Stress Sells

An unpublishable interview with Refinery29.

When Hannah Turner’s hair started falling out due to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), she bought shampoo. And bonding treatments. And claw clips. “Despite thinking I knew better than to fall for the marketing of cult products, I sought out what was sold as an easy fix because it appeared simpler than processing my trauma,” she writes in Refinery29.

Turner interviewed me for her (excellent) piece — “Expensive Hair Treatments Didn’t Fix My Hair Loss Because It Was PTSD” — and you should read it! But most of my answers didn’t make the final cut, so I figured I’d share the full, unedited Q&A here on The Unpublishable. Read on for my thoughts on “beautiful” hair, the toxic individualism of retail therapy, and how CoverGirl co-opted Descartes.

Photo by Scandinavian Biolabs on Unsplash

Refinery29: How do beauty standards impact the way we see our hair?

Jessica DeFino (me): Beauty standards impact the way we see almost everything, because beauty standards are physical manifestations of widespread systems of oppression. White supremacy and racism result in a Eurocentric ideal of beauty: white, blonde, with a button nose. Ageism results in youth as a beauty ideal: plump, taut, wrinkle-free skin. Ableism results in perceived “health” as a beauty ideal: a thin body, a clear complexion. Classism results in wealth as a beauty ideal: “beauty” today is marked by obvious and expensive aesthetic intervention. Hair is wrapped up in all of this, too. Currently, the aesthetic associated with “beautiful” hair is long, full, shiny, and typically straight or slightly waved, and styled. These things are (partly) meant to signal Euro ancestry or at least deference to the Eurocentric ideal of beauty, youth, health, and wealth.

R29: What is about the beauty industry that makes people feel like there is a cosmetic solution for everything, including hair loss?

JD: We should constantly remind ourselves that there is a big difference between beauty and the beauty industry. Of course the beauty industry makes us feel like there is a cosmetic solution for everything; that is literally the sole function of the beauty industry. While there are well-intentioned brands, founders, and influencers out there, the primary goal of a brand is to increase profits, not help people. It’s also important to keep in mind that the human beings behind the beauty industry have also been indoctrinated by decades of beauty culture, just as consumers have, and (for the most part) they truly believe in the “cosmetic solutions” they’re peddling.

R29: Can you talk a little about the marketing behind these ‘cult products’, that make us feel like we can’t live without them or they will solve all our problems?

JD: The beauty industry has long framed the making of the body as the making of the self. L’Oreal’s tagline “Because I’m worth it” frames beauty as a portal to self-worth. CoverGirl’s tagline “I am what I make up” riffs on Descartes “I think, therefore I am” and frames makeup as a portal to being. Products like IT Cosmetics Confidence In A Cream and Dermelect Self-Esteem Serum perpetuate the idea that personal fulfillment can be found at the bottom of a bottle of moisturizer. Lately, even injectables like Botox and lip filler are being marketed as “self-care.” From practically the moment of our birth, Western culture inundates us with messages that make us believe that aesthetic treatments can solve existential issues.

The beauty industry has long framed the making of the body as the making of the self. CoverGirl’s tagline “I am what I make up” riffs on Descartes “I think, therefore I am” and frames makeup as a portal to being.

R29: Can you give any other thoughts to the idea that, ‘the beauty industry has made us feel like we can buy our way out of trauma’?

JD: The beauty industry’s focus on treating trauma with consumerism (classic “retail therapy”!) is a manifestation of the toxic individualism of American culture. The beauty industry convinces consumers that trauma stemming from systemic issues — whether that’s feeling insecure about getting older due to ageism, or losing your hair from chronic stress due to overwork, overwhelm, racism, colorism, classism, ableism, low wages, high cost of living, climate change, whatever — is fixable on the individual level, via individual product use. It is not. Botox does not solve ageism. Olaplex does not solve climate change. In fact, these individual “solutions” often perpetuate the systemic issues they purport to solve.

R29: And on a more hopeful note, what needs to change about the way we view and consume beauty products that will free us from the cycle of obsessive self improvement + failure to reach our ‘most beautiful’?

JD: I think everyone can benefit from interrogating their own need to feel their “most beautiful” at all times. First of all: How is “beautiful” defined? Where did that definition come from? Who does that definition benefit? Next: Beautiful is not a feeling, so what do you actually want to feel when you say you want to “feel beautiful”? Do you want to feel seen, accepted, validated, loved? Are there other ways you can help yourself access that feeling, instead of chasing physical beauty? Simple mindfulness exercises like these can be majorly helpful!

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P.S. Piggybacking off of this post, I just started the first Unpublishable subscriber chat over on the Substack app!! Click below to join in on today’s topic of conversation: the beauty brand tag lines (“easy, breezy, beautiful”) and industry clichés (“you, but better”) that shaped our understanding of beauty.

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