Why Don't Women Wear Makeup Anymore?

Women await a flake different than when the pandemic began.

Loungewear for skirts, slippers for heels, bare faces for painted ones. Some of u.s.a. are hairier, too.

Andrea DeWerd, 33, of Brooklyn, New York, works in volume publishing and says "I'k never wearing makeup or blow drying my hair for work over again." Julia Liss, 27, a technology sales executive in New York City, vows she'south "done wearing heels." Marie Garmon, 41, in balmy Jacksonville, Florida, said, "I went from shaving my legs every few days ... to non shaving at all since Apr."

USA TODAY heard from dozens of women who shared that despite the pandemic's lockdowns, social restrictions, and mask mandates, the relaxed beauty standards that have accompanied their retreat from public life have been "liberating."

"If at that place'southward one affair good that came from this COVID mess, it's that I was able to find myself," Garmon said. "To hell with all of it ... Who are we really doing all of this for? Not myself because I hate that routine."

If the pandemic has offered women any reprieve, it may exist from societal expectations around appearance. More are homebound, interacting less, Zooming more, and beauty routines and fashion choices have adapted in kind.

"I have worn makeup four times in the last 10 months," Andrea DeWerd said.

When the pandemic sharpened the divide between our public lives and our individual selves, it gave women space to examine what they practise to their bodies and why. The question is, will any of these relaxed beauty norms stick?

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Academics say in the absenteeism of a large-scale study, it's impossible to brand broad assumptions about how women's attitudes and behaviors toward appearance may be changing, though it's articulate women are spending less money on beauty products, which has left some sectors of the billion-dollar global industry reeling, according to a study from the consulting firm McKinsey & Co..

Kate Mason, a gender studies professor at Wheaton College, said what is evident is that the pandemic has changed the way many women nowadays their bodies to others.

"Social distancing and mask-wearing give us more than discretion over how much, or which parts of our appearances we testify," she said. "I think anything that gives people a little chip of a break from these social norms so they can evaluate what works and what doesn't, can be a adept thing."

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Angela DeCamp, 31, a professional creative person and administrative assistant in Indianapolis, said a shift to Zoom culture emboldened her to stop bleaching and waxing her upper lip, an expensive and time-consuming ritual she was happy to part with.

"At that place's no point when the camera on my computer doesn't pick up enough particular to go far visible to my colleagues, and when I'm out and well-nigh my lady-stache is covered by a mask anyway," she said. "It's freeing. I experience similar a total rebel and I love it."

DeCamp said she may go back to at-habitation bleaching when the pandemic ends, but she doubts she'll wax over again.

"I may go back to occasional bleaching once masks are no longer part of my regular outfit, but I don't think I'll be waxing anymore. The money saved from cutting out that part of my routine has come in handy," Angela DeCamp said.

Many women who had rigorous beauty routines are realizing they were spending more time and effort than they could justify.

Susan Epps, 49, the banana caput of a private school in Washington, D.C., said every bit a woman of colour, she oftentimes feels extra pressure to look polished and professional. When many salons and beauty supply stores closed, the Black women in her social network who rely on such services plant themselves under increased strain. Just some, including Epps, besides used the time to reflect on whether their routines were truly a class of self-expression.

"Makeup is fine art, just I wasn't wearing it as an fine art-form, I was using it to make myself look prettier and younger," Epps said. "I've been examining what I did and why. I e'er thought of myself as a fierce and confident woman, only at present I realize I was putting on a huge mask every twenty-four hours. What does that say almost how I think about my value?"

Epps said subsequently the pandemic she intends to apply fewer dazzler products. She's fallen in love with her skin. She'due south realized her natural hair is "luscious."

Other women say they don't quite feel themselves without their familiar beauty rituals, and volition likely bring dorsum at least some of it when the pandemic ends.

"It's not just about comfort, it's something bigger than comfort," Susan Epps said. "The pandemic has given me time to think about who I am, and what kind of woman I want to be."

Alyssa Jones, 31, a teacher in Irvington, New Bailiwick of jersey, says she's been living in sweats and hoodies and is looking forward to putting more try into her appearance when she starts going out in public more.

"When information technology's safer to get dorsum outside I look forward to dolling up again to go places," she said. "Nothing overboard ... merely at to the lowest degree once or twice a calendar week I'd like to put on a quick face up, go my nails done and put on some bodily apparel."

Then there are women who say they'll never return to pre-pandemic routines.

Jennifer Waggener, 57, the executive director of a nonprofit in Charleston, West Virginia, says she's stopped wearing makeup and won't start over again. She said she e'er felt pressure to wear makeup, especially at work. Waggener was previously the marketing director for an international construction company where her co-workers were mostly men.

"If I had walked in in chucks and jeans, I wouldn't have been there very long. It was something I felt compelled to do to exist successful in my career and that's unfortunate," she said. "I tried to intendance well-nigh that stuff, only I never really did. It doesn't bring me joy."

The 'Zoom Boom,' social media and new social pressures

While the pandemic may offer some women a certain relief from burdens around how they are expected to look and act, experts say it could also be creating new pressures, causing women to fixate on parts of their bodies they barely noticed before.

"For those of us who spend a lot of our time on Zoom, even though some parts of our body are much less visible, our faces go hypervisible," Mason said.

Information technology's led plastic surgeons to claim an uptick in demand for cosmetic procedures, which some refer to as the "Zoom Boom."

Experts likewise say more time spent on social media during the pandemic could backlash for women. Enquiry shows social media use is correlated with body paradigm concerns.

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"A lot of u.s.a. are dealing with that excessive social isolation by diving e'er more deeply into social media, which is a highly idealized, visual world and I almost worry that information technology's been a i-year-long kicking camp in how to look," said Juliet Williams, a professor of gender studies at UCLA.

Less time on beauty, just more time on child care, housework

Some women may be shifting energy away from their appearance, only to and so aqueduct information technology straight toward other traditionally feminine tasks – such as child care or housework – which shows a reprieve from 1 societal norm tin can easily exist replaced by the demands of another.

Before the pandemic, more than half of 2-parent households where both parents work said moms do more to manage the twenty-four hour period-to-day of their kids' lives, according to the Pew Enquiry Center. A survey conducted past YouGov in partnership with U.s. TODAY and LinkedIn during the pandemic found women are taking on an even greater share of parenting responsibilities.

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"Maybe nosotros're spending less time on advent work, but we're also spending a lot of time on other sort of very traditionally feminine things while facing this pressure of, 'Don't gain as well much pandemic weight,'" Stonemason said. "That doesn't make me experience hugely hopeful."

Existence 'true to yourself' in a world that even so demands perfection

When we emerge from this crisis, experts say women volition still live in a order that expects them to follow the rules of femininity. When was the concluding time you saw a woman on TV without makeup? Or a model sporting armpit pilus?

"There'south an opening that's created past this retreat from what the world has demanded of women, but it's going to take more circumstances, it's going to have to take some kind of consciousness-raising to actually be able to capitalize on the shift," Williams said.

"This is what makes me feel comfortable and confident," Jennifer Waggener said.

A report in December from McKinsey forecasts that in 2021, sales in the global dazzler market will surpass 2019.

Waggener, who spent many years trying to make herself look equally others wanted, recognizes how difficult it is to push back against expectation. She notwithstanding encourages women to try.

"Be true to yourself," she said. "For me wearing my jeans and my chucks is plenty. That's how I tin can be myself in the world."

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2021/01/22/covid-has-spurred-no-makeup-trend-women-look-different-post-pamdemi/4134442001/

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