I’ve mentioned before I’m doing regular contract work for a local website development, design and hosting company. Check out our site if you’d like. (PS. I wrote most of the blog posts over the last year, so feel free to admire them as well!)

It’s all going well and I’m enjoying the mix of liaising with clients, project managing the delivery of some of our activities and the writing (of course). I’ve been there a few weeks now and am surprised by the constant stream of new work which arrives in our inboxes and I’m loving the vibe of the office. Plus I’m wearing thongs/flip-flops to work every day… but more on that another time!

However… this past week the boss decided that (while one of the team is visiting from his base in the USA) we should get a photographer to come and take some workplace shots.

SHIT! Pictures of me? Looking like this?!

Anyone who reads my diet blog will know that I will do EVERYTHING I possibly can to avoid being photographed. So, while I appreciated the idea… I hated it at the same time.

I ‘like’ the photographer on Facebook so knew she was fabulous, but I wasn’t quite sure how much photoshopping she would do.

Unfortunately my regular six-weekly hair appointment was scheduled for two days AFTER the photo shoot, so I decided immediately that I would reschedule so that my lovely golden locks (!!!) would not have dark horrible roots. I also contemplated the notion of makeup. (I don’t / can’t wear makeup as my face / head perspires too much and if I put ANYTHING on my face it starts sweating!)

I contemplated sharing my ‘I must change my hair appointment’ dilemma with the guys in the office; and I even almost posted it on Facebook (#asyoudo) but then I wondered…. “Did that sound ridiculously vain?”

I HATE vanity. My own personal opinion is that it should replace pride as one of the seven deadly sins. Pride can be earned but vanity is so often unjustified. And it’s rarely a desirable trait. Confidence is one thing, but vanity… #meh!

I was indoctrinated at a young age as I can recall my father chastising me for admiring my flawless beauty studying myself in a mirror.

“It’s vain,” he said. And I understood then, vanity was a bad thing. (Of course the fact I tipped in the other direction is beside the point!)

So, I kept my plans to myself and tried not to sound worried about how I would look in the office pics. After all – they were all about work and the office. They weren’t vanity shots for my lounge room walls, or pictures for my modelling portfolio! 😉 Plus, I’m working with a bunch of (young) guys who I suspected would think I was being ridiculous by stressing about *how* I looked.

Of course what actually happened was that I *forgot* to change my hair appointment so rocked up for the photo shoot with horrible regrowth. On top of that I got hot, so in half of the photographs I’ve got my sweaty hair pulled back into an unattractive little piggytail thingy. Faaaarck!

We got the pics just a day after they were taken and while the objective part of me can look at them and think they’re great pics – the vain part of me is horrified at my own shots. #fuckfuckfuck

On one hand I’m wondering if I SHOULD have been a bit more concerned about the way I was going to look in the pictures as these will be things clients and colleagues will see; and on the other I’m wondering if it’s just the fact that I look like a fat middle-aged woman that I can’t stand! Either way, like I said… faaarck!

Would you have made more of an effort if you were me?
Do you think the vanity-in-pics is a natural / girl thing?

*Flogging my blog With Some Grace today.