The Beauty Industry

I guess you could say I'm kind of a unique dude, sitting here at 12:38am thinking about yes, the beauty industry. According to the statistics the beauty industry will be reeling in over 265 billion in world wide revenue next year. That is insane, but what's even more insane is what the beauty industry is founded on.

This is purely my own theory, but from a psychological perspective the beauty industry is founded on peoples feelings of inadequacy and low self esteem. Think about it. If everyone in the entire world woke up every morning and looked in the mirror and felt completely satisfied with the way they looked the beauty industry would collapse. But no, the rows and rows of shelves at stores and warehouses all over the world continue to be stock piled with an endless array of lotions, shampoos, conditioners, makeup, toothpaste, deodorant, shaving creme, moisturizers, weight loss pills, facials, and the list goes on and on. If you take a step back and look at all this the question becomes, of all these products what do we actually need?  None of it. Absolutely none of it.

It really is incredible that the beauty industry is able to brainwash millions and millions of people through constant advertising that all of this stuff is absolutely needed. You need shampoo everyday to clean your hair and keep it shiny. You need toothpaste to keep your teeth clean. You need lotion to keep your skin moisturized. You need conditioner. You need sun tan lotion because the sun is so very dangerous. You need makeup to look beautiful. You need cologne and perfume to smell good. What a load of horse shit.

Society has us absolutely convinced that we need all this stuff. At this point I could write a whole page just praising the beauty industry for how intelligently they've constructed this whole idea of "beauty." It really is a work of psychological art. To be able to have people convinced you need to look a certain way and be free of external imperfections to be attractive & socially acceptable. For the men, they play on our powerful sex-drive. Adds for cologne and deodorant that make the scents seem irresistible to women. As if putting on a certain deodorant or cologne will have loads of hot chicks flocking to you. For women, it seems to be that if you don't have the flawless skin, the nails, the mascara, and the smooth legs then you aren't really attractive or acceptable at all. Oh, and you can't forget the shiny lustrous hair, and you gotta know if you have a few pimples on your face or your legs have some natural hair then you are one ugly woman. This incredibly over the top perfectionist idea of "beauty" is complete nonsense.

I do believe, however, there is a difference between "need" and "want." The point I'm trying to emphasize here is the idea of "needing" something external to feel beautiful and acceptable. I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting to dress up all fancy or put on makeup or cologne or whatever. But in the truest sense, it is not needed. You feel me?

From a nutritional stand point alone, none of these products are needed if you simply feed your body with vibrant whole foods free of chemicals, plenty of good quality fats, and clean water. Dr. Weston A. Price did some fascinating work decades ago where he traveled around the globe and studied cultures living on a traditional diet. What he found was those people had near perfect teeth, no cavities, and robust health. You think those people have lil plastic toothbrushes and bottles of chemically laced lotions and shampoos and toothpaste?

I know from my own experience that anything external is directly related to the internal world. For example, I haven't used anything on my face for months and months, not even cleaning it at night, and I haven't had any inflammation (zits) on my face whatsoever. So much of our health is diet related. People have to realize that anything you put on your skin or in your hair is being absorbed into your blood stream. From the aluminum in the average deodorant, which not only causes brain cells to shrink and die, but is also linked to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Dementia, to lotions and shampoos that contain petroleum bi products that are linked to cancer to the toxic fluoride in tap water and toothpaste and pharmaceuticals that deplete the body of vital minerals like magnesium & iodine. Whether you are aware of it or not, these products are slowly but surely adding to your toxic load. It's amusing to me to think of parents that are so quick to condemn things like cigarettes when they are feeding their kids processed junk, sodas, and then on top of all that slathering their bodies with chemically laced sun tan lotion (that prevents the life giving absorption of vitamin d3) before they go out. Oh the sweet irony.

Even if you would like to still use some of these products it doesn't mean you have to go to the store and buy a shiny bottle of Aveeno. It's so easy to make super cheap cleaning products, toothpastes, moisturizers, etc at home that are a fraction of the cost and don't add numerous toxins to your system.

As long as people buy into the mainstream idea of beauty and continue to feel dissatisfied with imperfection, the entire industry will continue to thrive on a thing called low self esteem.