The Altar Of Getting Ready: Why Getting Ready With Girlfriends Will Always Be The Best Part Of The Night
The vanity unit is having a cultural moment: part dressing table, part ritual space, part where we express ourselves. What was once private has become visible. With the rise of ‘get ready with me’ content, the act of getting ready is no longer hidden behind closed doors: it is watched and shared
There was something quite magical about being a little girl watching the women around you get ready. Your mother, sister, grandmother, each in their own familiar rhythm. The sound of hairspray, the careful swipe of lipstick, the cloud of a perfume you would recognise anywhere. Watching them in their natural habitat, waiting for the day you could take their place in front of the mirror.
Not because you thought you needed to become them, or because you believed you needed all these rituals to be beautiful; but because you wanted to. You wanted to experience that sacred place.
Now rewind. Think of a Friday night in your teens: packing an absurd amount of makeup into a bag, rushing over to your best friend’s house, and getting ready together before going out. The bedroom floor covered in products, mirrors shared, music playing, conversations flowing. Getting ready was never just about the final look, it was about the ritual itself.
Or today, opening TikTok or YouTube and entering someone else’s world through a “get ready with me.” Watching a stranger in her own space: applying skincare, choosing jewellery, styling her hair, preparing for the day, delivered directly to you through a screen.
So why does watching someone get ready feel so intimate, so familiar, and so special? With the rise of “get ready with me” content, preparation has become something to be watched. Millions now tune in to routines that were once entirely private. Skincare, makeup, hair and styling have moved beyond acts of maintenance and became small acts of storytelling and connection.
In response, the spaces where these rituals happen have become more intentional. The vanity is no longer simply functional. It has become curated: a place where beauty products are set like treasured objects, mirrors are positioned to flatter both their owner and the camera.
Dressing tables were once places to get ready and reflect, intimate spaces where people paused before stepping into the world. What has changed is not the ritual itself, but the audience. Social media did not change the purpose of the vanity; it changed who gets to see it. What was once private is now shared.
As our homes continue to adapt to the new ways of how we live, work and present ourselves, the vanity unit has become one of the most revealing objects in the contemporary interior. It is where we create the version of ourselves we choose to share with the world (whether in person or online).
Lead Image Courtesy of Instagram/@kalani.melia