How long do you take to get ready? - YouLookFab Forum

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How long do you take to get ready?

BrieN

Veteran

I have never had a practiced routine for getting ready in the morning; part of it is my nature but part of it is not giving myself enough time. For those of you who are very practiced at this, how long do you take to get ready - shower, hair, makeup and dressed? Is there an order to getting ready that is the most efficient? Any tips for pulling it all together?

General

45 replies

Latest reply was from Gigi

Lisa

Veteran

It takes me about an hour to get ready and I follow the same order everyday:
shower
select outfit and dress
make-up
blowdry hair
eat breakfast
flat iron hair

The longest part of my routine, is blowdrying my hair, but that's only because it's very long. The fastest part is putting on make-up, I typically can do this in under five minutes. And to speed up my outfit selection, I typically think about what I want to wear that day, while taking a shower.

rachylou

Veteran

5 min to half hour...another reason my style is RATE I don't like morning showers. Too cold!

Maneera

(website)

Veteran

I don't go to an office because I work from home, but I do have a routine.

1) Select Outfit & lay it out on the bed
2) Shower
3) Skincare (cleanse, tone, moisturize)
4) Haircare (wash alternate day, couple mins for hair serum and scrunch my waves into place)
5) Get Dressed

It takes me no more than 15 mins to do all that. It's probably because I sport a wash-and-go hairstyle and also don't wear much makeup (only eyeliner and tinted lip balm).

Sara L.

Veteran

It takes me 30 minutes to get ready and another 10 to eat breakfast. I lay out my outfit the night before. I shower, get dressed, put on makeup, blow dry my hair, and then figure out shoes and jewelry. I take loooooong morning showers and it actually only takes me about 10-15 minutes to put on makeup and do my hair. Maybe another 5 to figure out shoes and jewelry.

Diana

Veteran

I can get ready very quickly in the mornings (10-15 mins not counting coffee/breakfast, which I like to linger over a little), because I shower in the evenings and I hardly ever wear makeup or do anything with my hair except brush it. I am not a morning person AT ALL so I value any extra time in bed, LOL.

My normal morning routine is:
-drag my butt out of bed
-brush teeth, wash face, put on moisturizer w/ sunscreen, run brush through hair (5' tops). This is always the first thing I do in the morning; for some reason I can't function until I've done it.

-make coffee/breakfast and eat it, pack lunch, check YLF, email, etc. I generally do this in my pjs. (anywhere from 10-45')

-get dressed - I don't plan outfits ahead of time in general so sometimes I try on a couple of things before I'm happy, but honestly if the first couple of tries don't work I'm likely to just grab a FFBO and call it a day. (5-10')
-very rarely put on a swipe of mascara or lip color (<1')
-snap a WIW if I feel like it/have time.
-grab coat and outerwear on my way out the door

catgirl

Veteran

Like Diana, I would rather sleep than get ready for the day, and I can be very quick - I only wash my hair every few days and I tend to stumble into my outfit for the day. I'd say 20 minutes is my average.

The biggest tip from me is to have the most low-maintenance haircut possible.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

30 minutes: shower, wash hair (which I do each day), weigh myself (which I also do each day), moisturize the body, select an outfit, apply make-up, make sure I like my outfit and that the feet will be happy.

Gail

Veteran

40-45 mins
Select outfit. shower, make up, dress and blow dry my hair which I takes the longest.

Laura (rhubarbgirl)

(website)

Veteran

If I have to both shower and wash and dry my hair, it's going to be 30 minutes at least. When my hair was short I could cut that down significantly. I usually shower in the evenings and only wash my hair every few days after working out.

Assuming I have my outfit picked out already, I can manage makeup, dressing, hair-fixing and general morning stuff in 15-20 minutes. Add another 10-15 for breakfast and coffee and I'm good to go. I prefer to have more time than that when I can, though. I am not a quick-to-wake morning person, and I want to make sure I'm really with it before I get in the car.

jill58

Veteran

30 minutes. Shower, wash and dry hair. Apply make-up and dress. I can do it in much less if necessary.

Firecracker (Sharan)

Veteran

An hour, give or take 15 minutes. That's not counting breakfast.

Anonymous

I can be dressed and out the door in exactly 10 minutes.

I shower and wash my hair the evening before.
I lay out my clothes the evening before (including jewelry).
I get up in the morning, wash and moisturize my face, dress, and I'm gone. I leave the house before 6 am so I have to be strict about timing.

milehighstyle (Linda)

Veteran

30 minutes if I'm doing minimal hair styling and makeup. More like an hour if I'm doing more makeup and a thorough blow out and flat iron hairstyle. I'm starting to embrace the messy waves look for my hair when I think about all the time I waste blow drying.

Dee

Veteran

30 minutes or so, less on days when I have to rush. Get up, shower, apply moisturizer, get dressed, scrunch hair and (sometimes) apply mascara. I only blow dry when it's around freezing, because my short hair dries within 15 mins or so. Chug coffee during this process!

Jane

Veteran

40 mins optimum. 20 mins minimum. 30 mins okay

Kettle on. Weigh myself. Shower and was hair (every day) Make tea. Undies on. Skin care. Dry hair. Make up. Dress.

I can cuddle dogs, DS and DH with 40 mins. If less time, cuddles reduced!

Sometimes I need to top my my make up (mascara) later and I buy tea and granola bar at the station and have on train.

Jane

Veteran

PS fascinating to read every ones routine!

Anonymous

Same as Firecracker. Breakfast is always first - no matter what's on for the day. And I can doodle over that , drinking coffee and reading blogs, email etc as long as time allows. My makeup and skin routine probably takes the longest of the entire shower/dress/hair routine. If my eyesight were better, I'm sure I could be a lot faster with it - lol.

Aziraphale

Veteran

I like to have an hour, but I can do it in a half hour if I don't wash my hair and take my coffee with me in a travel mug.

Most of my (weekday) mornings look like this:

- shower (sometimes wash hair, sometimes not)
- throw pjs back on; towel on head
- go downstairs for coffee; surf web, read top news stories; check YLF
- blow dry hair partway
- make toast or pour cereal
- put on moisturizer/sunscreen
- go back upstairs (with toast) to get dressed while cream sinks in
- come back down to do makeup
- realize toast is still in bedroom; go retrieve it
- go back downstairs to do makeup
- decide that hair looks bad; plug in straightening iron
- realize I've misplaced my ring/phone/shoes/random item
- wander around house with toast and/or coffee cup, searching for missing item
- sort out the problem one of my kids inevitably has every morning
- lose coffee cup/toast
- remember I've left the iron on, go back and try to fix hair
- either it's successful in the first two minutes, or I make it worse; if the latter, give up in disgust and find a hat
- realize I'm five minutes late and dash out the door

My condensed morning routine:

- quick shower, definitely no hair washing
- put actual clothes on, including shoes; skip accessories
- make coffee/do face while coffee is brewing
- put in toast
- grab shoes, phone, backpack
- put coffee in travel mug, toast on a plate, and head out the door

The second routine is way more efficient, but much less fun.

RobinF

Veteran

Wow, you all are impressive! I thought I was pretty fast but a lot of you are faster. It takes me 30-40 minutes and I set my clothes out the night before. Shower (wash hair about every 3 days), brush teeth, put stuff in hair, do makeup etc, dry hair (not totally dry, being curly I let it air dry the last bit), get dressed. Then I like to have some time to drink a cup of coffee and watch the news but that's not included in my 30-40 minutes.

El Cee

Veteran

I can be ready in about 30 minutes, which includes showering/washing hair, skin care, styling hair, dressing and getting myself a cup of coffee. I mostly work from home, so I can break for a meal later in the morning. I do prep breakfast and pack lunches for my husband and sister (who is developmentally disabled and lives with us), but I do not include that in my personal "get ready" time (which comes after those chores). Oh yes… I also feed the kitty.

Anonymous

Great thread BrieN, it's inspiring to an undisciplined morning slacker like me to read everyone's routines.

I feed the kitties, make brekkie, then sit around reading YLF and sipping coffee for a very long time.

At the last possible second I shower, throw on some slap and an outfit and bolt out the door, hoping traffic won't make me late.

rabbit

Veteran

From timing ourselves getting up in the wee hours to make it out of the house to get to the airport I've figured out that I need 45 minutes to be safe, and 5 of that is still lying in bed looking at the ceiling and psyching myself up with sleeping cats piled on me :), the last 15 minutes is luggage loading, remembering all the details he forgot, and taking care of the house/cats.

On a regular weekday it's more like 30-40 minutes, of which the first 15 minutes is cat stuff -- food, litter, five minute walk to sniff around in the fenced in yard so they don't constantly meow for the rest of the process. 5-10 minutes to dress, 15 minutes for makeup and hair. I usually shower the night before and can leave the house in 20 minutes from waking if I'm only going to the gym and makeup is really minimal. Breakfast is a banana and juice if anything -- I'm all about early lunch.

Watson241

I wash and blow-dry my hair at night so my morning routine is cut down significantly

columbine(erin)

Veteran

My hair and makeup takes fifteen minutes, but that's usually broken up over an hour. I wash hair and pick outfit night before. In the morning I get big kids their breakfast, put up my hair, feed the baby, change and dress him, wash and do my makeup, pack diaper bag, do breakfast dishes, then eat breakfast if I have time.

marianna

Veteran

I like to take my time in the morning. I like an hour at least, but if need be I can get ready faster. But I enjoy a slow paced morning.

My routine:
- Take dogs outside
- Make coffee, drink coffee while checking social media. Sometimes eat breakfast with coffee.
- Pack lunch for work
- Shower (wash hair daily)
- Pick outfit and get dressed
- Do hair and make-up - usually full face of make-up and blow-dry and straighten hair
- Out the door

Ledonna N.

Veteran

15-20 I'm rate also. I also have a "uniform " for work.

Shower A bit of Shea Butter and lipgloss.

Off to work

Windchime

Veteran

30 minutes to shower, get dressed, dry hair and put on makeup. One hour to do all the above plus:
Let dog out
Feed kitty
Make coffee
Prepare/eat breakfast
And of course check YLF!

Colette

Veteran

I need an hour minimum, not counting breakfast, reading, housework or taking care of our dog. And that is only if I have my outfit picked out beforehand. If I'm washing my hair, I have to add more time because blow drying takes forever.

Karie

(website)

Veteran

1 1/2 hrs., but 30 minutes of that is taken up with exercising. I am a morning person, and my morning goes like this:

Get up, feed the dogs, take the dogs out (10 min.)
exercise (30 min.)
breakfast (10 min.)
The remaining time:
shower
get dressed (I pick out my outfit the night before)
make-up and hair
make a snack for mid-morning (a green smoothie)
pack up lunch (I get this ready the night before)
and out the door I go!

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