How do men feel about women who don't expend much effort on appearances

shutterstock

When I was about 5 years old I used to like eating tuna fish salad for lunch. I didn't know how to make tuna salad; my mom had always made it for me and I had always enjoyed it. One day, I had a babysitter looking after me. It was lunch time; she asked me what I wanted and I said, "tuna." It was a fair enough request, so she began gathering ingredients. She asked me what I wanted in my tuna salad and I told her that I liked it plain.

This is when things started to get weird.

"So no celery or anything?" She asked.
"No, just plain."
She was a little puzzled but went along. "So just the mayo and tuna?"

At this point, I didn't understand what she wasn't getting about my request; it seemed pretty simple to me. "No, literally just the tuna on a plate is fine," I told her. [probably didn't use the word "literally" at age five but just go with it]

Now she was really confused. "So, you want the tuna, straight out of the can... like a cat?"

At this point I just stared at her, blankly, for a moment. I had never owned a cat. I had no idea what they ate. I knew I certainly wasn't a cat. And what was this business about a can? I just wanted lunch. "Err, uhh, yeah... that sounds right."

She shook her head a little and then proceeded to dump a can of tuna fish on to a plate and placed it in front of me on the kitchen table. I looked down at my lunch. It looked disgusting. I looked up at her. She looked back at me with a mix of curiosity and bewilderment.

For better or worse, it was in this moment that my mom got home and walked into the kitchen. I won't take you through the dialogue that ensued because this introduction is getting ridiculous but my mom was really confused as to why the babysitter had basically given me cat food for lunch, I was confused as to what horrible things my babysitter had done to make the tuna so disgusting and unappealing, and the babysitter probably thought that my mom and I were pulling some bizarre, psychological prank on her. It was a disaster. I don't think my mom ever hired her again but years later we got to the bottom of what had happened when I randomly helped my mom make tuna salad one time.

The point is, I liked tuna salad a certain way, but I had absolutely no idea what kind of preparation was required to reach the outcome that I enjoyed. I couldn't see the individual ingredients and hadn't actually put much thought into how it was prepared so I just sort of assumed that the tuna I liked was the norm, the baseline, the unadulterated way that it came. You could dress it up more if you wanted but I didn't like dressing it up. I liked it "plain."

I think most guys think about about girls putting time into their appearance the same way my five-year-old self thought about the preparation of tuna fish salad. It's something that we, frankly, don't put much thought into and when we do, our understanding of what needs to be done to achieve the outcomes that we are most fond of is so profoundly lacking that it is basically useless for us to give our opinions on the level of preparation that we prefer.

But if you're still reading, this is the actual answer I wrote in response to this question before remembering the tuna fish incident. Enjoy.

Most guys don't spend much time thinking about a girl's clothes or makeup. If something about your appearance makes us think about either of those things, you're probably doing something wrong.

Scenario 1: If I see a girl and think, "she must put a lot of time into her appearance," it's probably because she's trying way too hard to pull off an outfit that just doesn't work and/or she caked on way too much makeup in an unskilled manner.

Scenario 2: I see a girl and think, "yikes, that girl should've put a little more effort in this morning." She might look okay; she might even look pretty good, all things considered, but if that was my first thought when I saw her, chances are she is not looking her personal best.

Scenario 3: I see a girl and think, "wow, she's hot." I can tell you one thing that I absolutely, positively have never, and will NEVER think as my next thought; "I'd really like to find out exactly how much effort this girl expends in order to achieve this appearance so I can compare it to the effort expended by comparably attractive women because that will be a factor in deciding whether or not I want to have anything to do with her." To reiterate, that has never crossed my mind. (Unfortunately, now after writing this answer, that is probably the first thing I will think after seeing an attractive woman from now on, but I digress...) (thanks a lot Quora)

The point is, if you look good, you look good. Guys generally don't know (even if they think they do) or care much about how much effort was expended to achieve the outcome, they just focus on the outcome. If the outcome makes a guy think about the preparation process, there is probably something that can be done to change the process such that it will improve the outcome.

And remember, a guy who says he likes girls who don't put too much effort into their appearance is like a five-year-old kid asking for plain tuna fish. Nod and smile, but whatever you do in response to this statement, do not stop wearing flattering clothing, using appropriate amounts of makeup (if that's your thing), etc., and please, please, please, DO NOT serve cat food to a five-year-old, no matter what he says. You will lose your babysitting job. I guarantee it.