Self Grooming: Are Women Losing The Skills?

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Do-It-Yourself’er or Pampered Pet? Who do you rely on to ‘make you beautiful’? An increasing number of women rely on beauty therapists and clinics to polish, deep-cleanse, tweeze and tan them towards perfection. It’s enough of an increase, that in the industry right now, there’s a shortage of beauty therapists and nail technicians to meet demand. But in leaving their beautification up to the ‘experts’, are modern women losing the skills to do basic grooming for themselves?

A magazine's beauty editor observes the trend from Auckland. She writes:

“A friend of mine travels to Sydney with the express purpose of having her brows shaped there by a therapist famous for her deft touch rather than lift a tweezer herself. Another friend trots off on a weekly basis in summer to our residential beauty parlour to have a fake tan applied because clearly opening a bottle of self-tanner and spending five minutes slapping it on after her shower is far too much trouble.”

Wow. And it almost doesn’t sound so fun, visiting a beauty clinic regularly for something as mundane as eyebrow shaping. Where’s the relaxation or indulgence in that? (I must be of the old-school who still thinks ‘rose petals and fragrant oils’ when faced with the words ‘beauty clinic’ and who uses them mostly as a luxury or treat!) And in my humble (and not so jet-setterly opinion) it sounds rather impractical visiting a therapist every time I want some eyebrows removed, not to mention a debatable use of money. But back to the beauty editor:

“[As] New Zealanders [we] pride ourselves on being a DIY nation. We think we can sort it all out for ourselves with nothing more than a bit of number eight wire. Well, not anymore. These days we are pampered pets who have become so domesticated by the beauty therapists that, left in the wilds of our own homes, we do not have the ability to do even the most basic grooming on ourselves.”

If that describes you - “domesticated by the beauty therapists” - are you still capable of doing the essentials for yourself if and when you want to? Think: styling your hair, shaping your brows, properly taking care of your skin, maintaining your nails, smoothing your legs...or have you lost the skills now that beauty has been literally taken out of your hands? You may not feel the urge to mix up a mask from yoghurt and rolled oats in your kitchen (although it can be done), but self-beautification and the independence that goes with it is within your reach.

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