What are your physical needs with regards to clothing and grooming? Here are some typical examples:
- Extra layers to keep warm
- Hot flushes so need to be able to discard layers to keep cool
- Dislike waistbands that are tight or binding
- Must keep lower back, knees or other body part covered to feel physically comfortable
- Remove tags as they irritate skin
- Underwire bras hurt
- Can’t wear belts as bloating is common
- Wool is scratchy and itchy to wear
- Synthetic fabrics make you sweat
- Need to wear orthotics or specialist shoes
- Can’t lift arms over head to blow dry hair
This list is by no means exhaustive – and we invite you in the explorations to write down your list of physical needs for clothing and grooming.
You may find that you have either permanent or temporary physical issues that change how you dress and impact on your style. These could be things like:
- Wearing a leg, ankle, or foot brace
- Bursitis or frozen shoulder or elbow
- Mastectomy
- Fibromyalgia
- Arthritis
- Medical Operations
These physical issues may be short term, long term, or permanent. What they mean is that you need to reconsider your whole wardrobe and adapt what you’re wearing to work with your body in a way that stops getting dressed being a constant frustration or painful experience.
Your needs will impact on your choices – and may even create dissonance or tension between your ideal style expression and what you can achieve when taking into consideration your physical needs. Taking care of your physical needs with regards to clothing/accessories is an important element of self care.
Open your Module 9 PDF Page 43 and head to the Physical Needs Explorations so you can discover just what matters to you in this respect.
