I RECENTLY told my daughter how I don’t always use shampoo to wash my hair, applying only conditioner to save time.

“That’s disgusting she told me,” it won’t clean it properly.

This makes me scoff, coming from a child whose bedroom is a major breeding ground for E.coli and should only be entered in a Sellafield-issue bodysuit.

If I thought my hair was dirty I would employ the normal cleansing routine, but it seems to be sufficient to condition only, so that’s what I usually do.

This is not the only criticism my daughters have levelled at me for my ‘beauty routine’. One said that splashing water on my face for a couple of seconds wasn’t anywhere near adequate for cleaning the skin, and that a cleanser should be used. In my opinion plain water is better than any man-made substance.

And they find it “gross” that I don’t shave my legs. They rarely come out from beneath woolly tights, even in summer, so why bother?

I have been accused by them both of being lazy, so it was with glee that I read this week of the many corner-cutting beauty habits that women employ.

A lip product firm asked women to share their lazy beauty secrets and some of the findings I recognise from my daughters’ routines.

Like using dry shampoo when they can’t be bothered to wash their hair. My eldest daughter swears by this, spraying it on liberally. Surely this is far less effective than my condition-only method – at least my hair sees water. How can spray-on chemicals ‘wash’ your hair?

Some women wash only their fringe. Now that’s what I call lazy. At least I wet my entire head.

Others shave only bits of leg that can be seen. As mine are permanently hidden - I rest my case.

And it is common for females to spray-tan exposed bits of body, such as the knees, when wearing ripped jeans.

Spraying perfume on clothing is a common tactic, which I know my youngest daughter employs. In my opinion that heady mix of sweat and scent makes clothing smell worse rather than better.

Keeping make-up on for days is also not uncommon.

I may cut corners but I don’t chew gum instead of cleaning my teeth, as some women do, and I certainly don’t use wet wipes instead of washing. That really is, in the words of my daughters, gross.

So, really, I should not be made to feel like a tramp for wearing the same socks for a week and not brushing my hair on a weekend.

We all do it. All woman have a lazy streak - they wouldn’t be human otherwise - and, crucially, we don’t all have hours of free time at our disposal to preen.