Could You Do Without Mirrors For A Day?

[Quasimodem]

(Borrowed from an NPR story heard on Sunday)

Mirrors were invented during the time of Louis XIV and since then we have become "slaves to fashion" in one reporter's opinion.

So do you think you could do without mirrors? I use mine primarily to shave with, but I probably could do without.

Quasi

[Little Bird]

I regularly go says without looking intentionally into a mirror. There is one in my bathroom that I have to look at to use the sink, but failing that, I would be mirror-less. I accept that my hair will be wild, don't use makeup much, and all my clothes go with each other. If it weren't for nights on the town, I'd never look. :D

[blur]

I go without looking in the mirror all the time. I shower after work, so often I'll get up to go to work, run a brush through my hair real quickly, brush my teeth in the kitchen sink and be out the door in 5 minutes, never glancing in the mirror. I usually have a hat to cover the bad hair. I work nights, so no one sees me except other people just like me.

[Violet]

I could do w/o it, but could the viewing public? :eek: They may have to look at some irregularly placed lipstick. ;)

[Kayeby]

I've gone camping for reasonable stretches of time and never really missed having mirrors. So I reckon I could manage.

[butter pie]

Do you mean mirrors as we know them?

I know in general mirrors have been around much longer than that. I can recall seeing images of highly polished silver, gold, obsidian (?) and other such materials made into "mirrors" in art magazines and National Geographic. Off the top of my head I'm pretty sure I've seen ancient Greek and Egyptian mirrors and for some reason Mayan comes to mind as well.

Of course, they weren't the silvery stuff on glass like we have now, and I'm sure they didn't give quite as clear an image. But they still looked fairly useable. (I also recall them being hand-held items, not of a very large size.)

Sorry I don't have any cites; this is just from years of reading magazines and looking at photos of artifacts. If anyone has any more info I'd appreciate it. (Now I'm curious myself...)

[butter pie]

Woohoo, I'm not going crazy. Wish I'd heard that NPR; I listen to it almost every day at work, but Sunday I was listening to classic rock because I was trying to cheer myself up. :)

http://www.mirrorresilvering.com/a_brief_history_of_mirrors.htm

[lieu]

I'd be willing to do without. I could care less what my hair looks like and would welcome an excuse not to shave. You guys are going to have to help me from now on with the "booger checks" though.

You've reminded me.. as a youth my friend and I were at his dad's insurance company one weekend when his dad started laughing his butt off. He read to us how some guy was making a claim because in an attempt to see his hemmoroids, he'd stripped naked, climbed up on his dresser, bent over and pulled his butt cheeks apart. :eek: Said procedure caused him to lose his balance (in addition to his mind), teeter and fall off the dresser and onto his neck, thus injuring his fool head.

[FairyChatMom]

For looking at me, I could live without 'em, but don't take my rear-view mirrors away!! I need to be aware of the idiots who are going to pass me illegally or ride up on my bumper or otherwise make driving a torture...

[lieu]

Ooops! I hope it was obvious in my story above that the guy was utilizing the large mirror attached to his dresser, although why he needed one that large I can only guess.

[MsWhatsit]

I could do it, but only because I hardly ever wear makeup. My hair is low-maintenance, so I know that if it's brushed, it looks decent. But there's no way you can accurately put on makeup without a mirror. I'm sorry, there's not. Especially if in this hypothetical circumstance, you've never seen a mirror, so you don't even have a basis of reference.

I'd miss mirrors, though. I could get by without them, but I wouldn't like it much. Every so often it's just nice to check yourself out in the full-length mirror to make sure everything is looking all right.

[even sven]

I moved in to my new house five months ago, and I just bought a mirror last weekend.

[SpoilerVirgin]

Absolutely. Like Kayeby I've gone on camping trips without mirrors and never missed them. I don't wear makeup, and lately I've been brushing my hair without a mirror and just giving it a final check.

Was I the only one who thought that this thread had something to do with Sartre's Huis Clos, in which hell is a place with no mirrors?

[RTFirefly]

Originally posted by even sven
I moved in to my new house five months ago, and I just bought a mirror last weekend. And it didn't have bathroom mirrors? That's amazing!

I could easily do without mirrors for a day, or several. Except for when I let my hair get too long, it's low-maintenance, and same for my beard. What little I shave, I can mostly do by feel.

Of course, Stephen R. Donaldson has already played with this in The Mirror of Her Dreams (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/102-9520073-2359314), which takes place in a world where mirrors do everything except reflect one's image.

[gigi]

Originally posted by lieu
You guys are going to have to help me from now on with the "booger checks" though.

When I read the thread title and started thinking about it, this is what I thought my primary use of a mirror is too. I have a small one at work just to check for boogers and stuff in my teeth. Other than that, and car mirrors, I don't really need one. No makeup, simple haircut, all my clothes are pretty simple.

[Shakes]

NOPE, Absolutely not I'm way too vain to go without a mirror. I have to see me pretty face at least four or five times a day.:D

[panamajack]

"Mirrors and copulation are abominable, for they multiply the number of mankind."

Don't need them unless I'm driving.

[kniz]

Why has no one mentioned the necessity of mirrors on the bedroom ceiling?

[Special_Kay]

Please oh please!
I'd love no mirrors. Those of us who are naturally adorable won't be shown up by the ones who have so much spare time on their hands that they can spend hours making themselves look like they just woke up and are always gorgeous.
In fact, one could say that perhaps those people, without the mirrors needed to perform such feats, mights spend more time working or taking care of their families. More money and love could be put back into the world to be shared among the hard working folk.

We'd all better off. Let's ban together, my fellow people and rid the world of the time consuming vanity that plagues us all!

[ferrisgirl]

yeah but...

i'd be uglier :(

[rocking chair]

yep, i go without mirrors a lot.

[Creaky]

Could I do without mirrors for a day?

Good God, no! I love looking at myself. I seriously do. All reflective surfaces are fair game. I carry two mirrors in my handbag, too, for frequent mini vanity sprees. :D

[Neidhart]

I can.

I already know what I look like; I don't need to be reminded of it.

[Qis]

Vain -HELL YES
I couldn't survive without a mirror.
i need to looka t myself at every opertunity.
Shop windows, car windows and Pint glasses.
i know i aint the most amazing guy in the world. but there is something pleasing about seeing myself.
And you kow that thing about always looking at your best side in a morror. Its soo true. Photo's make me look so much worse than i envisage myself.
I always see the best in myself. But then i see a photo of me adn i cant bear it.
Its awfull.


And my hair would be a mess

I just like to see what i look like.

-Qis

[Caiata]

Actually, I'd prefer to, if at all possible.

I don't even really need them for driving, I'm on such an intense auto-pilot when I drive that I rarely have to check them anyway. It's almost as if I have this bizarre out-of-body experience whilst driving, wherein I can genuinely sense the positions of cars around me as if I were viewing the road from above, and I know a light is about to turn yellow mere milliseconds before it does. Seriously! I think it's just habit though. Trace the same path through the same city at the same time on the same days every week, and you'll learn the traffic patterns fairly well. :)

I don't wear makeup unless there is a formal occasion, and I don't do anything to my hair outside of brushing it unless I'm putting on a gown :) I'm of the oft-voiced opinion that I am who I am, and so long as I'm happy with my face without makeup, who gives a rot what others think? I bagged myself a wonderful man without extensive beautification rituals ...

Of course, I'm not happy about the rest of me, but hey, makeup and mirrors can't change that, now can they? :)