Beauty Demands

At the time of year when we're encouraged to get "glowing holiday skin" , we revisit this thoughtful exploration of the spray tan from 2016. 3. Where possible, always shave or wax at least 24 hours prior to a spray tan appointment, as hair removal after a spray tan will remove the tan. 6. Try to avoid activities that involve excessive perspiring for 12 hours after a spray tan. 7. Try to avoid activities that naturally exfoliate the skin – such as baths and chlorinated pool swimming – for at least 12 hours after your spray tan. 12. Exfoliate from head to toe the day prior to a spray tan, paying particular attention to areas such as your knees, elbows and ankles. 21. After a shower, try to gently pat your skin dry and avoid vigorous rubbing when towel drying. From: 35 expert spray tanning tips to guarantee you’ll never get a bad tan again Pre-twentieth century, ‘pale skin was often perceived as a mark of beauty, wealth and refinement’ (Martin et...

With hairdressers in the UK currently closed for lockdown again, we republish Anna Cermakova's 2017 post on the important role of hair.  How often do you think about your hair? Every morning looking at yourself in the mirror and thinking is this going to be a ‘good/bad hair’ day? How often do you change the colour of your hair? How often do you substantially change the length or style of your hair? When is the time right for such a change? I have personally been quite unadventurous with my hair for most of my life and never really worried until it started to grow grey… I have always had long or longish hair and never even considered having a really short ‘boy’ haircut; not that I don’t like short hair but it never even occurred to me to try and have a short haircut — so established is the custom for many women to have their hair long. One of John Tenniel’s illustrations of Alice in Wonderland (1865), which is part of the ‘visual’ of the GLARE project I am working on, triggered a ...

Recent reports in the UK have raised worrying questions about the regulation of the beauty industry, whether it be the treatment of under-18s or the inadequate levels of care when removing moles and lesions.  In 2016, Eline Bunnik wrote about how in the Netherlands these questions were already being taken seriously,  with the development of national ethical guidelines for beauticians. (This work was published as an article in Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics in 2018  https://muse.jhu.edu/article/712016 ) Eline Bunnik (Erasmus MC, University Medical Centre Rotterdam) reflects on her work (with Frans Meulenberg & Inez de Beaufort) on a range of ethical issues related to beauty salons and beauticians in the Netherlands. Worldwide, beauticians are progressively employing equipment and compounds that pervade more deeply into the skin, such as IPL/laser or chemical peelings. Present-day skin treatments aimed at hair removal, skin rejuvenation or therapeutic options...

F rom the 1920’s onwards, tanning was seen as aspirational.   It spoke of foreign holidays and the lifestyle of the rich and famous. It was a matter of “looking good” and “looking well”.  The growth of the domestic tanning industry followed and tanning salons became common in the high street and in the health club.  However, over time concerns began to arise due to the health risks of sunbeds and in particular the link with skin cancer. In 2006, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) published the first report by experts on sunbed use and its association with skin cancer or melanoma.   This meta-analysis of 19 studies of associations between the use of sunbeds and the risk of melanoma showed an increase of 15% in the risk of melanoma  amongst those who had used a sunbed compared to those who had not.   Subsequently the IARC added UV-emitting tanning devices to its list of group 1 carcinoge...

It’s 2017, and according to health officials and the media (the main informers of the British public),  Sunbeds are BAD - an ‘irrational’ form of consumption. Nowadays, the ‘rational-thinking’ individual should associate sunbed consumption with their negative effects… Redness, burning, peeling and blistering of the skin – risking skin cancer (melanoma) in the long-run An unsustainable dependence on shallow compliments for self-esteem. Costly maintenance, inconvenient/awkward secrecies, and time wasted travelling. An undesirable association with a ‘Tanorexic’ identity. The stigma attached to ‘obvious’ sunbed users is not favourable. Katie Price? Kat from EastEnders? Not to mention many politicians …. And in horror films a ‘Tanorexic’ habit may result in being cremated alive …     With such stigma in mind, how has this industry, worth millions of pounds, both persisted and thrived for over thirty years? And why do over 3 million Britons continue using them...

A selection of the colours available at a salon In advance of the 4th Beauty Demands Workshop, Louise Rondel (Goldsmiths, University of London)  considers the wider impact of the  nail industry and queries the notion that a manicure constitutes a form of 'routine maintenance'. Costing from as little as ten pounds for a basic file and polish and twenty pounds for a full set of acrylics, it would seem that getting your nails done is becoming increasingly routine.  In 2013 The Sun reported that the number of nail bars increased by 20% in the year 2012-2013 and in 2015 The Evening Standard describes how ‘a swift £20 mani pedi has become the cheap luxury of the decade’ with ‘British women now spend[ing] £450 each on their nails’.  Indeed, walking along a 2 kilometre stretch of road from Camberwell to the Elephant and Castle in south-east London, I counted 37 places where you can get your nails done.    I want to problematise the notion that a manicure ...