It is often said that when you look good, you feel good, but is there truth in the idea that when you look good, you also do good? Some beauty professionals would say so.
A common and widely supported sentiment states that beauty services can impact and improve one’s self esteem and mental disposition. “I wasn’t sad, I just needed my hair done,” is a familiar joke amongst women, particularly Black women whose hair holds significant weight in their perceptions and presentations of beauty. Mood-boosting beauty enhancements are no foreign concept as beauty, wellness, and self-care tend to intertwine in both practice and marketing.
Whether it be aesthetic nurses, professional makeup artists, or hair stylists, service providers from all sectors of the beauty industry have observed the increase in positive mood and behavior in their clients after an appointment. Many have even ventured to suggest that the beauty, and therefore confidence, clients feel post-service have made them kinder people overall.
Considering these observations then beg the questions: Can enhanced beauty really make you nicer? What are the implications of believing this sentiment? BeautyCon taps Susan Guerrero, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT#141140) to ponder this and more. Guerrero first emphasizes the distinction of perceived beauty, that is, one’s subjective view: “When someone perceives themselves as attractive, it can positively impact their self-image and confidence, creating a positive feedback loop where they feel better about themselves overall. This is why it’s important to find a look that is appealing to your eye and own it. While it’s not the determining factor of life satisfaction, it is a contributing component.”
She expands on this idea of life satisfaction by linking confidence with the courage to initiate social and business connections. In addition, confidence can also help to quiet one’s “inner critic,” she explains. “This reduces the likelihood of projecting self-judgment onto others, making it slightly more likely that they will treat others with kindness.” Bearing this in mind, one can see how plausible it may be for people to be nicer once they are feeling beautiful.
On the other hand, Guerrero clarifies that this is not a “direct cause-and-effect relationship,” as a heightened self-perception of beauty can also make people more arrogant and contemptuous to others, which of course is not kind at all.
She reminds us that beauty is “entirely subjective,” as a large amount of our outlook and behaviors can be attributed to social conditioning, which differs based on subgroup and region. For this reason, embodying beauty in your own way can be as impactful as the adverse side of subjectivity — chasing after society’s unrealistic notions of beauty. Just as enhanced perceptions of beauty can improve many attributes of thought and behavior, feeling a lack of beauty can exacerbate the opposite. Guerrero discusses the increased risk of low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, and eating disorders (Soares Filho et al. (n.d.)) associated with conforming to Western and overall unrealistic beauty standards. As a result, she works to help her patients “create their own narrative of beauty in a holistic sense.”
The flipside of this “beauty-equals-kindness” ideal can be particularly insidious if we are not cautious. In his “Critique of Judgement,” philosopher Immanuel Kant theorized that beauty was a symbol of morality, meaning, those who experience beauty are influenced to do morally good deeds. Across culture, features and body shapes that society deems conventionally unattractive are used to depict villainous, undesirable, unintelligent, or untrustworthy characters. With media examples such as Quasimoto from “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” or Ursula from “The Little Mermaid,” society has been conditioned since childhood to code these individuals as less-than. This level of bias creates a slippery slope that can amplify prejudice and hatred.
To this point, Guerrero highlights the concept of “pretty privilege” which supports positive treatment of conventionally attractive people, and “inherently presumes the maltreatment of those who aren’t deemed conventionally attractive.”
In sum, looking good can improve positive mood, behavior, and socialization. The lack of this perception can also cause insecurity and discrimination. As far as we’re concerned, it is just as important to find a healthy, inner idea of beauty as it is to be cognizant of the potential harms surrounding beauty morality.
