Maddie Johnson shares her routine on TikTok
Credit: Maddie Johnson
NEED TO KNOW
- Maddie Johnson uses Dry Bar blowouts to save time and streamline her busy schedule
- She spends up to $315 monthly on blowouts, prioritizing convenience over doing her own hair
- Johnson encourages others to outsource tasks they dislike to gain more time for what they enjoy
One major change to 30-year-old Maddie Johnson’s routine altered how she thinks about convenience, luxury and time management.
Johnson tells PEOPLE it all started after she was gifted a Drybar blowout for her birthday. When the Los Angeles resident was there, she noticed they offered monthly memberships.
“This happened to coincide with a period in my life that most adult women can relate to, where I felt like I never had enough time to get everything done no matter what I did,” she shares. “I work a demanding full-time job, I’m planning a destination wedding, I create content outside of work, I try to keep up with friends and family, spend quality time with my fiancé, stay on top of household chores and errands, be healthy and have a fitness routine, the list goes on and on.”
Credit: Maddie Johnson
Every Sunday, Johnson says she was left feeling like she hadn’t optimized her weekend to the best of her ability and still had tasks to check off her to-do list. So, she knew something in her routine needed to give.
“I was in the process of doing a full life audit on myself to figure out where I was spending all my time and how I could give myself some relief by potentially outsourcing some things,” Johnson says.
One of the first things she thought of was her hair. Johnson notes that she has long, thick hair, so washing, drying and styling it can take upwards of two hours.
@its.mjlife People judge me but this is one of the best services I’ve ever invested in for myself and I’ll probably never stop. #drybar #blowout #hairroutine #grwm #beforework @Drybar Shops @The Drybar @OSEA Malibu @ILIA Beauty @Westman-Atelier
♬ original sound – MJ
“When I realized that washing, drying and styling my hair wasn’t something I enjoyed, and wasn’t very good at, and a Drybar five minutes from my house offered memberships, it felt like a no-brainer,” she says.
She has since realized that true “luxury is convenience and not material items.”
“I will gladly buy my time back so I can spend the little free time I do have doing the things I actually enjoy and not the things I feel like I have to do,” Johnson shares.
For the last year or so, Johnson hasn’t washed her own hair, instead getting blowouts, heading to the salon roughly every five days, which totals about six times per month.
While prices vary between locations, she says her membership is $99 a month for two blowouts, and any additional blowout is $54.
“At six blowouts per month, it is $315/month before tax and tip,” she says. “This summer they were running a promotion for ‘blowout bundles,’ and I realized this was a better deal, so I purchased a 12-pack for $565, which brings each blowout to $47 or $282/month before tax and tip.”
Johnson recently shared a video about her monthly routine, captioned, “I’m the girl that doesn’t wash her own hair.”
She tells PEOPLE that she never “expected it to take off as it did, but now being the girl that doesn’t wash her own hair has become part of my personal brand.”
Credit: Maddie Johnson
“My earlier videos on the topic honestly weren’t received very well. A lot of the comments were negative, calling me lazy, disgusting, high maintenance and spoiled, to name a few,” Johnson admits.
However, when she started diving deeper into her philosophy that “luxury to me is convenience” and explaining how “buying my time back has genuinely changed my life, it started reaching the right audience, and the response has become overwhelmingly positive.”
“The most interesting part to me is seeing how strongly people have reacted to the notion of outsourcing something we have been conditioned to think we ‘have to’ or ‘should’ be doing ourselves,” she shares. “It’s funny because we all pay for convenience in different areas of our lives, but for whatever reason, not washing your own hair is where some people draw the line.”
“Everyone’s preferred convenience is so personal to them, but for me, it’s not washing my own hair,” she continues. “Having those few extra hours per week to spend with my fiancé, see my friends and family, create content, or relax is worth far more to me than a little extra shopping per month. I can always make more money, but our hours in the day are finite, so I am using mine as efficiently as possible.”
While it sparked mixed reactions, Johnson says she also received several questions about her blowout schedule, especially regarding when she works out.
“I strategically schedule my workouts around my blowout schedule. I save my cardio sessions and most intense lifting days for the days leading up to my next appointment (or sometimes the morning of),” she shares. “If someone’s sole workout routine is heated classes or really intense cardio, then exclusively getting blowouts may not be the right choice for them, but I can make it work pretty easily.”
Ultimately, she shares that her “goal” isn’t “to have perfect hair 24/7,” and she is “generally really happy with the results in exchange for the very little upkeep.”
A year in, she emphasizes that the best part is “the convenience and time saved by far.”
“It has truly made such a difference in my life because they can do my hair in less than half the time it would take to do it myself, while making it look 10 times better,” she explains. “I’m able to actually check things off my to-do list while someone else is doing my hair, like answering emails, editing content, catching up with friends, planning my week and I wake up every day knowing that one major part of getting ready will be taken care of with maybe a five-minute touch-up.”
The most challenging part, however, is that she is “at the mercy of things I can’t control like heat, humidity, unexpected sweating or rain.”
“It can definitely be frustrating if it gets ruined on day one or two because it is an investment and obviously I want it to last as long as possible, but I’ve accepted that some things are out of my control and I’m not going to win every time,” Johnson tells PEOPLE. “I will say though, I win at the blowout game way more than I lose.”
Johnson acknowledges the process is definitely a luxury and not a necessity, but still would recommend it if it makes sense for someone’s budget and priorities.
“I would encourage people to audit their life and ask themselves: 1. What takes up the most time? 2. What do they enjoy doing the least? And 3. What could they realistically outsource to buy some of their time back?” she shares. “This isn’t an advertisement encouraging everyone to stop washing their own hair but rather to identify the areas where buying their time back would genuinely improve their day-to-day life and spend accordingly.”
“We could all benefit from doing more of the things we enjoy and less of the things we don’t,” she adds.
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