Mirror usage

No mirrors in trees

Grooming is done without looking.
One of the ideas behind grooming is that there are no mirrors in nature.
An individual cannot see oneself.
With no mirror, you would not know what you look like and would have to rely on others or use your sense of touch on yourself.

Grooming and vision

Grooming was not conceived to be done while the sense of sight is active.
Most of my grooming time is spent with my eyes shut.
The first primate was a nocturnal animal and possibly couldn't see that well in the dark.

You, on the other hand, have evolved into a very sight-dependent beast.
Your visual perception is so strong it annihilates your feeble touching experience.

Mirrors and scratching strokes

As soon as you look at your grooming work, your actions change.
You start using only scratching strokes.
You don't need a mirror for this effect to take place, even grooming your legs while looking destroys your grooming technique immediately.
Your sense of vision can only give you cues about the surface of the skin and these are misleading since what you are working on is below it.
Using scratching strokes in front of a mirror can hardly be called grooming and is so slow you will never get to the bottom.

5% mirror usage rule

Relying on a mirror is an easy habit to take, so I warn you against it.
Stay away from the mirror.
If you use a mirror more than 5% of the time, you are not really grooming.
You think you are, because your actions are similar, but you are not led by the right sensorial information.

Visual inspection

This being said, using a mirror for all that 5% time slice is also essential.
Some people shy away from looking at themselves.
Visually inspect your skin anytime you can.
Construct a mental database of all you skin imperfections and their evolution.
Mirrors are also useful to check your grooming progress, namely to identify forgotten regions.

Lost on your skin

While grooming, it is easy to get lost on your own skin because you don't see.
Your hands move all over it, while trying to free it, and you loose track of where you are.
You confuse the left with the right, the top with the bottom.
Periodically or occasionally checking your position with a mirror is instructional.
You can make the link between what you feel and what you see.

The spot & move method

One way to reap the benefits of mirror usage and also groom properly is the "spot and move" method.
You identify a problem visually but, as you start working on it, step away from the mirror.
This procedure really works well because it exploits both senses for their strengths, while accepting their mutual exclusion.

Finding a friend in the mirror

You may have developed an arduous relationship with your mirror.
Since your looks are continuously on the decline, seeing yourself becomes also more painful.
If you groom, you will find a new person staring at you.