Do you ever feel like your skin care and beauty routine is a never ending cycle…a hamster wheel with no end in sight? We spend our precious downtime primping, plucking, freezing, plumping, zapping, tucking, tweezing, bleaching, buffing, all in a tiresome effort to just maintain the status quo of our appearance, in an ever vigilant effort to fight mother nature, to ‘anti-age!’ I know how this feels because I’ve been there! I used to spend an hour on my hair every morning before medical school washing, blow drying and curling, just to appear in the lecture hall for class! Talk about a waste of time!
Between maintenance hair coloring appointments, standing facials, waxing, Botox, laser devices, peels, nails, extensions just to name a few, it can be a never ending cycle of beauty musts that become chores and time sinks. The fear of aging, of losing our beauty and youth so devastating that we will go to any lengths to preserve them, to anti-age. Now I’m not saying it’s all of nothing. I love my signature hair color and style, my bi-annual neurotoxin and a nice pedicure. But you have to calculate the cost of your beauty routines. Not just financial, but in terms of time spent and your metal health. The time spent doing these beauty ‘obligations’ is time missing out on other things in life. If it’s become a chore, a thing to dread or detest, leaving you drained in the mind and wallet, then it’s time to reassess your values and motives. Is this really something you’re doing for ‘you?’ Or are you worried about what will happen if you look more natural, without so many enhancements? The ‘hot girl’ hamster wheel is insidious. It starts out fun and playful but can become overwhelming and obligatory.
How to get off the ‘hot girl’ hamster wheel:
1. Write down 5 of your top qualities and attributes, none can be based on your physical appearance.
2. How would your friends describe you to a stranger? Do you agree with their assessment?
3. How much time do you spend each month on personal care and beauty habits?
4. How much money do you spend each month on personal care and beauty habits? Then divide by your monthly take home pay to see what % of your income after taxes is spend on beauty. Does this number surprise you? How does this compare to your other expenses like housing, food, travel, education?
5. Which of your beauty habits brings you the most joy? What do you dread? Cancel what you hate. Just stop. No one will care. Your friends will still like you.
Don’t be afraid to challenge societal norms that are stifling you and keeping you in a rat race of beauty. Get back your time, money and sanity. Only pursue aesthetic procedures and treatments that empower you and that you love. Reframe what it means to be beautiful because you are more than just a pretty face!
