Rain during Recruitment
 

I will be participating in Fall Recruitment at my college. The sorority houses are pretty spread out and so we walk from house to house. Apparently there is a 60% chance of it raining. What should I do to prepare to walk in the rain? Thanks!

Bring your umbrella. You can also wear a different pair of shoes and carry your "party" shoes with you, then change into them before the party. Rho chis are used to holding bags, purses, etc outside for the pnms while they are at the party.

An umbrella is a must! I think it would be cute to wear some rainboots but they might be too hefty/large to carry around in your bag...

It's good to hear that we won't have to take our wet umbrellas into the houses. Thank you for all the tips!

Also I just want to add, try not to stress about the rain. Bring an umbrella and maybe an extra hair-tie and a small bottle of hairspray (if your hair starts to frizz.... I know mine did).

Ugh! It didn't rain when I went through recruitment, but it did one of the years that I was an active. Most houses, including ours, had no a/c and we were only permitted to keep the doors open during the parties (not between).

There were about 150 girls on the first floor at one time, and 90 degrees with 100% humidity. Steambath inside and out! The only Godsend was that this was the 80s, with 80s hairstyles. Frizz was in whether you wanted it or not.

If you straighten your hair and it goes funky the minute it smells a drop of rain...experiment (before rush) with some other hairstyles that can take the weather a little better. Better to stay curly and look relatively, well, kempt than go nuts with the flat iron only to have it go to pot the minute you step outside. (This is a good plan whether you're rushing or not.)

What 33girl said is so so true. My hair will frizz out with the slightest bit of humidity no matter how many anti-frizz products I put in it or how many times I straighten the same strand of hair. I usually "scrunch" my hair on rainy/hot days. (If you don't know what this is, you basically get out of the shower with wet hair - not soaking, but wet enough - and put in some moose/curl gel in and basically curl with your hands. It works well if you have even the slightest big of curl in your hair, just as long as your hair isn't naturally pin-straight). I'd reccomend scrunching your hair on the rainy days!

Good luck!

ETA: I didn't really do a good job describing how to scrunch your hair because it's rather hard to explain over the Internet, but this is a pretty good step-by-step guide. The way I do it is closest to the 2nd method, but try it out before hand and see what works best for you.

My hair actually doesn't get too frizzy. It's thick and long, so it does pretty well, but I'm sure the advice will help many others! Thanks!

This.

1st day of recruitment I didn't have an umbrella because I didn't think it was going to rain (It was Oregon in the fall, um, duh it's going to rain!) and I poured between the second to last house and the last house. I was the last one called in. Needless to say it was an awkward conversation with the girl because I soaked and shivering. UMBRELLAS ARE A MUST!

Waterproof mascara is always a good idea during Recruitment, whether for rain, being hot & sweaty, or tears (often during Pref). Nobody wants to look like a raccoon.

Thread hijack -

A few years back,a MONSOON started in the middle of one of the rounds. The pnms were all lined up at the end of the sidewalk, standing parallel to the busy street that runs on sorority row. There were still 5 - 10 minutes before the party was allowed to start. Plenty of the girls had umbrellas, but they were only helping a little. As the rush advisor, I poked my head out and asked that the pnms be allowed to huddle on our porch. (this seemed like such a no brainer!) There are so very many strict no contact rules on our campus that this offer had to be radioed back to Greek Life, discussed, etc before the answer came back: no. In the meantime, the rain fell in buckets and every time a car drove by, the water in the streets would spray (and I am talking Old Faithful geyser spray) up on the girls waiting on the sidewalk! It was so terrible! Our rush chair ran to the kitchen and passed out paper towels to each active just before the party started. The pnms arrived literally wringing wet,shivering, humiliated, etc. But they were thrilled to get their hands on those paper towels!

avoid wearing flip flips from house to house if the ground is muddy! they tend to kick up drops of mud onto the backs of your legs/back of your outfit.