We are Due for a Beauty Pause
Because we're running out of time and money in this chase
I have always had horrible hair. Stringy, greasy, lifeless hair. The kind of hair that resembles a hospital-grade mop after it has cleaned the men’s bathroom floor.
As a teen, I fought back against my limp locks with an arsenal of hairsprays and gels. For hours, I would tease my bangs into a sticky, hard, helmet-like mass that doubled as both hair sculpture and lethal weapon. Then I would wrap my head around the barrel of a hot curling iron until my arms felt like they might float away from my body.
One time, I was so determined to mimic the lush locks found in glossy magazines that I failed to smell the burnt hair filling the bathroom. (In my defense, it is hard to smell anything when you have inhaled enough hairspray to glue your nose hairs together.) For weeks after, I was forced to wear headbands, scarves, and lopsided ponytails to cover up my beauty mishap. It wasn’t pretty.
My desire for beauty is nothing new. Great hair. Flawless skin. The perfect figure. Women have chased after beauty as mindlessly as a dog chases after a car. Many of us never catch that car.
You have probably heard the cliché — “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” So who is this beholder? And when will they be arriving…
