Last month, I was at a beauty launch event for a new facial fitness programme, and yes, face exercise is very much a thing. Following a taster session, during which our visages were invigorated and refined, looking snatched, we got stuck into breakfast. While interrogating my neighbour, who was an avid user of the programme. The woman across from us had asked, "but does it really make a difference?" My neighbour had gushed about the results but admitted that it was basically a faff. She was having to wake up an extra 20 minutes each morning to follow the programme, and after a couple of weeks, - I think she lasted two weeks, impressive - had given up, because it had become too much. “I have my skincare routine, the gym, and then makeup and body care. I don’t know how much more time I can invest in my appearance,” she moaned.
The average individual spends around 4 hours on beauty maintenance each day, a new study found. It’s no surprise, a short scroll on BeautyTok, and you’re overwhelmed with the sheer amount of beauty maintenance that is required. Beauty maintenance has received a lot of attention as of late, both good and bad. But four hours, that’s a huge chunk of the day, surely I am not the only that thinks up to four hours daily beauty maintenance is a lot, a lot? The rise in popularity of time devoted to beauty maintenance are reflective of our relationship with beauty. Maybe the downplay of beauty maintenance as many small routines throughout the day does well to conceal the reality of how much time we’re actually devoting to our outwardly appearance.
I recently wrote about the “Everything Shower” for Jessica Defino’s newsletter, The Unpublishable. Do you know how long an average “everything shower” takes? Up to five hours of scrubbing, shaving, conditioning, and masking, and that’s on a weekly basis. And then there is the daily beauty upkeep, from skincare routines to makeup to dry brushing, red light therapy, and everything else. How much time is too much time to invest into your appearance?
And I’m not coming for anyone here; I’m very much consumed by the beauty maintenance practice. I can be quite lazy with my beauty maintenance, that is, for a beauty editor, however, my skin has been acting up lately. So I have convinced myself I need to be devoting more time to my beauty routine to get my skin in tip-top shape.
I realise how absurd this is, and there is a sense of shame rising in my body as I admit this on the internet. I’ve committed to using my red light therapy every day for 20 minutes in a bid to calm down my very irritated skin, and I think it’s working, I hope it’s working. I’ve been pretty good with it; I usually do it as part of my morning routine, you know, get it out of the way for the day. There was a particular day when I was out for the majority of the day and evening and so the red light mask was not on the cards that morning. I remember I got home, and I was exhausted. I literally couldn’t keep my eyes open, still that did nothing to threaten my commitment to my skincare. Spurred by internalised pressure and compulsion, I did it, I completed my 20 minutes under the red light mask. Before you applaud me for my dedication, please hold off. Admirable perhaps, but it’s telling of how deep the pressures are ingrained. Our fixation on attaining and maintaining unrealistic standards of beauty serves as a symptom of a thriving societal malaise.
Throughout history, ideals of beauty have persisted, evolving in tandem with every century and era. Humans have long demonstrated an emotional connection to the idea of beauty and being beautiful. Today, being beautiful has become both a currency and a source of value. The idea that the highest level of beauty can be fulfilled is perpetuated heavily by social media; the hashtag beauty maintenance has over 113 million views and counting. Fashioning harmful obsessions and social pressures in our beauty-centric culture to meet standards that reinforce the worst aspects of our society from inequality to misogyny to racism to capitalism. There is no doubt, it’s a powerful institution that ensures that we succumb the immense pressure to appear a certain a way regardless of who are.
It’s similar to any addiction, too much of a good thing eventually becomes a bad thing. It’s like with diet and exercise culture, there is a line and that line is easily crossed, and very quickly we find ourselves in a territory that pushes dangerous extremes and we’re much worse off for it. Of course, this impacts women significantly more, especially as we’re constantly told our worth and power is a direct correlation to how we’re perceived in accordance to our external appearance. This association is a obstacle in developing our sense of self and personal beauty.
I worry about the knockoff effect, as social media becomes more tightly bonded into our daily lives, as it continues to hold so much power over us. It’s no coincidence that the fastest growing group turning to plastic surgery and tweakments are 18-24 year olds. It’s hard to tell, who garners more control over who we are, ourselves or external industries like social media or the beauty industry.
I am conflicted; on one hand, I adore beauty and its rituals, and on the other hand, I question my relationship with it and the toxicity it brews. We live in a world where unrealistic beauty ideals and expectations are the norm and masquerade as set points for us to reach when, in fact, they are purposefully created to be unattainable. So when do we stop trying or at least stop giving up so much of our time to achieve it?
I just think of all that women could be doing and achieving if they didn't spend so much time on body maintenance. We could probably change the world.
I was thinking about this the other day. My partner does absolutely nothing and I do something every evening - micro needling, face yoga, stretches, retinol, omnilux. It's bullshit.