In order to test one of my own theories this morning, I decided to go to work without drying my hair.

Some of you may be gasping. Some of you may be shrugging.

Heretofore, I have always believed it to be a completely unprofessional look for people (read: women) to show up to work with a wet head. I know it’s a double standard and it sucks but if a man has short hair and shows up to work with his hair neatly combed but still damp, it looks nice. Plus, you know the guy has washed at least one part of his body.

Not so for women, unless you also have a short boy cut. Otherwise, it looks like you were in a hurry and/or too lazy to bother with your hair.  Normally I don’t judge stuff like this because I don’t regularly paint my nails, I don’t wear heels a ton, and really, I vacillate back and forth between being high maintenance and not. Some days I really take my time with my appearance and others, I walk out of the house with nothing but SPF lotion on my face. (Is this against Girly Girl Credo? More than likely.)

But for whatever reason, wet hair on a woman has always signified to me a real lack of professionalism and I don’t know from where it stems. It just doesn’t look right to me.

This morning, I was in a particular rush so I decided to wing it and go to work with still-damp hair. I was a little upset with myself for breaking my own judgment/rule but I really couldn’t lose another minute. I had even put some cream/mousse in my hair, hoping that it would dry with a nice tousled, effortless look.

Well, we reap what we sow, don’t we? My hair dried lifeless with not very much curl or body to it, so it ended up just looking like ass instead of fluffy and bouncy – or even shaped, for that matter. I ran a brush through it hoping to give it some oomph but I think that just angered it. In the end, the saving grace became tucking my hair behind my ears and that’ll just have to do. Now I know that when in doubt, although I don’t see why I’d be in doubt after this, always blow-dry my hair.

In my younger years, I used to put my longer wet hair into one French braid or two regular pig-tail braids and then my hair drying flat on top was fine. It was super cute. I wish I had a photo of that. (Note: if I find one such picture, I’ll come back and post it.) Then and only then is not blow-drying acceptable.

Edit: found the photo!

Me in my dorm sophomore year - webcam pic!

Heck, I’ll post a poll, since there is just a matter of opinion and perspective. Whatcha think?

I know I’ve learned my lesson.