From Sweaty to Sensational in 10 minutes or less

April 12, 2010 9:56 AM

I’m looking for suggestions for how to get myself presentable after a moderately strenuous workout in a minimal amount of time.

I’ve started going to an early-morning spinning class that leaves me nice and sweaty. Afterward, I usually have, at most, 15 minutes to get showered, changed, and on the way to my office. It's not an optimal schedule, but it's the only one that works for me right now. But obviously, I don’t have time to follow usual morning grooming routine in the locker room.

Fortunately, I don’t have to dress up for work. I can get by on jeans and sweaters most days. I don’t wear much makeup (light foundation, eyeliner, and shadow), and I have shoulder-length hair that I don’t need to style, but I always feel a little – not smelly, but kind of blowsy for the rest of the day. I’d like suggestions for products or practices that I can use as shortcuts/substitutes to the normal shampoo, blow dry, full makeup regimen. For instance, I used to use a hair “refresher” by Aveda that they don’t appear to make anymore. I know it didn’t clean my hair, but it was enough to get me through the rest of the day without that post-workout sheen.

posted by bibliowench to health & fitness (10 answers total)

For hair, I've been using Garnier's Anti-Frizz Serum.

It's great for using when you don't have much time at all and want to give your hair some sheen and cleanliness. On top of that it smells pretty nice too. I'm male so I can't comment on how it would look in a womans longer hair but it makes my hair look pretty fabulous.
posted by deacon_blues at 10:01 AM on April 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

I agree with some sort of anti-frizz treatment. I also find that a flat iron makes my hair look 100% better in about two minutes (I often shower the night before to save time, and this completely eliminates the slept-on look from my hair).
posted by spinto at 10:05 AM on April 12, 2010

I'd gradually make the shower very cold. A lot of times when I have a strenuous workout, if I take a hotshower, I come out still feeling like I'm sweating my ass off. A cold shower gest my system back to basics.
posted by Hurst at 10:14 AM on April 12, 2010 [2 favorites]

I like to use a nice toner on my face to wake it up / cool it down.
posted by WeekendJen at 10:33 AM on April 12, 2010

Rocket Shower
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 10:41 AM on April 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

This obviously depends on your hair, but I usually wash my hair the night before, wear a ponytail to work out, rinse it really quickly (in cold water to avoid the sweaty feeling Hurst describes), towel dry and put some scrunching mousse in it. It makes my hair curlyish, not frizzy and work appropriate and only takes a minute or two. I also clean my face and neck really well before I put my makeup on.
posted by kro at 11:16 AM on April 12, 2010

Leave the class five minutes before the end?
posted by Biru at 11:29 AM on April 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

I actually leave 15 minutes before the end. These are all great suggestions though.
posted by bibliowench at 2:21 PM on April 12, 2010

Do all your major bathing - facial cleansing and exfoliating, shampoo, defuzz, etc. - before your workout and then you will only need a quick blast of the shower post-workout. You won't need to reshampoo your hair, just letting the water run through it will be enough. Then you can let it air-dry.

Then a good SPF moisturizer like Cetaphil's Factor 50, curl your eyelashes, slick of lip balm, get dressed and out.
posted by tel3path at 3:38 PM on April 12, 2010

I skip the shampoo step and wash my hair in conditioner.

You will start to feel less sweaty/glowing/pink as you get fitter. I do an early morning spinning class and go straight to work too. When I first started (last summer) I felt hot and uncomfortable for hours afterwards to the point where people would ask me if I was ok. These days I dont get anywhere near as red faced or achey.

When I first started classes I didnt have a gym bag and used to split work clothes and gym stuff across bags. It wasnt until I went out and bought a proper gym bag and a big enough wash bag for my grooming items that I realised how much time I was wasting just wrangling my stuff in and out of the house/gym/car/locker.
posted by Ness at 5:28 AM on April 13, 2010