Do men prefer "Low Maintenance" women?

Nice to visit (high maintenance), but I wouldn’t want to live there.

Primping is one thing. High maintenance infers she has to be maintained. Taken care of. I think your example is not really high maintenance. High self maintenance maybe.

Good point, @Russell_D_SpacePoet.

@Russell_D_SpacePoet she seems to think this would imply high maintenance at first glance by way of appearance

@Just_Justine Well… A guy is always going to be pleased with a nice looking woman. I don’t think most of them would look at the woman as high maintenance just because she took the time to primp. I wouldn’t anyway.

That’s not my idea of the word ‘maintenance’ in this context.

“High-maintenance” refers to someone who is (eg) incredibly emotional, requires a lot of attention or will spontaneously combust. Possibly ensuing a shitstorm the likes of which males have never before dared look upon.

There’s a big difference between maintaining one’s appearance and maintaining one’s relationship with a psychopathic bitch just for the sex.

Also, the makeup thing is a whole other story.

the more makeup a girl has on the more vain and shallow i will think she is, the less ill like her. but thats just me. personally i prefer a natural looking girl.

however, i would not relate this to maintenance at all. i would say i much prefer a high maintenance girl, a girl that needs to be told she is loved on a regular basis, and have gifts given to her and all that stuff. then again, i don’t want a girl who will cause a lot of arguments should i fail to mention my feelings towards her every 20 minutes.

EDIT: there is nothing wrong with some makeup from time to time on special occasions. i guess its all about balance.

High maintenance to me isn’t about looks, clothes, etc.
I see it more as picky, needy, and possible controlling and demanding.
But low maintenance would mean easy going, and open to almost everything.

i always thought of high-maintenance as someone who needed constant attention/pampering. my ex-girlfriend was like that, and although we broke up for unrelated reasons, i’d prefer to date a girl who doesn’t need me in every single aspect of her life.

I prefer women who are haighly maintained in terms of intellect and not looks.I believe in simplicity high thoughts and attracted towards the same.

I like someone that can go from bed to going out to breakfast in a public place in 5 minutes. I don’t need needy, my mom mas a corner on that market. If you call me every hour I will stop answering the phone.

I definitely prefer low maintenance women (though for me it’s a more general term, not just how much time they spend re-arranging their faces). I even think they’re nicer most of the time, and don’t get how women in general can often be so gullible and go for whatever fashion trends tell them. The most typical example is dieting. 90% of the women I know are trying to lose weight. 90% of the men I know prefer women to be slightly curvier.

I’ve just asked my boyfriend that question as to what I am, he said I can be both. I don’t know what that means. But I do always try to look good, make up and hair, but I am not money grabbing or mean or nasty. I just want to look after him and look nice in the process.

My boyfriend says I am low maintenance and he loves that. However, I do like to make sure I look good but that doesn’t mean that I pile on the make up and wear designer clothes. Sometimes less is definately more when it comes to make up and hair products etc. The natural look can be as attractive if not more than a face full of make up so maybe that’s what your friend means by low maintenance. I used to wear heavy make up until my boyfriend told me how beautiful and fresh I looked without it and so now I just wear the bare minumum and since then, I recieve more attention.

I dont dislike high maintenance women but i think its unfair for women to use certain thigns as an excuse to take longer – “my hair” “i need to pick out clothes” “i need more time to decide what to wear” “i need to shower and wash and condition my hair” a lot of things that go with it yes, can be annoying. I think some women need better time management :(.

@JesusWasAJewbot But they actually do those things you described, they aren’t excuses. There is more pressure for women to look good and aspire to be perfect than there is for a guy so give ‘em a break.

@HTDC Oh yeah because girls find it so acceptable for us to go out looking less then on point lol. Im not saying its a horrible thing, i just prefer a girl who can get ready quickly and go.

Never knew one. And thank goodness for that, because I’ve always enjoyed maintaining them, including my wife.

I have no problem with my wife taking some time to get ready, do her hair, face etc, After 16 years together we know how long eachother takes to get ready and have gotten pretty good at not being late much!
My own view of someone who is high maintenence (through experience) and remember, it’s only my opinion, is someone who is always wanting attention -24/7 – it’s all about them! and they gotta have “stuff”. gotta have the latest shoes, bags, clothes, make-up, basically she’s gotta have what she wants, when she wants it or there’s consequences, and I gotta pay for it. Thankfully I have only been involved with two girls like this – both lovely girls, but quite hard work, not from the same sort of background either. It’s great being able to treat someone like this for a while but is quite draining, emotionally and financially I found.
I’m still friends with one of them and she’s still like that.

I would be attracted to more of the high maintainence type maybe because of the time she takes to be cleanly and the pride she keeps to look good..she cant overdoit though. Too much make-up would make her look shallow, but just enough to make her look appealing is good. A low maintaince girl would not show much interest in her well being and she would not look so attractive to me, unless she is drop dead geogeous.. and even if she was so a little make-up and self interest wouldnt hurt…so i guess id like the high maintainence girl.

Oh- I interpret high maintenance completely differntly from most of you. To me, high maintenance means emotional, volatile and perhaps, challenging. Low maintenance would be a woman on more of an even keel – not asking for so much interaction or reassurance. I didn’t think of the question in terms of physical maintenance at all.

@janbb My SO says I am low maintenance but often hard work. I am low mainetenace in the sense that I don’t need material possessions or spend hours getting ready and I am not needy when it comes to wanting constant reassurance of his feelings for me but I am hard work because I can be over sensitive, emotional, paranoid etc.

If I’m reading the question correctly, it seems like Just_Justine is asking about physical appearance and the maintenance required there. (And please, Just_Justine, correct me if I’m wrong.) I believe quite sincerely that many (most?) men will look first and most often at a woman who is nicely made up, hair done and wearing a decent outfit, especially if she has a good figure and face to go with it. Those things don’t necessarily mean high maintenance in terms of emotional or financial needs. As well, not all women are physically attractive enough (in their own view or that of the world) to garner attention without doing those hair, make up, outfit things. At least not initial attention. They may have sparkling personalities and scintillating intellect, but that doesn’t get noticed until someone takes the time to speak to them.

@tedibear39 Yes, I guess you’re right. I didn’t read the details closely enough.

@janbb I may be wrong, and am hoping that Just_Justine will come back and clarify a bit more.

No, most men don’t. Of course there’s one exception

“Low Maintenance” men prefer “Low Maintenance” women. Until everything just turns into meaninglessness.

If you’re talking about physically high maintenance, a woman who spends time on:
Clean body
Neatened hair
Neatened nails
makeup she’s comfortable in
Jewelry she’s comfortable in
Neatened clothes
Nicely kept shoes and bags
Can dress in less than an hour for just about any occasion

I am and have always been that woman, no lack of men wanting to be my partners, my efforts have been mostly appreciated, sometimes encouraged and supported.

Men who say they want (physically) low-maintenance women, or women who look good when they just rolled out of bed, or women who don’t wear a lot of makeup, often mean they want a woman who looks so great all the time she doesn’t need any help looking good. Which is kind of unreasonable, I think.

@nikipedia: I agree. Most men want to enjoy looking at the woman and not be bothered with what goes into her looking well. They don’t imagine the shaving, plucking, buffing, moisturizing, buffing, trimming, flossing, deep knee bends, pliets and stuff that go into making a quickly pulled on pair of jeans, t-shirt and tuck of hair behind the ear look “cute” and easy going. harumph.

@nikipedia – EXACTLY!

Even guys I know who claim to like a low-maintenance look for a woman will treat me differently and more like “a woman” when I have make-up on and/or when my hair is straight, especially when both are going on at once. Since I’ve long hair, this takes a lot of time to achieve with my natural waves.

When I point this out, though, they always deny it.

Low is nice but Extreme primping is great when you go someplace special, the Wife keeps up on her Grooming taking a few minuts each day to pluck, trim and shave often with Me holding the tweezers. then she can roll out of bed in the morning, run a brush through her hair and slip on some jeans, a crop and a shirt and were out the door in 15 or less!

I have always been with “low-maintenance” women, in terms of the time they spend on making themselves look nice. I like it that way. I prefer a natural look because it is more approachable. I get scared of women who are all made up and dressed up. I know I can never match their expectations. Not that it matters. Women like that can’t even see me.

Oddly, I guess, I find women who are wearing jeans and workshirts, maybe put a baseball cap on their head, and pull their hair through the back, or maybe they are all muddy, wearing boots, even sweaty because they’ve been training the latest foal—I know they don’t feel sexy, but I sure find them sexy.

They are real, not faked up. They may not look like models, but I get the feeling they could be if that kind of thing interested them. A woman with all kinds of make-up and high heels seems like a kept kind of being. Even if she is a power suit kind of person, she doesn’t live in a world I would ever feel comfortable in.

So yeah. Low-maintenance all the way for me.

@tedibear39 thanks! Yes I was meaning that, women are perceived by males as high maintenance as in “she spends hours on herself looking good” so they move on meaning they prefer a woman who is wash and ready to go and looks it. Not as in High Maintenance personalities as they are exhausting, and a whole different topic

@Just_Justine a whole different topic which we seemed to have explored anyway! ;-)

It does not matter if she belongs to a low or high maintenance level.
A guy in love would not even think which category she is in.