the tiktok beauty pandemic

 Beauty trends come and go, we've seen it for a century. But one thing that never changes is the pressure on women and young girls to be as pretty as possible (by some people's standards). As a society, we are constantly fed ideas about what we should look like and the aesthetics and trends we should follow. Tiktok is plagued with these ideas, specifically 'beautytok'.

 There is an immense expectation on women and girls to have long skincare routines, own the newest and most trendy makeup products and become pretty. There is a new trend every week and the cycle goes on and on. I've noticed on TikTok there is a huge obsession with skincare, products are constantly being advertised to make you 'prettier', so you can look just like those influencers who promote them. There is also a pressure to have a morning routine, night routine and skincare/beauty routine. I see chin straps being promoted as 'face-slimming' however this just is not true, it might reduce puffiness in the face but chin straps are not and should not be used with the intention of getting a sharper jaw. Chin straps are often used to reduce snoring and to force the mouth shut, especially with people who require a CPAP machine at night. But now, chin straps and mouth tape are often used to prevent a 'mouth-breather face', which consists of having a crooked nose, receding chin and narrow face as a result of breathing through your mouth instead of your nose. However mouth tape is used by people with mild obstructive sleep apnea and also to reduce snoring. It is not uncommon for products with medical uses to be advertised as beauty products, for example, Ozempic/semaglutide, an antidiabetic medication used to treat type 2 diabetes and for long-term weight management In obese people. It has become popular for weight loss but that is not what it should be used for unless it is prescribed or recommended by a doctor because you are morbidly obese.

As I mentioned there is pressure to have specific routines in your life and to make them as aesthetic as possible, the 'morning shed' is a common one. The 'morning shed' is a trend on Tiktok that describes the shedding of skincare products that have been used overnight, often including pimple patches, face masks, lip masks, nose masks, lip stain, wrinkle tape, mouth tape, chin straps and maybe a hair bonnet. This is a ridiculous amount of product, all to attain that wrinkle-free clear skin. There is an obsession with anti-aging and anti-wrinkle products especially among young women and girls, whom these products are often targeted towards. There is an expectation for women to never age and to look 21 forever, but it shouldn't be this way. Ageing is a normal part of life, it is a natural process that your body goes through as you get older, it should not be forced into us that it makes you ugly and undesirable, because it's simply not true. Unfortunately, women and girls are more often than not the sole target of these beauty trends and are influenced by celebrities, brands and even people around them to conform to these expectations of being wrinkle-free and being 'pretty'. 

When it comes to this, we need to realise that we cannot win. There is no pleasing everyone and we cannot make everyone happy and conform to everyone's standards, it just doesn't work. If we spend our entire lives trying to be 'pretty' and aesthetic then we will only be wasting our time, we cannot be pretty in everyone's eyes so there is no point trying to make it that way.