Does dressing up every day improve your mood?

This week I decided to try something new—I wanted to see if waking up early and putting effort into my appearance improved my mood, instead of my normal routine of wake up late, roll out of bed, and leave for class. If it improved my mood significantly I would do this on a more daily basis.

It was a lot harder than I expected—getting up early and getting out of bed is harder than people say. I am so glad I did this though, I give it a 10/10 (would do again)!

Day 1: Monday

The first day I didn’t change so much how I dressed, instead I woke up a little earlier and made the effort to put on a face of makeup (even red lipstick!) which is something that I rarely ever do unless it is a special occasion. People were surprised to see me with the red lipstick because they’re so used to my bare face. My face earned quite a few double takes and people mentioned how cute I looked all throughout the day.

The compliments helped to improve my mood without a doubt. Something else I found was that the red lipstick made me feel empowered. Overall, I think my getting up early to do some makeup helped me to have a better day.

Day 2: Tuesday

Today instead of going more full out on the makeup I dressed up more in my clothes. I tried to stay mostly comfortable by wearing leggings but I wore a very professional shirt and woke up even earlier than I did yesterday so I could straighten my hair, something I like doing but never have the time or patience to do so.

Within five minutes of going outside I got compliments saying how awake and ready for the day I looked and people kept commenting on how good I looked. My first thought was “Do I look like trash every other day?” but I don’t think that’s the case I think people just aren’t used to seeing me dressed up and with makeup on.

Overall I think the compliments and getting up early to put a little more effort into my appearance did improve my day and my mood. Not because I’m super vain or anything but more because I felt ready for the day, more awake and happy with myself for getting out of bed before the last minute.

Day 3: Wednesday

Today I decided to go bold and wear an even darker lipstick than the one from Monday. I got so many compliments on my lipstick and I actually had multiple people stop me to ask what lipstick I was wearing. I had a giant final project this morning and so these compliments definitely helped to brighten my day and feel like I was in a better mood.

I think this experiment might be working…

Day 4: Thursday

I had been awake nearly 40 hours, downed 2 5-hour energy drinks, had more coffee than I could possibly count, and still I was determined to dress up and continue my experiment. Admittedly, today I focused more on the makeup and less on the clothes, having just pulled and overnight shift and then decided not to sleep because I had a paper due that day that I had not begun. Today was a classic college horror story basically.

Because I straightened my hair I got comments on that, and my makeup. But I very pointedly did both of these to hide my insane amount of exhaustion. And it worked, even on myself a little bit.

Day 5: Friday

I didn’t dress up as much today because it was the first time I’d slept in 2 days and I was still really tired. I did however put on some makeup and a nice sweater to appear a little more awake than I felt, which actually helped me feel more ready for the day. I also had a final this morning so being dressed really helped my confidence during the listening portion that was today.

Overall, I think this experiment was very time consuming and I was extra tired because of it because I had to get up so much earlier than usual. However, it did make me feel more prepared and I liked that, but I don’t think I’ll keep this up as a daily routine, but I’ll probably put more effort into my appearance some days.