When you think of the beauty industry, things like cosmetics, skincare and beauty treatments, what images come to mind? Do you feel good when you think about the beauty industry? If the answer is no, you’re not alone…
My Nose and Me: Sniffing Out Toxic Eurocentric Beauty Standards
I remember when I first really noticed my nose. I was in my early teens, and along with my thick Indian hair appearing on just about every part of my body, I noticed one other major change. My nose was getting bigger…
Growing Pains
“Oh, you’ve got a little cluster of greys back here!” my hairdresser exclaims. “Really?” I reply, attempting to sound nonchalant as I mentally make a note of exactly where she’s snipping. As soon as I get home, instead of my usual routine of debating whether getting my fringe cut back in was a mistake, I rapidly locate my hand mirror and a pair of tweezers, and plonk myself in front of the bathroom mirror…
A hairy tale of wild meets well-styled
I’m not usually one who looks forward to going to the hairdressers. Don’t get me wrong, the head rub you get as your hair is being washed sends me weak at the knees. And on more than one occasion, I have walked out firmly believing that I could give Lana Del Rey, circa. Video Games, a run for her money…
Beauty and the Virtual Beast
Social media and the fascination with image is more prevalent than ever in today’s society, because of how much access we have to it and how much information is online for us to consume. We have access to the camera phone, proven to be “a revolution in visual culture that has turned us into a population of image addicts. We now take more photographs every minute than we made in the entire 19th Century and spend the average of six hours a day gazing into screens” – Age of the Image (2020), BBC4…
If They’re Selling You Something, It’s Not Feminism
It’s starting to become a familiar refrain when I watch television in the evening: first the music, sounding enough like that one Beyoncé song to suggest power, followed by various shots of women with truly flawless skin staring unashamedly down the camera, or doing something cool like skateboarding. A voiceover with buzzwords…
Race and beauty: Fanny Eaton, the Pre-Raphaelites, and revising art history
Many people associate the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) with beautiful snow-skinned redheads. However, as with all first bases of academic research, if you go to the Wikipedia page for the PRB, the word “redhead” nor any other mention of hair colour comes up. Wary of Wikipedia, one starts to think to themselves, is Wikipedia hiding something from me or have I been disillusioned by popular art history? Is Wikipedia being woke or stupid, or am I?…
Reflecting on Becoming More Myself
There was a time when my room was devoid of mirrors, where the sight of myself disgusted me. Where acknowledging my appearance in such a way was abhorrent to me. I dreamed of transition, of change, that I might escape the form that had been dealt me and become something more than I was. That, given enough time, I would finally be beautiful…