People Try Living Without A Mirror For A Week

I can't imagine living without my own reflection. Sometimes I hate looking at myself, but most of the time I love it. It's really only when I go out into the world and see everyone else that I start doubting myself. But when it's just me and my mirror, I'm hot sh*t. So I can't imagine giving up that little moment of private confidence. BuzzFeed has experimented with the concept of people living without mirrors by having some of their staff do just that. Five BuzzFeeders took the challenge to give up mirrors for a week, which, on its face (pardon the pun) doesn't seem like such a long or difficult amount of time. All five of the subjects admit to being avid mirror users before the experiment begins.

They all start by removing or covering mirrors in their living spaces, which is actually quite a feat. There are mirrors everywhere! Which is funny to think that all these people had to spend a week actively avoiding their reflection, even in public, meaning that they were shying away from all reflective surfaces. One of the guys even recalls the faucet in his sink being reflective. It's interesting to think that even in these small ways, that we might not even notice, we're constantly confronted with our own image. Here's the process that people went through after a week with no mirrors:

1. Imagining what they looked like

2. Worrying how other people saw them

3. Becoming totally self conscious

4. Cheating

5. Getting comfortable with it

6. Realizing how much they criticize themselves

Watch the whole thing below, and challenge yourself not to cry at the end:

Photos: Youtube (7)