Between narcissism and insecurity

I have long had this theory (one of my own many) that people who cannot stop looking at themselves in the mirror, touching up their make-up and combing and re-combing their hair, were those people who were insecure.

You see, this theory evolved from the ladies' washroom. There are always these long queues and right where I stand at the end of the line, there are vanity tops for ladies to do their touch-ups. I would see these young girls. Fiddling and re-fiddling their hair, putting on more make-up, pout their lips and put some more.

This theory might have half grown out of jealousy for them being so youthful and yet, so much money to spend on 'grooming' themselves. It also came about as I was really irritated, looking at them posing and re-posing in front of the mirror.

Therefore, I decided that confident people don't need to stare at the mirror for too long. They touch up, put on lipstick, adjust their clothes, and go. No second thoughts.

Then yesterday, while talking with some girlfriends at a bar, one of them came up with a very interesting comment about how narcissistic she was. She would look at the mirror once she got into a lift (if there was one) and once, she used a car's side mirrors to adjust her hair, not knowing that the driver and passenger were in it! She would get any opportunity she could to look at herself.

Well, this certainly is the other side of the coin that I did not see. Maybe from now on I should not be stuck in that 'confident' theory and if I chose to stare at myself longer in the mirror, I would. I could then give myself the excuse that I am narcissistic. Hee, hee... .