Abstract
While studies on corporeal beauty – the ‘body beautiful’ – constitute a mini academic industry, everyday practices of ‘beauty work’ are somewhat underresearched. This paper engages with notions and practices of beauty in a context of socio-cultural transformation and global flows in urban India. The ‘beauty parlor’ emerges as a socio-cultural space where urban aspirations are made and realized, mirroring the shifting place of beauty in the daily life of subjects with diverse class locations. A qualitative study of five beauty parlors in Mumbai revealed embodied practices of aesthetics that reflect the interplay of social structure and agency in the everyday life experiences of men and women. Providing tangible benefits in terms of new opportunities, beauty practices are also influenced by a desire for status, and ideas of ‘good health’ within an emergent ethic of self-care. Practices and consumption in the parlor juxtapose modernity and tradition materializing the field of beauty.
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