About leaving everything...natural.

[Beatrixpotterspencil]

Was just thinking about this as I have fuzzy fine hair (neither holds a curl nor grows straight) that looks great it I run a hot brush through it. And then remembered this feeling of how 'going with natural' is always 'better'.
BUT SOMETIMES NATURAL IS HARDER WORK!!!
Even if the hot brush only takes a grand total of 5 minutes. Hardly eating up my time..

But then I thought, Why is natural seen as better?
As humans we modify things all the time, throughout history - from ancient Egyptian hair/make up to putting wallpaper over bare plaster. It isn't just a beauty thing, it's simply just very human to modify or alter things, to enhance them (depending on your viewpoint of course) or make them easier. And sometimes we like making things more challenging.

When it comes to fighting against prejudice, then 'natural' makes complete sense, such as skin tone, perceptions of curls being untidy, being large or small. Some things (wrongly) carry negative cultural connotations and it's necessary to fight back and claim authenticity.

But in general, why do we often feel pressure to not alter things? If I truly prefer my hair tousled with a heated brush, is that an insult to my natural fuzz texture? Am I suffering low self esteem because I wear a light brown mascara to enhance my blonde lashes? Is it always negative to fight grey hairs? Perhaps it is the reasons why we do things that matter, and that it is essential to have awareness of why we do what we do (cosmetic surgery, more risky alterations).

It's interesting to ponder which is personal and which cultural, as we learn so many associations growing up that it's difficult to separate the two, I think. Similarly to how some people unashamedly insult tattoos/piercings due to cultural perceptions and associations. I have been on US centric forums where the users will openly declare that a tattoo wearer is 'trash', uurgh. - so essentially we tie a person's image with a behaviour or 'type' which is often wrong.

Thoughts? Or is this too waffly, lol?

Natural is a completely meaningless word.

What is 'natural'?

A skyscraper? Most people would say no.

A bird's nest? Most say yes, but why is something a bird builds categorised differently from something a human builds?

I struggle a lot with my natural self, especially when imo (which after all is what counts) some subtle enhancement makes so much difference to my appearance and confidence. I always feel a bit pathetic and anti feminist when I can't seem to just accept my natural self but what you've said makes me feel a lot better. I feel like a lot of people happy to go with nature were dealt a better hand to begin with or don't love skincare and beauty products as much as I do!

Well considering the value of the hair care and make up business obviously most people do not agree that natural is in fact better. If you are blessed with hair of a certain quality that makes it look good with minimal styling then probably that looks better than chemically altering it. I have very wavy thick hair which I can, if I have a good cut, just wash and leave to dry without any styling and it looks good. I'm not going to spend an hour straightening it then recurling it so it looks 'just so'. But I also started going grey at 17 and I certainly am not going to go 'natural' and have white hair! I will be a slave to L'Oréal for life.
So if you think you look better with a bit of styling then who cares what others say about it?
To be natural men wouldn't shave, nor women, we'd all smell a bit and so on. A little bit of grooming and artifice is preferable.

But in general, why do we often feel pressure to not alter things?

Ask that to all the women getting fillers, botox, cosmetic surgery etc. Or the teenage girls whose mental health is being damaged by ridiculous beauty standards on social media. I'd say we're under far more pressure to alter things than to not alter things. The 'leave it natural' thing is a backlash against generations of being expected to alter ourselves.

Imo it is totally impossible to unpick the motivations which make us modify our appearance (or not). None of us is uninfluenced by social expectations, and even when we resist expectations, that's still a reaction to the expectations, so it can't be said to be a decision we take in a vacuum.

The push to be natural, is because some natural looks are considered to be more desirable than others, and by not altering your less desirable natural looks to copy the high value ones, you are fighting the idea that some natural looks are better.

That by altering your natural look, you are reinforcing the idea that the new look (smooth hair, thicker looking lashes) are higher status, making it harder for those who don't want to alter their appearance.

Not for nothing are the more desirable looks often linked to wealth, class, health and youth. Theres often a great big dollop of unspoken racism in what is and is not a desirable look.

It's a battle we (women) can't win. There is pressure to look natural but only if natural looks as 'good' as modified does. Real natural, unshaven, ungroomed etc, is seen as very undesirable. But if you modify your appearance and people find out, you can get stick for that too. 'Tart', 'try-hard' 'women look better without makeup' or 'you can always tell and it always looks bad' (for botox and fillers ) etc. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

If I washed my hair and left it to dry naturally .. it would be fuzzy frizzy wavy and looks like a wig .. very dry course not quite curly , very strong willed

If I blow dry it and straighten my long fringey bits , I feel half way to looking ok

interesting, I also agree about class, wealth, racism.

I wondered what I would do if there was an apocalypse and I couldn't plug in my hair brush. Then realised there would be far worse things to worry about and I likely wouldn't even notice - I'd have lots of fuzzy company!
Would likely miss my garlic chopper more. And there's another unnatural abomination, lol.

It's a bit of a snake pit, isnt' it? I agree with damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Being natural only works if you’re naturally beautiful.