracing this lifestyle:
Get your nails done
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Getting your nails done every couple of weeks is one way to ensure you have a put-together look every day. Regardless of whether you’re opting for tips to add some flare or getting a simple gel colour, you’ll be fabulous for basically no effort.
If you’re not a fan of coloured nails, or you’re wanting to give your nails a break, don’t stress. A simple manicure, which includes a trim, shape, buff, and cuticle oil, will leave you feeling just as put together.
You could even do this at home and treat it as an addition to your bi-weekly self-care routine!
Prioritise skincare
Speaking of self-care, the high maintenance to be low maintenance lifestyle prioritises skin care. Having a decent skincare routine will save you in the long run.
This could be as simple as washing your face properly every night to de-clog your pores and prevent breakouts and using serums daily. Or it could mean investing in expensive face-masks and getting facials every so often!
Get waxed or laser hair removal
I don’t know about you, but I hate shaving. One aspect of this lifestyle I have fully embraced is getting waxed frequently, especially now that it’s summer.
You can take it one step further of course and opt for laser hair removal instead. While expensive, in the long run, less hair grows back, making your life even easier.
Get lash extensions
As you may have guessed, eyelash extensions seem to be a staple high-maintenance activity. Across the various TikTok videos I’ve seen, it seems to be the thing that spurred this lifestyle and way of thinking.
Much like manicured nails, eyelash extensions elevate your overall appearance. With them, you won’t need mascara, like ever. Say goodbye to smudges! Even better, they look extremely natural.
Do your brows
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As a thick-brow girlie, I hate doing my eyebrows. It’s painful and it takes time. But frequent stops at the salon keeps them in check and stops me from stressing.
There are several new brow treatments out there though that can help you elevate your look with minimal effort every day.
The recent trend is eyebrow lamination, an alternative to microblading. This treatment, also dubbed the ‘eyebrow perm’, lifts and straightens the eyebrow hairs, using a chemical treatment. This helps the brows look fuller and gives them the ultimate “on flick” shape.
You can simply get them shaped by a professional every so often, though, and be good to go!
ALSO SEE: 4 of the best brow treatments explained
Use self-tanner to contour
One way to say goodbye to daily makeup is to contour your face using self-tanner, also known as ‘tantouring.’ While this may require a skilled hand, you can easily achieve a sculpted look by applying a face-friendly self-tan with a makeup brush in the areas you generally use bronzer.
As the tan stays for a while, you won’t need to worry about contouring your face, or even bothering with makeup for a few weeks!
@ccclarke TANtour crew raise your hands 🙌🏼 PART 2 UPLOADING SHORTLY 💫 #tutorial #faketan
Everything showers are still in though
We can’t speak about this trend without mentioning ‘everything showers.’ If you’re not interested in some of these examples, then the once-a-week everything shower might just be what you need to jumpstart this way of thinking.
As you may have deduced, an everything shower is a long, self-care cleansing ritual that encompasses everything. During this process, you’ll dry brush, do a deep conditioning hair mask, and wash your face before turning the shower on.
Only then, do you hop in, shampoo your hair, exfoliate, condition your hair, wash your face again and pop on a face mask. You can shave if you want, and then you can scrub your body clean.
Following your extensive shower, TikTok beauty gurus recommend moisturising your entire body and doing your weekly skincare routine.
And that’s it, your everything shower done and dusted! I find that this process is the ultimate ‘high maintenance’ ritual that sets me up for the week, so I can be low maintenance.
Is this for you?
The beauty of this trend or lifestyle is that you can adapt it to your needs. Whatever you feel you can do to make your day-to-day a breeze, you can incorporate it into your be high maintenance to be low maintenance routine.
Overall, this trend can help with your confidence and mental state. So why not give it a try?
ALSO SEE:
Why you need serums in your skincare routine and how to use them
Feature Image: Pexels
