Re: To the men who notice how/what women dress/wear, do you have preferences?
Reha started a thread earlier about whether guys notice the effort women put in their appearance, but carrying forward on that theme and inspired by a conversation among friends, do guys care:
1) About the colours women wear?
2) Whether women have a mashriqi (Eastern) or maghribi (Western) look?
3) Prefer long hair or short hair?
4) Care about how fair a girl's complexion is?
5) Heavily made-up look or natural look?
6) Mehndi hands or no mehndi?
Is there anything else guys notice or have an opinion on?
I can share how my fiance and his friends(guys) feel about these (since I hear them make comments often enough!):
1) Given a choice, they prefer neutrals. They do like certain bright colors but it depends on how that color is on the outfit and whether or not the girl can carry the color.
2) If we're at a desi event, then of course they want to see desi outfits. But otherwise, no. Since they're all born/raised in the U.S., they think it's ridiculous for a girl to wear salwar-kameez on a daily basis. They'd have no problem with it if we were "back home"....but not here. (Now keep in mind that the mothers of these men all wear western clothing on a day-to-day basis ....as do ALL females in our social group......so their opinion of this is influenced by what they grew up with).
3) My fiance doesn't like super long or super short hair. Somewhere in between is preferred by him.
4) I've never heard my fiance or any of his guy friend's make a comment directly about a girl skin tone. BUT I will note that the girls their gfs/fiance/wives are not "dark". Not all are "fair"...but none are what we would consider "dark" (think South Indian skin tone).
5) My fiance and his guy friends HATE heavily made-up makeup look. They hate full coverage foundation, heavy blush/bronzer, heavy/bright eye makeup etc. They understand the need for makeup to "enhance" a girl's look.....but feel it should be kept to a minimum and within neutral colors (fiance hates it when I apply non-neutral eye shadows).
6) Again at weddings or special occassions....they have no issues with mehendi. But not on a daily basis.
** Generally they prefer girls to "keep up" with their looks. As in keeping eye brows/nails groomed.....working out/staying in shape.....maintaining hair (blow dry/straight/style it at least now and then), apply minimal makeup when going out etc.