7. Taking care of yourself in a healthy and economic way
We all seek a way to please ourselves, looking for a way to take care of our image so that it is reflected in the mirror exactly as we want. We do not feel beautiful in several ways, we do not feel pleasant when we look at the image of our face or our body reflected in the mirror. So everyone in their own way tends to work on their physical appearance.
The reason that leads us to look the best is often given by society itself, by globalization, by the standards, and we are led to change our appearance with various and different practices. Sometimes, however, we simply take care of our body and our appearance to pamper ourselves and give us a moment of relax, a personal moment, in one of our reserved spaces, a sort of sancta sanctorum.
In the centuries that history tells us, physical embellishment has always been present, let’s think for example of ancient Egypt where queens and pharaohs adorned their faces with natural substances that were the equivalent of our make-up, coloured nails with enamels and enjoyed baths in donkey’s milk or steam, as for example in the famous thermal baths of ancient Rome. Even the deceased were embellished, washed, treated and made up to look their best in the presence of their gods.
The care of our body is therefore certainly something important, something that each of us does even minimally, whether it is to enjoy a day at the spa or a morning at the hairdresser. In this advice those aspects of taking care of oneself, which are more usual in the day or in the life of an ordinary person, will be observed, in order to understand how to save money by continuing to pamper us.
To date it is no longer the case to make distinctions between women and men, as we all use more or less the same practices to cure our body. Maybe once it was only the woman who took care of herself in a more meticulous way, while today men, at times, almost tend to be more feminine than women themselves. Therefore the situations taken into consideration will be expressed for both genders.
Starting from the head, we usually tend to go to the hairdresser or the barber once a month.
Consider first a hairdresser for women. A styling in Italian beauty salons costs on average € 18.50, depending on the type of salon you go to and the skill of the hairdresser. A haircut instead comes on average € 30, including styling, although in some cases you can even get to € 40. The hair dyeing, which inevitably needs to be done monthly, can cost an average € 50, depending on which technique is chosen, mèches, balayage or other. So an Italian woman will spend about € 80 a month at the hairdresser.
And if instead we wanted to opt for a less expensive choice? There are many products that can be used at home, such as dyes and hair treatments, which can be purchased in supermarkets or special centres, and if you are brave enough you can also buy special utensils to brush, cut and thin your hair.
The initial kit to buy must be made up of a brush (€ 10), professional scissors (€ 20), often also containing a comb or a pair of extra scissors, scissors for thinning hair (€ 10), kit for dyeing composed of brush and small bowl (€ 5), disposable gloves (€ 4) and hair care products (€ 20 on average). Spending initially about € 70, for tools that will last for years and products that last for months, which is a cut with styling from the hairdresser.
Then as regards the hair dyeing we must consider that a package of hair dye costs on average € 5, some of which also offer the kit with brush and gloves, shampoo and cream. This will be the only cost to be incurred monthly.
THIS ADVICE WILL ALLOW YOU TO SAVE FROM € 15 TO € 75 PER MONTH.
Nowadays even men show to really care about their look and in addition to devoting themselves to fitness and nutrition, they are often very demanding about their hairstyle and hair care, and some often even about their beard.
A man in Italy normally spends about € 20 per month to the barber shop only for the haircut, which sometimes is twice during the month, depending on the person and his needs. There are also those who love to dye their hair and for this they spend about € 30, although even in this case, as for women, it depends on the technique used by the hairstylist and the hair must be dyed monthly because of the famous re-growth. Finally comes the beard treatment, which costs about € 15, depending also on the products used in the case of famous hipster beards. So every month a man will spend around € 65 to embellish and take care of his beard and hair.
With those € 65 spent monthly, you could buy an electric shaving and hair shaving machine, but it will only have to be bought once. Even men could buy scissors (€ 10) or shaving brushes (€ 10) which often also includes a conditioner for it. It is also possible to buy beard care products (about € 25). All this for a total of € 110 which, however, should no longer be spent.
The only monthly expense to do is that of the dye, at an average cost of € 10, if needed, and shaving foam (€ 2).
THIS ADVICE WILL ALLOW YOU TO SAVE FROM € 50 TO € 63 TO MONTH.
Now, another interesting topic for both genres is facial treatment, from the appointment with the beautician to the daily creams, passing then to make-up.
Eyebrows, mustaches and other facial hair, are the classic thing to which, at least once a month, we have to dedicate an hour of our time going to the beautician, who will make us hurt but more appreciable to society and to ourselves.
An appointment for facial waxing by a beautician, in Italy, costs on average € 15, while buying the wax and making it on your own will cost an average € 10 per pack, which we could reuse even for other delicate parts – usually the face, bikini area and underarms waxes are the same product.
Speaking about creams and facial treatments, using famous and expensive brands we will spend about € 50, considering creams, masks and eye contour. Sometimes even if a product is expensive it is not really healthy for our body, like we said bout food at the supermarket. Some branded products, especially make-up, are full of chemicals and metals that damage our skin instead of making it more beautiful or fit. Furthermore a lot of people are allergic to nickel which is in 90% of the products we buy.
Many companies produce cosmetics and creams based on vegetables that absolutely do not harm our body, but it still would be better to prepare your own treatments, such as a scrub composed of honey, lemon and cane sugar, suitable for those who have an oily skin. Using ingredients that you have at home, such as fruit, sugar, baking soda, coffee, you have no expense but the one made at the supermarket to buy the food necessary for our needs.
Finally let’s consider the make-up, for which we also can say “not because it costs a fortune then it is the best”. There are so many companies that over the years and because of their fame now sell cosmetics at exorbitant prices, while others that cost less are better, as well as in the price and in the composition. For example, a YSL mascara can cost around € 40, and is composed of nickel and other chemical materials that does not allow the skin to breathe, while a mascara composed of plant elements, such as those made by Yves Rocher, can cost € 16. Let us not be deceived by the price that often does not mean “quality”[1].
For the rest of body we have to consider about the same things. Body treatments can cost up to about € 100, and go to a beautician on a monthly basis to shave legs, arms and groin costs € 45 on average.
Home-made waxing would us to save a lot of money, considering that you can buy a pack of wax for around € 10, while for the rest of the body products we could simply change the brand, raising the quality level. If we are really good we could also consider the idea of producing wax at home with kitchen ingredients, such as Arab wax, one of the best on the market is made with honey and sugar.
Let’s consider then an adult woman who goes to the beautician every month to depilate her whole body, uses products for body care and uses non-vegetable make up, but normal cosmetics. The cost of full treatment at the beauty centre will cost around € 60 (€ 45 for body and € 15 for face), the monthly cost for body care products reaches a cost of € 100 (body moisturizer, scrub, hand cream, exfoliating) and that for face care reaches a cost of € 50 (toning, cleansing milk, face cream, make-up remover). Finally, make-up will cost about € 100 (pencil, mascara, lipstick, foundation and concealer for dark circles). All these products and treatments will steal from our pockets € 310.
If the same woman wanted to save money, she could buy cheaper products and cosmetics, paying about € 100 for both creams and make-up. In addition, she could prepare some DIY wax for just € 10.
THIS ADVICE WILL ALLOW WOMENS TO SAVE OF ABOUT € 200 PER MONTH.
Now let’s consider an average man who monthly goes to the beautician for a facial treatment (€ 10 without considering moustaches) and body (€ 45), buys products for the face such as moisturizing cream, exfoliating cream and eye contour, spending about € 50, reaching a total of € 110. If the same man decides to change the products he uses, spending up to € 30 and shaving with a razor that costs € 15, using tweezers for his eyebrows (€ 3 only once), his pockets would have a great benefit.
THIS ADVICE WILL
ALLOW MEN TO SAVE € 60 PER MONTH.
