What is a “Clean Girl” and do I wanna be one?

Living
11.06.25

I first came across this idea of a “clean girl”, where else? On social media of course. The name sounded hip, even though it maybe should have alerted me that something is off. Clean in contrast to what?

But I love the aesthetic. Clean girls are the girls who are always put together, who wear slacks with minimalist shirts and slick their hair back with gel or wax, who do a low bun, so that no stray hair peeks out. Hailey Bieber or Kendall Jenner are considered “clean girls”, in specific moods. Clean girls takes care of themselves. Clean girls are obsessed with skin-care and self-care and getting that nightly 8 hours of sleep. Clean girls go to Equinox (a fancy US gym for all of those unfamiliar) and drink matcha or smoothies from Erewhon (fancy 20$ smoothie place). I love and abhor them at the same time.

Slick back hair, clean hygiene, looking polished, it’s basically the same as what “basic bitch” used to be a few years ago only with a minimalist twist. I often ask myself do I wanna be a clean girl? Do I wanna live this life?

Living in Egypt it’s kind of hard to understand what the culture is nowadays. Girls wear crop tops and sweatpants to Arkan and in Maadi soffee shorts and flip flops but speak in Arabic. They are open in their clothing style, and adopt many Western traditions, living on Tik Tok and the latest Drake-Kendrick drama. This transformation speaks to me but I am always worried that our traditions will be lost. That of our grandparents and ancestors. I love that you can be playful and yourself, but I hate that hijab is looked at as a lesser expression.

The other day I visited my mom’s friend May in her backyard/garden/tv-shisha area and her husband had had a custom-made galabeya and I thought, why has the galabeya gone out of style? Why don’t I wear a galabeya? Why is it that only women in their 60s still wear these along with nightgowns and curlers in the hair and cold cream on their face?

There are some things I believe we should hang on to, like more modest wear and tea time and reading the newspaper. Tradition is a weird thing, because it isn’t any one thing that a person does but a string of events that live over a lifetime.

The traditions I would love to uphold: listening to others while they speak without interrupting, being kind to yourself even in a down time, respecting your elders and giving.

I don’t know what a clean girl is, but I hope there can be more than one way to be a clean girl. The jury is out.

Questioningly yours,