The DIY Baddie Shift: Reclaiming Time, Money, and Peace Before Vacation

When did the pre-vacation Olympics become daunting?

I used to be so excited for the pre-trip lead up. Pre-vacay energy, anxious, excited, looking

the best you’ve looked in months. It was all so exciting to me. But as the years and trips go by, my body and mind are screaming… take me as I am, because I just don’t have it in me anymore.

Between the countless appointments, the fear of one of them getting canceled, the limited hours as a 9–5 baddie, buying clothes for every vacay, and the increasing prices, everything is just becoming so unappealing to me.

Is this shift happening with any of my travel girlies? Are y’all over it just like I am?

Now if you’re unfamiliar with the pre-vacation Olympics, let me break it down for you. This is the time leading up to your vacation, I’d say at least one to two weeks prior depending on what needs to be done.

Your clothes are here or on the way, the first arm and leg spent. Now it’s time to get cute.

We have to figure out the hairstyle we want and then find a stylist, if we don’t already have one, that can execute. Once that’s solidified, we have to schedule our brow and lash appointments. Sometimes that’s two separate bookings. Then lastly, the nails and toes, and maybe even a wax if needed.

In addition to all of that, you still have to pack, make sure your bag isn’t overweight, make sure all your important documents and details are ready, and the list goes on and on. By the time we finish, your nervous system is begging for some peace and quiet.

This is how I was until I wasn’t.

I’m a person who travels every year without fail. I got places to be. But with each passing year, one appointment would fall off and be replaced with my attempt at a DIY project.

The appeal of booking back-to-back appointments and spending in excess of $200+ for beauty services slowly faded. Something had to give, and quickly.

It wasn’t exciting to be rescheduled by your stylist a day before your appointment. It wasn’t exciting to pay $150+ for a service and have it last less than a week at best. It wasn’t exciting to order a plethora of clothes, only for two items to fit and the rest needing to be sent back.

On a deeper note, when you get to a place of feeling comfortable traveling as you are, without the nails done, hair done, etc., you realize quickly how much you never needed it.

Or how easy it is to get things done overseas, often at a better price.

Something clicked inside of me. None of that shit really even matters in the grand scheme of things, and that’s when the evolution to DIY baddie began.

It started with my hair, but not for the purposes of vacation. It started because I didn’t want to be charged based on my length and loc count, knowing my hair would only continue to grow. So I learned how to retwist.

The next thing to go were my toenails. This actually came before my fingernails. My mom was the queen of self-pedicures, so adding this into my routine was a no-brainer.

The next thing that got replaced, and I didn’t expect this, was my lashes. That was one of the harder things to let go of until I found lash clusters. My holy grail.

The clothes, I’m still working on, but I try my hardest to go through everything I already own before any vacay so it minimizes how much I spend.

And the final thing, just know me and press-on nails go together real bad.

There’s a peace in knowing that your prep for vacation doesn’t require you to rush, doesn’t require excessive amounts of money, and is often a more peaceful experience for your nervous system.

Now what matters to me is the actual experience. Putting money into the vacation itself, not the pre-travel Olympics.

Now I do the bare minimum I need to feel whole for a trip, usually hair, lashes, and toenails, and none of these require me to book any appointments unless the appointment is with me and my bathroom mirror.

There is a peace in knowing I can handle my upkeep with my own hands and get things done on my time, not a stylist’s time. There is also a peace in knowing you could go on a trip tomorrow with nothing done and still be good.

Once I started prioritizing the body in the clothes, the clothes, the accessories, the adornments, it all stopped mattering. You could literally take me as I am and I’d be more content with the experiences than the lack of my aesthetic adornments.

Now, I am also a pay-for-convenience type of person. So if at any point it makes more sense to book the appointment, best believe I will and I won’t feel any shame about it.

But I will always be more strategic and intentional about how I spend my money pre-vacation and how that impacts my experience during and after the trip.

This shift has allowed me to go into vacation with a regulated nervous system, not one heightened by back-to-back appointments, unaccounted expenses, and overall chaos.

And isn’t that what we want as we move toward a more peaceful life in an already hectic and performative society?

Which one resonates with you?

• Pre Travel Olympics Baddie
• DIY Baddie
• Combination of Both