In the morning....

[TerokNor]

Don´t laugh, but while waiting in the hairdresser salon and having to watch all the peoples hair getting made I wondered how the mornings of the different Star Trek races would look like.

The Cardassians for example...they´d probably take a shower, brush their teeth and might put (also the males) a lot of hairspray or so in their hair, so that it does not fall in their faces, but straight back and stays that way.
They´d probably need quite some time. Or, what would you say? I had to laugh imagining Dukat or Damar in front of he mirror doing their hair with hairspray or something smililar. For Garak it seems more fitting somehow, but for the soldiers?

The Klingons however I doubt brush their teeth (besides Worf), they may wash a little, may comp fast through their hair head down and thats it. I imagine them a bit smelly really.

I know thats silly, but ..well, sometimes the mind liked wandering to silly thoughts.

TerokNor

 

[Myasishchev]

I think they'd all spend about three hours in makeup. That's gotta suck.

 

[Mary Ann]

For the Cardassians I think of brylcream rather than hairspray. I wonder if they have pretty embroidered antimacassars on the backs of their chairs? Can't visualise it...

 

[Treker]

When it comes to the makup it's the Ferringi that make me wonder.

Teeth, ears, big head covering. Must be fun making them up and you would think they would try to shoot as much as they could before they had to take the makeup off again.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

You know who probably takes hours to get ready...Cardassian women. I imagine we could look to Asia for precedent, as to how long that would really take, seeing as the basic hair type might be similar. The elaborate nature of some of the styles we've seen on Cardassian women remind me a bit of geisha hairstyles, though sometimes I am reminded a bit of India, too.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Scale cleansing might be a part of the Cardassian grooming ritual, perhaps? Like any scaled life-form, they must have parasites that live under or between those scales. Applying chemicals or even, I don't know, "flossing" of their macroscales might be common. Maybe as we get lice in our hair they can get scale-lice?

As Nerys Ghemor says, the intricate patterns of Cardassian women's hair might well take a lot of time. The males certainly groom it to slick it back- in Season 7 we see a drunken Damar who hasn't gotten up yet, his hair is hanging everywhere....

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Hmm...for keeping up with scales, I always pictured a device kinda like a brillo pad on a stick that might be used as the Cardassian equivalent of an "exfoliant," kind of like a human using a loofah.

 

[TerokNor]

Hmm, when they would take a sonic shower I imagine that those sonics would clean also between the scales perfectly....otherwise "scale-cleaning" would really be hard work...I mean what if a Cardassian would have scales all over the shoulders and back, which I could imagine, as the backside is a side that needs protection, due to the fact, that one does not have eyes there.

And for the hair... yes, that must take time for the females....not just getting those hair patterns, but also washing the hair, look at Natima, she has really long and thick hair....and they would have to help each other I assume to get the hair done. That might be why the Military women wear those braids and not such long hair as for example Natima. The braids can be done fastly and alone and they would not have to do them anew every day and wash hair and such, but maybe only every second or third day. As there seem to be mostly males in the military I guess it would be hard to find someone helping with getting the hair nicely done.

TerokNor

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Sonic showers might work--but I personally imagine Cardassians as really craving the warmth of a real water shower. This is just my PERSONAL fan-theory, but I always imagine that DS9 once had the capability of water showers, but the Cardassians destroyed that on the way out along with all the other damage they did. I am very "cold-blooded" myself, and I can tell you after having to live in a dorm for a year where I had no hot water (it would get "lukewarm" sometimes, but rarely ever hot), that WILL put your nerves on edge. And I know if I were Cardassian, I might think that would be good revenge on someone I didn't like.

As for military women...I suspect there must be something in Cardassian tradition that says proper women "should" have long hair. (And like all Cardassian traditions, failing to follow tradition would probably result in very...unpleasant attention.) Otherwise, I really do not think such long hair would be practical in the military, even with the braids.