BellaSugar

How Old Were You When You First Went to the Spa?

BellaSugar — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:01:11 -0700

The most recent story focusing on girls heading to the beauty parlor at younger and younger ages comes to us today from Lebanon, where requests for chocolate facials and purple manicures are becoming the norm. "It's not about spoiling our children," Maya Hilal, owner of Beirut's Spa-Tacular, told the AFP. "It's a matter of maintaining their cleanliness. It's hygiene. It's feeling good about yourself," she added. In another Lebanese salon across town, the clientele, some as young as four, get blue and pink manicures in the colorfully decorated setting, all while wearing their pink robes and glittery eye shadow. But how young is too young? While I dabbled with toy makeup and kiddy nail polish in my youth, I didn't have my first true spa experience until well into my twenties. What about you?

Baby Beauty Pageants Move On to the UK

BellaSugar — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 07:00:46 -0700

We've talked about this a couple times before, but now baby beauty pageants have moved across the pond, and it seems like Brits are willing to go to even greater extremes than their American counterparts. Baby Beauty Queens, a new BBC3 documentary, follows three girls who are part of the growing UK child pageant scene. One of the girls, at age 7, had plastic surgery to "correct" her ears (her story starts at about the 7:15 minute mark). To find out more about these pageants, read on.

Girl-Grooming Trend on the Rise in India

BellaSugar — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:00:50 -0700

In our image-obsessed culture, girls are grooming at younger and younger ages, making youth-targeted bikini waxes and toddler beauty pageants more and more common. Now, it looks like the disturbing trend of underage grooming is impacting the youth of India, as girls, and even boys, are making stops to the salon and spa more frequently. In fact, recent marketing studies imply that the hottest Indian beauty trends involve services targeted towards teens and tweens. (As if puberty wasn't already difficult enough.)

"Young children should not use beauty products at all, because their immune system is not fully developed," dermatologist Ajita Bagai told Mint. On the beauty industry side, however, some salon professionals would argue that body wraps on 11 year olds and minifacials using natural products on preteens are all right. But when it comes to the practice of juvenile primping, just how young is too young, and what is deemed appropriate by the medical side? Find out some guidelines from doctors interviewed in this article

Girl-Grooming Is Booming. (Or Is It?)

BellaSugar — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:00:41 -0700

Do you remember the first time you became interested in beauty products? While I played with peel-off nail polish and occasionally painted my mom's nails, it wasn't really until I was in junior high that I busted out the Bonne Bell and Rave hairspray. Anything beyond that just wasn't allowed via my parents' strict rules.

These days, girls get grooming much earlier. A recent Newsweek article reports on the growing trend of today's youth taking it to an obsessive, way-too-mature level. Pop culture has long valued appearance, but the pursuit of "perfection" means that girls are worrying about their looks long before they hit puberty. With fourth-graders receiving $50 haircuts, kindergartner pedicure parties, and 8-year-olds getting bikini waxes, haven't we crossed the line into scary territory? Experts blame Photoshop, makeover programs, and the prevalence of cosmetic surgery (and, I'd add, porn culture).

For my take on the issue, read more.

As therapist Susie Orbach notes in her recently released book, Bodies ($11), the danger of appearance obsession is that girls won't develop self-esteem from their skills, talents, and accomplishments. "It primes little girls to think they should diet and dream about the cosmetic-surgery options available to them, and it makes body the primary place for self-identity," she says.

Then again, the "girls are growing up too fast" meme is a perennial favorite for magazines, and I have to wonder how common these girl-grooming activities are. While I definitely think girls grow up faster these days than I did, the girls I know are more into books, soccer, and drawing than primping. Are they the exception or the rule?

I know it seems strange for someone who loves beauty to decry girls' obsession with their looks, but here's the thing: my parents encouraged me to be creative and to study in school, so I found most of my value in accomplishments instead of the way I look. As an adult, primping is something fun, but my day isn't ruined if I have a few pimples. (Beauty is just the icing on my cake of self-esteem.) So whether glamour girls are everywhere or not, what can we do to help them develop confidence that doesn't rely on fitting an impossible beauty ideal?

Source

Toddlers and Tiaras Shows You a World of Little-Girl Beauty Pageantry

BellaSugar — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:00:57 -0800

There was a good amount of discussion when I asked for your thoughts on beauty pageants. Most of you find them outdated, dippy, or sexist, but a few readers piped up to show support for them. No matter what you think about pageantry, you'll probably be fascinated by Toddlers and Tiaras, a documentary series debuting tonight on TLC.

The show follows a handful of young girls as they prepare for and compete in beauty pageants, and it is in-sane. Dads seem out of the picture, and the moms are pushy - no surprise there, but there's plenty to surprise. It's bizarre to see a 7-year-old be fitted for fake teeth, for instance, or to watch a terrified, spindly-legged girl sob as she gets her first spray tan. There's more random goodness, too: A lesbian couple turns pageant stereotypes on their heads (Heather has two stage moms!) and one girl confesses that her love of farm animals drives her to compete. For a preview of the show, check out these clips from the first episode - and let me know if you're as gripped by it as I am.

Photo courtesy of TLC

Like Mother, Like Daughter?

BellaSugar — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:04:41 -0700

Meet Alicia Douvall. She's a "glamour model" in England who's admitted to having more than 50 cosmetic surgery procedures. As it turns out, she's also the mother of a girl named Georgia, who's about to turn 13. And what does Georgia want for her birthday? Oh, you know, the usual teenagery things: an iPhone, Kate Moss' perfume, and a boob job.

Yes, you read that right. Georgia, whose career ambition is to become a lingerie model, is hoping for breast augmentation. Fortunately, Alicia is a sane mother, and she's said no to the boob job. Well, at least until Georgia turns 16, that is. "I think a 16-year-old with a nice, sexy figure will do really well as a model as long as she's managed well," she said. "That's why I'm happy for Georgia to have a boob job because it will give her a career. She's been at a modelling agency since she was about six. She'll be more famous than Britney!"

All of these outrageous statements seem like a pretty good ploy for media coverage, but it's still disturbing. When eight-year-old girls are getting bikini waxes, you have to wonder what kind of messages parents are sending to girls. And maybe Georgia puts it best: "I think my mum looks good," she remarked. "Because of her, I think it's normal to have surgery if something's not quite right." But is this new normal even remotely healthy for girls?

Source

Has Little-Girl Primping Gone Too Far? In a Word, Yes.

BellaSugar — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:00:21 -0700

We've already witnessed the puzzling phenomenon of young girls wearing makeup, and there's always Nair for kids. But what would you say if I told you that girls as young as eight were getting bikini waxes? A new Philadelphia magazine story delves into the troubling world of little-girl grooming, uncovering stories of young girls being plucked, scrubbed, waxed, highlighted, and polished into doll-like versions of their former selves, all under the watchful eye of their equally appearance-obsessed mother. Here are a few more of the shocking things observed:

An 8-year-old getting a bikini wax
A mother demanding that her 8-year-old daughter's brows be waxed like a supermodel's
Sisters, one 9 and one 10, getting microdermabrasion (what, to reveal even more youthful skin?)
A mother requesting a chemical straightening treatment on her 12-year-old's beautiful wavy hair
A 12-year old getting a full body wax
16-year olds getting breast augmentations

It's easy to just blame these girls' mothers (and, ahem, where are their fathers?!). But I find it just as troubling that spa owners allow these unnecessary (and sometimes painful) procedures to be performed on children. Since the mothers are willing to drop big bucks on a regular basis to keep their daughters perfectly preened, salon owners risk losing the lucrative business should they refuse to perform a service. And from the sound of it, most of them would rather keep their traps shut than jeopardize their profits.

To see what I think about this, and to share your opinion, read more.

Girls are bombarded daily with images of women, all flashing bleached-white smiles, flawless skin, and tan, hairless bodies. It's bad enough that they feel pressure to live up to those unattainable expectations, but you'd hope that their moms would hold their daughters' hands through those awkward years. Instead, some parents are encouraging them to get bikini waxes before there's anything there to wax. I'm deeply worried for girls who, in their formative years, are being taught that their self-worth is only as good as their outward appearance.

I realize that there is the potential for a happy medium when it comes to personal grooming at a young age, but there's a difference between a mini-manicure party and a full body wax for a 10-year old. What do you think about this? Are you as disheartened as I am?

Source

Beauty Byte: Little-Girl Primping Is on the Rise

BellaSugar — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 07:00:53 -0800

High-maintenance beauty routines for girls are nothing new, but the New York Times highlights the growing phenomenon in today's paper. The story begins with an off-putting anecdote about a three-year-old going in for a pedicure, and from there, the statistics are amazing. For instance:

A survey shows that fifty-five percent of six- to nine-year-old girls said they used lip gloss or lipstick.
Nearly two-thirds of girls the same age said they used nail polish.
Club Libby Lu, a mall-based chain, did about a million makeovers of girls last year.
Dashing Diva, a nail-salon chain, offers girls virgin Cosmos in martini glasses to go with their pedicures.

I'm all for little girls enjoying themselves, but I won't lie to you - the idea of kindergarteners having Hannah Montana makeovers freaks me out a little bit. Should we be encouraging girls to spend so much time with their appearance at such a young age? Even if they enjoy it? Tell me what you think.

Source

A Barbie Store Opens in Buenos Aires. Is It Good for Little Girls?

BellaSugar — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 12:02:05 -0800

It's no secret that little girls are growing up fast these days. (Ahem, Nair.) But with the opening of the world's first Barbie store, fast just got faster. Located in Buenos Aires, it's a "fashion-tainment" boutique that specializes in giving girls the full-blown Barbie experience. Selling dolls isn't the point of this store; instead, it's about making the girls into Barbie:

The $7-an-hour playroom inside the store has toys and dolls, costumes, makeup and jewelry, and a small catwalk for girls to parade on under disco lights. The store also includes a beauty salon, where girls can get everything from a glamorous hairstyle to a painted butterfly on a cheek, plus a coffee shop. And the Barbie playroom is available for parties, starting at around $650.

Targeting girls ages 3 to 9, the Barbie store draws up to 150 children each day-with many girls coming in every single day to get done up.

I'm all for little girls playing and having fun, but I can't help but think that they're a little young to be wearing makeup and having their hair done. Plus, Barbie isn't high on my "awesome role models" list. This is the same doll who infamously declared, "Math is hard!" a few years ago. Her body proportions are unrealistic, too: According to ANRED, if she were a real person, she'd be six feet tall, weigh 101 pounds, and have measurements of 39-19-33.

What do you think? Is this Barbie boutique cute and fun, or is it encouraging girls to grow up too fast?

Source

Nair: Now For 10-Year-Olds!

BellaSugar — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:21:07 -0700

Remember the story about pre-teens' crazy beauty routines? It looks like those girls might be part of a bigger trend. The New York Times reports on Nair's new endeavor: Marketing a new product line to 10- to 15-year-olds.

Intended for middle-schoolers, Nair Pretty is a chemical hair remover that comes in kiwi and peach scents. The packaging features illustrations of teenage girls, and along those lines, the print advertisements target the girls directly. “I am a citizen of the world,” they read. “I am a dreamer. I am fresh. I am so not going to have stubs sticking out of my legs.” (Heaven forbid a 10-year-old girl might have hair on her legs.) And then there's the website:

It's not that you're obsessed or anything but maybe you've noticed that the hair on your legs (and other parts of your body) is just a little bit thicker and darker before. Chill. You're growing up... it's all good.

("It's all good?" What is this, 1995?) Dorky "teenspeak" aside, it bothers me that Nair is going after sixth graders. I'm sure pre-teens are curious about hair removal, but by actively targeting them, Nair is creating even more anxiety about puberty-an already anxious thing for most girls. Likewise, the emphasis on being pretty is a little depressing, since the implication is that you won't be pretty if you've got a little fuzz on your legs (or bikini line, as the Nair website helpfully mentions). I have no problem with girls eventually choosing to remove their hair, but there's something sad about thrusting that expectation on ten-year-olds. What do you think? Let me know, and then tell DearSugar what you think, too.