“Beauty is more than skin deep.” An ethnographic study of beauty therapists and older women

Abstract

Foucauldian theory is useful for considering how particular local contexts, such as fitness centres and beauty centres, construct subjective experiences of the ageing body. Older women, in the beauty centre in this study, used beauty therapy for the inner body and sense of self and not just for the outer body and appearance. Beauty therapy was used to relieve aches and pains via massage, promote a sense of well-being or simply as ‘time for oneself’ or ‘time-out’ from the problems of growing older. The detailed observation of a number of older women undergoing beauty treatments such as facials, pedicures, manicures and body massage, shows how beauty therapy provides various responses to the problematization of the ageing body. Touch from the bare hands of the beauty therapists on the naked bodies of older women was one of the most important aspects of the beauty treatments. Older women themselves emphasised the psychological benefits of beauty treatments in terms of promoting feelings of relaxation and well-being besides physical benefits in terms of appearance.