For Hazel Wood, getting beauty treatments isn’t just an occasional thing. The 28-year-old influencer spends around £500 a month on maintenance appointments. Of that, £80 goes on pedicures and manicures, £70 on brow lamination (a chemical solution is used to straighten and reshape the brow hairs) and £60 on her lashes. In addition, she also gets around £250-£300 in Botox every three to six months.
She says these treatments play a vital role in her life. “They make me feel like I’m showing up as my best self. When I feel like I’m not showing up at my best, I have a hard time being confident and productive, and I also have a hard time interacting with people.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to do all of these things to be beautiful,” she adds. But doing all of these things, she says, “makes me feel more capable in both my personal and professional life.”
Wood’s professional life involves a lot of time in front of the camera, producing content on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube about where she shops and what she eats, much of it endorsed by high street and fast fashion brands. She often spends her own money and time on beauty treatments. “I don’t particularly enjoy having any of these treatments, to be honest,” she says. “I’m a busy person. When I have these treatments, I feel like it takes hours out of my day that I’ll never get back.”
So why does she do this? “It saves me time in the morning,” she says. “I’m already ready, so my day starts off more productively because I don’t have to spend time getting ready.”
In recent years, the concept of “beauty maintenance days” has grown online, particularly on platforms like TikTok. The hashtag #beautymaintenance has amassed over 112.7 million views on the platform; the idea is that you’ll save time overall throughout the month by booking semi-permanent treatments like lash lifts (so you don’t feel the need to curl your lashes every morning) or brow treatments (so you don’t have to spend time penciling them in every day).
Part of the trend is about not looking overly made-up or overly groomed, which is perverse. As a recent article in Vogue put it: “The irony of wearing makeup is that we often choose to look like we’re not wearing any.” The hashtag #highmaintenancetobelowmaintenance has been viewed more than 70 million times on TikTok. In these wildly popular videos, users meticulously document their visits to the nail salon, brow and lash salon, and laser hair removal sessions. What they show is that the so-called “low-maintenance” or “natural” look is anything but. Looking natural has become such a strict beauty standard that it requires committing to at least a full day every month.
So how did we get here? While the pressure on women to look a certain way and spend time and money to achieve unrealistic ideals is nothing new, many people have embarked on more demanding beauty regimes during the pandemic. With hairdressers and salons closed, trying DIY treatments at home has become popular. According to a 2022 Mintel study, 38% of women aged 16-24 have made changes to their beauty and grooming routines. And while the retail sector as a whole has been hit by the cost of living crisis, the beauty retail sector has remained relatively stable in 2023 because, according to Mintel, grooming is seen by many as an “affordable luxury” during difficult times.
Charlie Shepherd, a 29-year-old communications manager from London, started a skincare routine during lockdown. What started as a way to pass the time is now a permanent part of her routine. She spends £80 a month on getting her nails done and £60 on beauty products. She spends £200 on facials and haircuts every few months.
“It’s about the experience,” Shepherd says. “It’s social, it’s a confidence booster, and it’s something I do for myself.” She never skips her biweekly manicure. “It makes me feel confident, especially because I’m in the dating world, and you use your hands a lot when you’re talking to people, so I feel well-prepared.”
It’s well-documented that the pandemic has encouraged many to give up on the concept of a beauty regimen altogether, growing out their gray hair or leaving their body hair intact. Market research firm Kantar found that makeup sales have fallen 19% since 2019, partly due to the pandemic.
However, things have picked up noticeably quickly, with spending on beauty salons and hairdressers set to rise to over £8bn in the UK in 2023 compared to 2022, almost back to pre-pandemic levels. The explosion of so-called beauty influencers has also had a significant impact on beauty trends. According to Forbes, the global influencer marketing industry is estimated to be worth $21.1bn (£16bn) in 2023, with spending on influencer marketing expected to exceed advertising spend on every platform. That’s a lot of money being spent by advertisers who rely on their livelihoods to look like them, encouraging us to spend to look like them.
The pressure to conform to these beauty standards can have more serious consequences. Wood admits she had lip fillers reversed this year and only has “a tiny bit” left. She first had the procedure when she was 22. “I think the problem with lip fillers is once you start, you don’t realise how big they get. It just gets bigger,” she says. “There’s so much pressure online because you see everyone getting them done and then you assume your face isn’t normal because it doesn’t look normal.”
Heather Widdows, a philosopher and author of Perfect Me: Beauty as an Ethical Ideal, believes that beauty has moved beyond providing social value and is now an ethical imperative. “People think that looking better means having a better life. We bought into the ideal that it would mean better relationships and a better job, so it became a dominant value for people,” she says.
But the pressure to maintain a certain look is not felt equally across all demographics. For example, according to the British Beauty Council, black women typically spend six times more on beauty products and services than their white counterparts. And despite making up just 2% of the UK population, black women account for 10% of haircare spending in the UK, according to the Office for National Statistics. Yet one report found that white influencers earn an average of 50% more than their black, Asian and minority ethnic counterparts. These statistics clearly show the inequality in beauty care for black women, and also highlight why some black women feel the need to live up to an unrealistic standard of beauty.
But not everyone is embracing the increasing demands of beauty care. A growing number of women are finding salvation in rejecting the routines that once defined their lives. Student experience officer Nifemi Kesinro, 23, is one of them. “My hair and nails were always an absolute priority for me,” she says. “I used to do a range of services for my hair, but the most important thing for me was to outsource it. Even if it was just a wash and a blow-dry, I would pay for it.”
Kesinro was getting braids done, which required regular appointments every six to eight weeks, costing between £150 and £170 per session and taking up to eight hours. Kesinro soon realised the financial strain was becoming unsustainable. “It was so expensive; I felt like I was trying to maintain an unrealistic standard of beauty,” she says. And so she embraced her natural hair, not without its complications.
“Styling my hair for work is my biggest struggle; the prospect of walking into the office can fill me with dread. I find it particularly difficult because I feel like it has to be a certain level of neat. Instead of an afro or a high ponytail, I do a sleek bun or cornrows. While I don’t mind doing those hairstyles, I don’t like feeling restricted… and the time it takes makes mornings very stressful.” She founded Candid Conversations about our Curls, a community where black women can share their experiences and support each other. “It’s refreshing to see women openly discussing how beauty standards affect them,” she says.
“There’s pressure in our society to look a certain way, and I think that comes from the perception of beauty and consumer culture of black women. The truth is, in my generation (Gen Z), it’s easier to fit in than to go against the grain.”
Kesinro feels a sense of freedom in her decision, but admits that the journey is ongoing. “It takes a lot of patience and consistency,” she believes. “Living in the digital age doesn’t make it easy to see women who look a certain way post online. But confidence comes from within, and that’s why I know I am beautiful beyond how my hair looks.”
The community that Kesinro founded offers a sense of sisterhood and freedom by recognizing that there are many different definitions of what is beautiful. “One of the most special parts is hearing people’s stories of going to work with their natural hair for the first time in years. Also, hearing women who weren’t ready to wear their natural hair have conversations and be willing to explore their own biases and opinions about natural hair has been liberating for us as a community.”