Since leaving accountancy, I can say with gratitude and gladness that I enjoy just about everything I do.However, there has been one thing ... one irritating, time-consuming interminable activity which I have to grumblingly go through each-and-every day ... washing my mane!
I don't mind having a shower, brushing my teeth or gargling, but - oh the tediousness of mane washing!
Do any of you dear readers feel like this?
First it is the shampooing - TWICE - then the repetetive rinsing, which always goes in my ears. Finally the ultimate unending ritual of the drying.
When you have a neck as long as mine - what more need I say!
On the other side of the neck, our eldest daughter Nexi seems to find enlightenment and bliss staring into a misty mirror, manedrier in hand. She not only dries her mane, she styles it! 
Necky Becky is grumpy about her own grooming, (apart from dying her fur pink), yet surprisingly helpful with her baby brother. Littl' Nicky in turn very conscientiously brushes his toy giraffe Goo-Goo.It's funny, isn't it, how an uninteresting topic like mane-washing can turn philosophical. Take the whole concept of beauty, for instance. Is beauty in the eye of the beholder, the eye of the beheld, or the mind of both?
My glamorous sister, Nektareeni, obviously spends a lot of time (and money) on her looks. I think she looks fine. Her partner Girth worships her as giraffe goddess!
But for me, no one can compare with my Maureen. Her natural inner glow, her sweet spirit shining through her eyes, and that wonderful enigmatic smile ...
For Maureen, I wash my mane!
33 comments:
Love creates many things. Certainly giraffes have long necks, but Raph, they have long legs too.
Love your sister's earring.
True, Barbara, but they don't take as long to dry! (Our shower cubicles have all round hot-air fur driers, but the annoying thing about manes is they have to be finished separately so they look right.)
Thank you, I will tell Nektareeni. She adores earrings and shoes.
Raph,
It may be a pain in the neck but MUCH nicer to have a mane rather than be a 'bit thin' on top!!!
I'm sure you look far more handsome with your mane washed regularly and no doubt Maureen appreciates your efforts. I do agree though, it is a tedious business and I can see how skinheads might have more leisure time - but they aren't very attractive on the whole. Many thanks for the advice about clicking and dragging photos to get them where you want them. I am not brave enough to try that yet, and if they are actually on my blog I am quite relieved!!
I am sure you look even more handsome when your mane is washed and groomed well, and that Maureen appreciates your efforts. Otherwise she might even find it necessary one day to say 'Wind your neck in'!! Heaven forbid! Thankyou for the advice on clicking and dragging to get photos where you want them. Sadly, I am not yet brave enough to try it and am still relieved when they appear on my blog at all!
That's a thought, Derrick! I shall focus on the positive when I next wash my mane.
Thank you Heather!
I suppose I could try a sort of crenellated mane style, like the battlements on castles. That would halve the washing and drying time ...
Wow - is your sister glamorous or is she glamorous! What a lot of time she must take with her grooming.
I don't think you need two shampooings before rinsing - I read somewhere that that is the shampoo manufacturer#s way of making us use more shampoo.
Do you use tea tree shampoo? It sounds appropriate for a cameleopardian.
Just thought - if your female cameleopardians were to wear a necklacs would it go round once or lots of times?
Loved the wackiness of the post and the illustrations :-). Many thanks.
Greetings from London.
Weaver, I shall pass your compliments to Nektareeni - she will be very pleased!
Do I really only need to shampoo once! That would revolutionize my life ...
Tea tree shampoo? Love the sound of that. I'm currently using Giruff, an excellent brand with an anti-dandruff agent built in.
I've never worn necklaces myself. Girth does, and some of the ladies in our family do - I'll ask them about the wrapping round the neck amounts!
Thank you, Cuban in London!
I love the word 'wackiness', it's one of my favourite words!
I have a long mane, and sometimes I find it a pain.
Are scarves an option for you?
Yes, Pamela - we do wear scarves! I don't think it would work to cover unwashed mane though - to cover all one's neck makes one rather warm.
My sister Nektareeni likes to wear floaty silk scarves, and in winter we all don our woolly scarves and neckwarmers.
Weaver - I asked Nektareeni about necklaces. She told me that to keep single necklaces high up on one's neck there are little pads somewhat like Velcro on the backs of some of the beads. These cling to our neck fur to stop the necklace sliding down.
It is easier to have lots of separate necklaces spaced down the neck rather than one long one wrapped round and round.
How cute! I came over here from Chris' blog, and I love all the giraffes here! Will be back to look some more.
Thank you Bindu. I've just been over to your blog - love your mirrors and glacier photos!
In reply to your comment on my blog Raph - I think you expressed your feelings perfectly and I understand exactly what you mean. I don't make my pieces for others to admire - I do them because I want to, but if someone does admire them that is a bonus. Fortunately I don't have to make my living by my work. I think I would be much slimmer if that were so!!
Yes, Heather - my thoughts on creativity too!
The urge to create is a must, a passion, with a strong kind of spiritual dimension, and gives its own exhilarating satisfaction. Sharing the process and results is a wonderful bonus, which seems very important for some folk, and less with others. Making a living is, to me, a rather irritating necessity, as is keeping slim!
Fortunately for Giraffe World Tours, Maureen expresses her creativity in running a business. (And she makes sure I don't eat too much toast!)
when life started going faster then me, I cut my mane and I agree with Weaver that one rinse does the trick - still not able to keep up, but less grooming time has helped!
Jeane, I've just finished drying my mane, as coincidence would have it. And I tried Weaver's suggestion of one shampoo - it has worked! Saved loads of time, looks just the same.
When life goes too fast for me, I stick my neck above the clouds - everything looks much slower from up there!
Raph, Just to let you know, I finally got the lovely Premio Dardos award up on Poetikat's Invisible Keepsakes (it's also resting on the Blasts From the Past) and I've given you credit, of course (although I was given the same one by Robert Frost's Banjo). I have passed it along and just wanted to say, Thanks again! Please stop by when you get the chance.
Your friend, Kat
Hello my friend Kat!
Thank you - I will pop across and see now!
What an entertaining post. I'll have to thank Kat for sending us over here. I have to agree, washing my mane is a chore I detest.
Thanks for calling by at my place by the way.
Your blog is just fabulous! I shall call again.
Thanks again for the smile......
Happy for Maureen you wash your mane, its a good thing.
Hello Sandy and thank you. I've just enjoyed a visit to your blog and will be back!
Thank you Cait - I look forward to your next visit!
Thank you Rosemary! Maureen is also pleased about the one shampoo tip from Weaver, and says it will cut our housekeeping bills considerably!
Please take heart..that shampooing process is identical to mine.. short neck, long hair, what's the alternative?
Beauty, glamour, this post is filled with them!
Thanks...
Lyn
Thank you Lyn! I must do a post on giraffe mane-styles soon! (I'll ask RaffQuaff Salon in Neckelchester village for some pictures).
But back to the question..! My own hair is on the oily side so I have to wash it every day - which I do in the shower. I'm so used to doing this that it doesn't bother me. It's now fairly short so I let it dry naturally, combing it back so that it sticks up a bit (sometimes applying a little dry moulding wax), giving me the illusion I look younger and more stylish. (When I really was younger, my hair used to be almost shoulder length - that was in my hippie phase. That all went however when I started working, along with the gold embroidered red loon pants.)
Gold embroidered red loon pants, SW? Wonderful! Were they denim, or velvet? We had similar fashions here - I remember fondly my floor length cape in psychedelic colours of purple, orange and magenta.
(I suppose in one's hippie days it was not necessary to wash hair daily, so long hair would not be a chore...)
You've got me thinking about perception now: looking younger than one's years may be termed an illusion, I suppose - but can looking stylish be an illusion? One the one hand looking stylish is stylish - on the other hand all style is illusion! Hmmmmm ...
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