THE STANDARD OF BEAUTY
July 7th 2023- Written by Jessica Eagles
Within the makeup and hair industry our job mainly revolves around changing features with makeup, pushing back imperfections and making our models or clients look different with makeup and hair. Weather this is an editorial look for fashion runway or a character design look for theatre; our job is to enhance certain aspects of our models. Our language as artists needs to adapt to the evolving beauty standard and social media pressures to look a certain way. The connection to appearance and self-worth is almost inescapable, especially when one’s entire career revolves around their looks, like a fashion model or celebrity. On April 4th Bella Hadid posted on Instagram a list of non appearance related complements such as “ I admire your passion and drive” “you’re kind and full of courage” “you have the best energy”. These complements highlights someone personality and traits rather then their beauty. Using this type of language within the makeup and hair industry can make someone feel good without their appearance being involved. Trying to incorporate non-appearance based complements about your makeup or hair when working on a client can be beneficial to their sense of self worth. Try saying “ these colours really highlight your bubbly personality” “you look so confident with your hair like this” or even try asking your model how they feel in your makeup or hair “how does this colour pallet make you feel on the inside?” It can be hard to disconnect your model from the design but the slight change in language can help others see that beauty is not everything. Imagine your model a blank canvas and you are the one creating the art.
