Geeze. I realize that many women on the Straight Dope pride themselves on being low-maintenance, but the question in the OP seemed reasonable to me. For the women who care about their appearances and do put in the effort, why do they stop putting in as much effort when it’s cold out? The question is clearly asking why women get pedicures and then stop, and is not referring to women who never ever get pedicures.
I think **Spiderman **and **Guinastasia **answered it best: Because you can’t put socks/shoes on until the polish dries, and because it’s a lot of effort to put forth when no one is seeing your feet anyways.
I’m one of those women who does care about her appearance. I paint my toenails all summer because I hate the look of unpainted toenails on women. Right now, I’m wearing a full face of makeup, my hair is straightened, I’m wearing heels, I have an appointment to get my eyebrows waxed on Thursday, and I’ve gotten laser hair removal on my underarms, so I may be more of the sort of woman that this question is geared towards.
Right now, my toenails are unpainted. Since I paint my toenails myself, rather than get them done at a salon, I haven’t found it particularly expensive to paint my toenails, and since I do it in my own house, I don’t need to put shoes on right afterwards. Often in the winter my toenails will be painted, but the polish will be chipped or growing out since I don’t care that much if no one outside the house sees my nails. If I were to be seen in public with unpainted toenails, here’s why:
It doesn’t typically occur to me that my toenails will be seen very far in advance of the event. The event you mention is a waterpark. Maybe I’m in some sort of gym class where you don’t wear shoes, or maybe it’s an unseasonably warm day and I wear open-toed shoes, or maybe I’m over at a friend’s house and take my shoes and socks off. These events are either spontaneous, or ones that I decide upon only a few days in advance of the event. So say I make plans on Tuesday to do a yoga class on Saturday.
There are two issues: (1) When I make plans to do a yoga class, “I need to paint my toenails” isn’t the first thought that occurs to me, so unless it occurs to me that my toes will be showing prior to the class, I won’t even think to paint my toenails. (2) If it does occur to me, then I need to set aside time to paint them and time for them to dry, so I can’t paint them if I’m going to be leaving the house any time soon, going to bed soon, or doing any sort of chore that involves enough movement that I might mess up the polish. Which means that often, I simply don’t find the time to paint them prior to the event where my toenails are showing.
