no boys allowed in the room!!!!

this thread actually got me back to wearing skirts and dresses after Laurel succinctly articulated all the problems i've had with pants.

Matte, generally, tho if I had a place to wear shiny tights, I prob would. I am unfashionably fond of patterned tights, too.

that's adventurous! i'm self-conscious about my legs being thick, so i only wear black tights.

The problem is that I don't go out on the town much and I can't wear anything but scrubs to work. Another problem is that I tend to get unsightly stubble about four hours or so after shaving, which means that casual sundress/sunskirt wear would be a problem. I'm going to be doing intake paperwork for flu clinics again this year, so I'll be able to wear skirts at least some of the time.

I haven't worn a pair of tights in about 2 years. If I wear a dress or skirt, I wear leggings underneath. I think that was something I gave up, after the band broke up - dammit, I *never* have to wear a pair of tights again.

But thick black tights are super comfy in cold weather.

I have to wear tights because of the aforementioned body hair problem, unless I can get somewhere to shave in the middle of the day.

Yeah there are not a lot of opportunities in the world of workers compensation law to wear shiny tights, unfortunately. I did wear aqua tights to an MCLE seminar yesterday, though.

oh, i don't wear skirts or dresses without tights unless they're ankle length, because i'll sometimes go weeks without shaving my legs because i often don't give a shit.

I have never shaved my legs in my life and I certainly don't plan on starting now!

It's actually quite funny, when I started working here, they offered me a free Laser Hair Removal as some kind of perk (also practice for the nurses), and I just shrugged and showed them "there's really not enough here to make that worth your while."

I never used to shave my legs and now I have buckled to societal and professional pressure. I take a break during the winter at least.

Tights!! Patterned tend to make me look like a have a dread disease (or at least I'm afraid they do). But I love weird colors. Mustard and turquoise and orange-red and so on.

I have pale skin and dark hair. I also have enough body hair to make clinical hirsutism a possible diagnosis--I have dark wiry hair on my feet, arms, hands and legs, and what amounts to a full beard on my chin (it takes 30 minutes a day to pluck it so I just shave it instead).

I like tights with vertical woven stripes, but I find that they run too quickly.

(Oh, and yes I do shave all of that hair off.)

I dunno. I have always found the western world's obsession with the idea that women be HAIRLESS everywhere except on head pretty strange and kind of inexplicable. (Then again, I find lots of society's rules and obligations WRT women's appearance pretty strange and kind of inexplicable.)

But on the other hand, I'm also aware of my own privilege WRT that, in terms of I'm not so sure it would be easy for me to resist the societal imperative to be hairless if I wasn't a pale skinned pale haired anglo with almost minimal body hair. It's a strange one.

That's not a female thing--the western world has preferred hairless to hairy for most of recorded history. Hairy is considered animalistic and threatening.

Huh. That's odd because I was always under the impression that body hair (& facial hair) was considered erotic, a sign of sexual prowess in men.

OK, I didn't necessarily share that view for a long time but it did seem fairly prevalent.

(personally this has changed as I aged - I used to find hairless men attractive but as I've got older I've definitely started to find beards, leg hair, belly hair, arm hair - OMG I can be reduced to a smouldering pile of lust by the arm hair on say Erol Alkan or someone.)

ha hem. Purely theoretically of course.

Not sure about every ol' civilization, obv, but the Greeks def glorified hairlessness in women and men, as did, I'm pretty sure, the Egyptians.

I always think of those fantastic displays of masculine hair by Persians, Assyrians, Turks, etc.

But now I've started thinking about Turkish arm hair I'll be here all night.

Huh. That's odd because I was always under the impression that body hair (& facial hair) was considered erotic, a sign of sexual prowess in men.

No, it was considered obscene, not erotic.

By whom? By you? By your culture? By this specific time and place?

For gods sake, after 10 years on ILX or whatever, you should have realised that the specific cultural time and place mores under which you live are completely variable and change from place to place and time to time.

Kate, here's a compromise I go with. I haven't been to a hairdresser since 1989 (1987 if you count cutting) so I know your reluctance. i also despise short hair on me so what I do is layers. they're tough to straight cut by yourself but if you pull your hair up in a tight pony at the middle of your hairline at your forehead you can then chop vertically into it at slightly different angles as much as you like. when you undo the pony tail you've lost no length at all but you've gained a whole bunch of volume and a style you can smooth down, shag up or make it straight up punk with enough product A++++++

I wish I had the guts to cut my own hair, but with short fine hair, its a risky thing, I'd mess it up completely.

I cut my own hair for years and I told my self "this looks so no wave" but in reality what it looked like is "I cut my own hair."

When I worked at the donut shop and would have to come to class w/out showering after, with lard and flour & glaze on my hair & person, I also told myself I looked "no wave." Thank god my friend introduced me to the idea of "no wave" in high school or I'd have spent my life thinking I looked like an unsalvagable slob.

Or this one was good too: Maybe people put flour on their hair...at the Batcave.

After the Rephresh party last night, I have pretty much decided to keep my long hair because, like, IDM hair is totally cool, it's long, it's beautiful, you can stick it in a topknot up on the top of your head when dancing or rocking out with your 303 like the dudes onstage last night. After last night, I realised pretty much that all those Rephlex acid dudes are basically just hippies with analogue electronics and super long hair is totally the way forward.

It has to be cut straight, though. Layers are so not IDM.

idm??

Stupid pseudo-genre of electronic music. Basically acid house techno dudes who took too much acid and turned into hippies. They all have incredibly long, gorgeous, flowing hair like out of Breck commercials.

ahh. well long layers can still be a++++. i figure if i can still put them back in a ponytail theyre ok

I've been trying to grow out the layers that I used to have. They're almost gone--they have an inch or so to go. The bangs that I'd had since I was a toddler are almost gone, too, thank goodness. Now I'd like to try growing my hair down to the bottom of my shoulder blades, something I've never been able to do. Got any advice? Regular cutting of split ends are urgent and key, I know, but that doesn't seem to help.

Hey ladies. Birth control question. Is it ok to run two packs of the pill together, for Apri or Reclipsen (both are .15mg desogestrel and .03mg ethinyl estradiol)? I used to do it with Microgynon which I think is very slightly different. Can't imagine there's any problem with it but I thought I'd ask you guys :)

Do you mean skip your placebo week and just start taking the next pack? If so, yeah, go ahead. They're monophasic so it should work well.

I'm a women's health nurse, btw.

Yup, that's what I meant. cheers!

While on the topic, have any of you in the US had any problems doing this or with b.c. pills in general, due to only being able to get one pack at a time (from the pharmacy) and only a certain amount of time after you got the last pack because of the policy of the insurance providers? When I first got here I didn't realise they only let you have one pack at a time so I got stuck HAVING to go and pick up each pack in a two-day window. I tried to get an extra pack so I could have a spare one - AS PER the instructions given with it!! - even talked to the insurance provider but no luck. I mean I did buy one at full price so I had a spare one (and also so I had the option of running them together) but is this typical? What if you're going on holiday and need to take a second pack with you?
In the UK I could get 6 or 12 months' supply at a time (free) and do what I like with them. I may have moaned about this before...

why would you want to take 2 birth controls and skip your placebo week? Is this a common thing, what does it do for you?

so you don't have a period, loads of people do it afaik especially if you've got a vacation or something coming up.

no placebo week = no period

NtRVP, check out your local Planned Parenthood affiliate. They probably won't take your insurance for pharmacy items like pills, but they're usually cheaper than paying full price at the pharmacy.

oh, cool! You don't get weird mood swings or anything? Do you ever miss your period in the emotional sense during those times (this is only 1/4 of a serious question)?

the estrogen is only in the pills to give you a period; it's the progesterone that's doing the actual work of preventing babbies.

as in you regret the bloating, cramps, moodiness, etc?

Oh hey. I should probably know this, but, you know how the leaflet is always v. keen to stress that the withdrawal bleed is not a real period, so don't panic that you're pregnant if you don't get one? Is the reverse true - is it possible (I mean, should be v unlikely if you've not been missing pills, but, possible) to be pregnant even if you've had a withdrawal bleed?

I skip withdrawal bleeds fairly often cz I get stomach pain/nausea/headaches on the week off, but I like the reassuring sense of blood = no babbies even if it isn't true, so I don't like to skip more than one in a row

is it possible...to be pregnant even if you've had a withdrawal bleed
heck yes it is. I've seen women 20 week along (that's halfway!!) with regular periods from their (almost) religious birth control pill use.

Oh great, a new thing to worry about! Well, thanks anyway, I've been wondering that for a while.

sorry to terrify you.

I've never had a pharmacy let me get only one pack at a time...that sounds like a pain in the ass.

Haha no, it's ok. It was not a question of immediate relevance (although, maybe...).

(xpost)

Do yourself a favor and never watch the show on TLC "I Didn't Know I was Pregnant".

sounds like it's more the insurance company's rule re: one pack at a time, right? you'd think it would be in their best interest to have you not pregnant and consuming costly prenatal care.