Archive for the 'Intimate Wisdom' Category
Are You Wearing Your Panties Too High?
September 16, 2009
I know you may think this sounds like a silly question, but are you? Are you pulling your underpants up too high? I bring this up because I realized that with some of my panty styles, I was.
Here’s a little background. The thong as a mainstream panty option hit about 15 years ago. And, if you remember, the initial trend setters complained it was not comfortable. Further research discovered that these women were putting on the thongs and pulling them up so that the waistband rested high on their hips – this was the problem. Women didn’t realize at the time that the thong was designed to sit lower on the hips. After all, low rise pants were not yet making their debut on the market. Only strippers and showgirls knew that thongs were to rest lower on the hips. Since then, manufacturers either made thongs with longer rises so that women could pull them up to their waist, or put tags on them to let women know they were low-rise.
Okay, so back to my question. I was going through my panty assortment the other day and singling out the panties that I felt were not comfortable to wear. I have all styles in my drawer – boyshorts, thongs, bikinis, briefs–you name it, I have it. When I had finished sorting out the ones I didn’t like, I noticed something; they were all low-rise. So it got me thinking. I grabbed a pair and put it on like I do all my panties and realized I just instinctively pulled them up too high. When getting dressed, I have a bit of a ritual and move from item to item without much thought. All my panties were treated the same, regardless of style.
So, this time, I put on a low-rise bikini, but instead of my normal mindless pull-up, I thought about where it should be placed and I lowered the waistband to rest more on my hips. What an epiphany! This panty was now comfortable. I wore it all day and it felt great. I can’t believe I was doing this.
Here’s the lesson; stop and think about the style of panty you’ve just picked before mindlessly putting it on. If you have some panties you have been avoiding because of comfort, go back and look at them through new glasses. I think you’ll be as surprised as I that many pairs really are comfortable when put on correctly.
Find thongs and other styles at HerRoom in these departments:
Panties
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Posted by Tomima at 10:19am
2 Comments »
Why Are Bra Strap Adjusters in the Back Instead of the Front?
June 29, 2009
Mary from Boston wrote in to HerRoom this week with a question: Why are strap adjusters on the back of the bra strap instead of in the front? We actually hear this question on a regular basis, so what better to do than blog about it. Here I go…
It makes perfect sense that the strap adjuster should be in front on bras. Think about it. It would make putting on a bra easier because the straps could quickly be let out to get them on your shoulders. Once your bra is on, you could easily adjust the straps yourself until you had adequate breast support. So, why aren’t they in front? Well there are 4 reasons.
1. Strap design. More and more bras now incorporate the front of the bra straps into the overall design of the bra. If there is lace, you will see it also crawling up the bra strap If there is a design element on the cup, many times it will continue up the strap. Designers also like to shape the bra straps differently. For example, start them wide where they attach to the bra cup and then taper them up to your shoulder area. These design options would never work with a strap adjuster. In these cases, the strap adjustment needs to be in the back.
2. Wide Strap Designs. In the last 5 years, the concept of "comfort straps" has really taken off. This is where the top of the strap that rests on your shoulder will be wide and possibly have padding. Such a design necessitates any strap adjusting being handled in the back.
3. Aesthetics. It is the common opinion of the industry that when looking a a bra, it is more attractive if all the hooks and adjusters are in the back. It’s a rather old concept, but one that seems to stick around.
4. Show-through. In this age of t-shirt bras, when no one wants seams from a bra to show through their form-fitting clothing, the strap adjuster gets the same scrutiny. If it’s in front, you would have a bump that would be visible under clothing.
Another interesting piece of information on this came from our friends at Wacoal. Years ago, the strap adjustment was always on the front of a bra. But, unlike today’s adjusters, it was a slide and pull-through strap adjuster that was rather bulky. Women complained about it showing under tops so the industry moved them to the back. When the new adjusters became popular, the industry never moved them from back to front.
So, for all these reasons, we are left taking off our bras and then guessing as to the right adjustment, or depending on someone else to do it for us. Now, there are some bras out there with front adjusters. You’ll just need to look closely at our images, or use our nifty feature to have all the back shots pop up in your search. And, you can purchase a convertible bra and switch the straps to your liking.
With all these explanations, it’s now understandable why the adjustments are in back. But, it sure would be great if someone could figure out how a girl could get to them once she’s put on her bra.
Find bras at HerRoom in these departments:
Bras
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Posted by Tomima at 11:56am
3 Comments »
Sagging Breasts – Does Wearing a Bra Prevent This?
June 19, 2009
Let me start with the punchline here: No one knows. Believe it or not, research on what causes breasts to sag has not been done. This fact is probably due to the time involved to find out. You’d be hard pressed to find a woman willing to go without a bra for 10 years all in the name of science – especially if she’s full figured.
So we don’t know if bras prevent the inevitable breast sag. But, here are a few things I do know. My 80 year-young mom has great looking D-cup boobs. Even her gynecologist has commented on how high they are compared to those of other women her age. I too have pretty perky ones. What both of us have in common is that we have always worn a bra. Though I’m a C cup, I really avoid clothing where I can’t wear some kind of bra.
I had the opportunity to work with Joanna Scurr last year. Dr. Scurr is the only one I know currently doing work on breast bounce and movement. Her research shows that our breasts move in a figure-8 motion as we move – especially while running. Though she wasn’t able to measure an increase in sagging, she did discover that breast pain and thus breast movement can be reduced or eliminated by wearing a supportive sports bra. The more support, the less the bounce and thus less breast pain. HerRoom, in fact, is the only website that conducts a bounce test on every sports bra and shows you how much breast bounce to expect when wearing various sports bras.
Our breasts, like our faces and other body parts, are subjected to daily gravity. They will sag. And, since they have little to no muscle tissue, it’s not possible to tone our breasts to make them firm. Wearing a bra may or may not reduce your sag over time, but what a bra can do is put your girls in a more flattering light. A bra can lift, separate, push up, minimize, plump up and generally present your breasts in a more youthful and attractive silhouette to make your clothes look better. And, wearing a bra cuts down on breast pain, reduces jiggle, provides modesty from headlights showing, and makes us more comfortable. All in all, it’s a great idea to wear a bra.
Find Sports bras at HerRoom in these departments:
Sport Underwear
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Posted by Tomima at 11:41am
3 Comments »
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