Hey Ugly,
My question is really about the emergence of a beauty culture for babies. My daughter is seven months old and almost since she was born I’ve been seeing ads for products to get rid of cradle cap (something that has the appearance of large dandruff-like flakes on the scalp, which is completely normal and 100% harmless) and to treat acne on your baby (which is also perfectly normal and harmless in newborns).
I’m wondering if you’ve come across your thoughts on the market reach of these purely cosmetic products for babies and transferring our beauty-obsessed culture to our babies.
Signed,
Angry New Mom
Relating to: Ask the Ugly: Now that I’m a mother, I’m mourning the loss of my former ‘beautiful’ self. Is this normal?
When I say “baby”, “beauty ideal” comes to my mind.
Lotions sold to adults have long promised baby softness. Collagen creams claim to provide plump, bouncy baby cheeks. The skin-care industry is booming with a best-selling product called Babyfacial (an exfoliating treatment), a brand called Bejbi Skin (pronounced “baby skin”), and a product called “Operation Goo Goo Gah Gah” (an ode to anti-aging once penned). It boasts of columns. by Ziwe for Into The Gloss).
Those interested can also choose between multiple vernix-inspired face masks; The waxy, white substance emerges as newborns are coated: perhaps Mutha’s Rebirth Vernix Mask, $110, or Biologique Recherche’s Creme Masque Vernix, $209. And to think that your womb produces reality for free!
But what the industry builds eventually collapses. Lately, she’s been encouraging clients to surgically suck out the “baby fat” from their faces by removing cheek fat and — as you’ve noticed, Annoyed New Mom — to murder their once-idealized babies with serum.
Does this make sense? NO! And there’s no need for that, as long as it makes money. Category entries like “refreshing” sheet masks for toddlers and the $115 Baby Dior “hydrating milk” moisturizer have helped the baby and children’s skin-care industry gain a $250 million valuation this year. This figure is expected to increase to 380 million dollars by 2028.
This is worrying because babies often do not need skin care. In fact, the opposite is true.
To address the specific issues you mentioned, New Mom: St Louis Children’s Hospital agrees that cradle cap is “harmless” and adds that “it’s totally okay to leave it alone.” The Cleveland Clinic calls baby acne “a common skin condition that affects newborns…and one that often goes away on its own without treatment.” It’s normal to experience bumps in the road (literally) as a baby’s sensitive skin transforms into a fully functioning organ. It’s not important.
While baby skin problems are generally harmless, the opposite can be said for baby beauty products: dermatologists agree that these products can be actively effective. damaging.
“We do too much to our children,” writes Dr Sandy Skotnicki in her 2018 book Beyond Soap. “Too many baths. Too much brushing. “I soap too much.” He cites research showing that daily application of soap and other skin care products during infancy and childhood “is now thought to contribute to the rapid increase in cases of eczema, asthma and hay fever.”
This is because the skin is part of the body’s immune system. In fact, it is the immune system’s first line of defense, thanks to two key components: the skin microbiome, or the collection of a trillion microorganisms that live in and on the skin, and the skin barrier, or the outermost layer of the skin.
Skin care products can threaten the health of the barrier and microbiome at any age, eventually making users more prone to all kinds of problems: dryness, oiliness, dehydration, sensitivity, dermatitis and inflammatory conditions like acne, eczema, psoriasis and rosacea. If this trend continues, I predict that inflammatory skin conditions in adolescents will be at epidemic levels approximately 10 years from now. (The science behind this is fascinating and complex; for a more in-depth explanation I recommend reading Dr James Hamblin’s Beyond Soap and Clean: The New Science of Skin and the Beauty of Doing Less.)
So if baby skin care is not recommended for babies – I repeat: not recommended for babies – Why is it so popular? Because these products are not suitable for babies. They are for parents.
Adults are obsessed with beauty products. Adults ignored warnings that these products were making their skin worse. Adults have been conditioned to believe that skin care is personal care. Adults believe that basic human characteristics like acne, wrinkles, and dead skin cells are not only physical but also moral failings.
And adults project their beliefs onto their babies.
Are you familiar with “Almond Mothers”? The term emerged on TikTok earlier this year to describe mothers who are “obsessed with food and diet culture” and foster this obsession in their children.
I believe the baby skin care boom indicates the emergence of a new type of mother: the Mother Serum. Like Mother Almond, Mother Serum is obsessed with meeting a certain standard of beauty and fosters the same obsession in her children.
A common defense of these offerings is something that boils down to: “It’s just lotion!” But lotion is never just lotion. Author PE Moskovitz writes that skin care also “carries the burden of what we, as a society, find beautiful, what we find clean, what we find worthy of admiration.” A product’s purpose ultimately informs its user’s purpose: to brighten skin, tighten pores, be petite and beautiful, and never, ever age (or look that way).
Of course, beauty culture is everywhere, and children will encounter and absorb these obligations over time. But I think they are more powerful when applied by the hand of a parent and from the moment of birth; It’s harder to question, and even harder to give up.
To be clear: Like Almond Mother, Serum Mother is not responsible for her own existence! She is a product of the beauty-obsessed culture around her. She probably “wants to be seen as a good parent,” as Dr. Skotnicki puts it. (This is a priority in itself physical appereance Preferring good parenting to good parenting is a side effect of beauty culture.) Serum Mom probably believes herself to be the same to protect by preparing their child to live in a world that will value and devalue them based on their adherence to an oppressive ideal of appearance. If my baby is always beautiful, they will never have to feel bad!
Unfortunately, beauty standards don’t work that way. See already slim people taking cosmetics Ozempic, wrinkle-free 14-year-old Marilyn Monroe taking anti-aging regimens.
Whether individuals or not to meet Due to society’s beauty standard, research shows that they are psychologically affected by this pressure. Beauty standards are associated with increased incidences of anxiety, depression, dysmorphia, eating disorders and self-harm. The sight of a bottled beauty product (just the packaging, no need for an impossibly beautiful model) is enough to “remind consumers of their own shortcomings” and “make them view themselves more negatively,” the New York Times reports. today’s youth According to the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Survey of Children’s Health, they are now using more skin care than ever before, now naming “skin” as the primary source of negative body image.
The best thing a parent can do for their baby’s developing skin And psyche — and it looks like you’re already doing this, Angry New Mom — is to leave their skin alone. If you’re worried or confused, visit a dermatologist. Re-evaluate your relationship with skin care and beauty standards. Stop when you feel yourself moving towards the Serum Mom area. Smell your baby’s head (known as the best scent in the world, if not for Dior’s $230 pear-scented baby perfume) and repeat after me: I will not purchase the baby skin care product.