The Effects of Late Capitalism in the Field of Cosmetology

As a young girl, fashion and trends helped me fit into my environment. Back in 2009, after graduating from high school, I became a cosmetologist. Cosmetology is the study of hair, skin, and nails, but cosmetologists also perform a wide variety of other roles, like salespeople, chemists, business owners, and even therapists. The hairdressing profession played a tremendous role in my life because it gave me a sense of meaning and identity. In struggling to fit in, cosmetology provided me with a community, but it was a taxing job both physically and mentally, including emotionally.

While I enjoyed the profession, it opened my eyes to several problems within the beauty industry and elucidated issues with the culture around beauty. The beauty industry was in the business of exploiting insecurities and the bodies of those who worked in the trade. After researching these issues, I realized that most of the social and cultural problems in the cosmetology industry were caused by late-stage capitalism.

"...most of the social and cultural problems in the cosmetology industry were caused by late-stage capitalism."

The beauty industry supplies an array of professions that comodifies fashion and trends to society. Many enter the beauty industry, realizing that it is not an affluent career choice but a profession that provides a lucrative return more than most physically demanding service jobs. Gaut Im Bok explained that “beauty employees are not just interested in beauty; they genuinely believe the industry claims that the use of cosmetics leads to beauty.”

As someone who struggled with body image issues and fitting in, I related deeply to the beauty industry's claims that it could make people beautiful. It was a seductive field for someone like me who liked making people feel good about themselves, including myself, and providing a decent income as a young person. However, in being a cosmetologist, it led me to realize how deeply entrenched cosmetology was in capitalistic principles that profited from exploiting the bodies of the consumer and the service provider.

Dourado et al. reviewed the relationship between the body, beauty, and culture and illuminated, "The human body is workforce, machinery of existence, executor, and provider." My body took on significant physical abuses that were related to machinery and workforce ideals upheld by the industry. Hairdressers work on their feet for up to 12 hours a day, with their hands full of tools, and their arms raised above their heads. A work week for a hairdresser is between 32-40 hours a week, and most service providers develop shoulder, neck, lower-back, and feet problems, along with arthritis. This varies depending on the salon the stylist works at, but most have a similar work model.

As a cosmetologist, I worked at a privately owned salon known as a Redken-affiliated salon. Redken is a professional brand owned by the L'Oréal Company, providing products and education to salons through product sales. Scholar Maria Teresa M. Pool investigated the meaning of work for low-income chain salon hairdressers. However, she pointed out that there are many upscale chain salons that suggest the imprimatur of celebrity hairdressers, offering a wide variety of hair, nail, skin, and spa services in posh hotels and shopping areas. This was the type of salon I worked at.

Most stylists at the salon would have to hustle to make product commissions to qualify for educational reimbursement or even a service charge increase. However, in my experience, even in upper-scale salons, stylists were only afforded 3-7 paid vacation days per year, no sick days, no qualification for the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), nor health insurance. This was extraordinarily common in most salons in the US. Since the body of work takes an enormous toll on the service provider's body, benefits and time off should be necessary. However, corporations like Redken, do not influence salon owners to require such accommodations for employees.

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"Hairdressing is not only physical work but also emotional labor."

Hairdressing is not only physical work but also emotional labor. Stylists deeply connect with their clients as a means of care and form bonds that assist with client retention. This is also beneficial for the stylist because it is hard to observe the world when working behind the chair. When Pool interviewed several industry members, she discovered why this provided meaning to the stylist. In one interview with a hairdresser named "Kim," she describes the promise of interactions with clients,

“That’s what’s cool about it. I meet new people and learn about new professions. I’m exposed to different attitudes and ways of life. I learn new things everyday about life in general.”[5]

Being a service provider allows stylists to tap into the inner workings of society. Since the profession limits one's ability to a stationary role behind the chair, stylists become just as dependent on client interactions as the clients are on the services provided by the stylist. This relationship between stylist and client is transactional in every aspect, whether exchanging services for profit, giving advice or guidance, information on the outside world, or camaraderie and bonding. However, while the role of hairdressing is beneficial to the community and service provider, there is a side to hairdressing that is often overlooked.

In salon culture, segregation and racism still exist. When I was in beauty school, I quickly realized the supremacy of white beauty standards in my rural midwestern town. While we learned about Marcel irons, roller sets, and finger waves, the topic of textured hair was never covered, which created segregation within beauty school. The instructors did not teach textured hair, and Black students were responsible for teaching others about this topic. This always bothered me. I was one of a few white students who attempted to understand the beautiful, tight curls of African Americans; however, most of my white peers were not as open to learning because most of their clientele would be white in the salon. This was because outside of beauty school, the segregation continued.

After graduating, this lack of education created an issue in local salons because many turned down Black clients due to the inability of the White stylists’ skill set, with most Black stylists ending up being pink-collar workers setting up shop from home. Constance Russell states, "White stylists' refusal to style Black women's hair is yet another hurdle that Black women have had to face in this multicultural society," which opened court cases in the past.[6] Russell highlighted a significant issue the beauty industry has faced: beauty is multicultural and is not limited to white beauty standards.

While the history of rejecting Black clients and racism still exists in salons, it is essential to point out that this form of racism started in beauty schools from a lack of education provided to stylists. Companies like L'Oréal have up to 2000+ Redken-affiliated beauty schools called The Salon Professional Academy. It was only recently that they partnered with the NAACP to create its Inclusive Beauty Fund, which aims to assist Black-owned beauty salons. With L'Oréal partnering with the NAACP, there is a shift towards inclusivity in the market. So, hopefully, L'Oréal will also include inclusivity in its beauty school’s education curriculum.

Part of the reason for my coming to university was that I was always asking questions that I could not find answers to. I continually wondered how cosmetology and the beauty industry could support such an oppressive and abusive culture. Why did cosmetologists fill the multifaceted role of hairdresser, therapist, chemist, business owner, and salesperson with minimal compensation? Furthermore, how did the beauty industry allow for segregation to still exist? Upon reading Fredric Jameson's, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, it became clear that the common denominator was Late Capitalism.

'Late Capitalism' in its current usage, is a catchall phrase for the indignities and absurdities of our current economy, with its yawning inequality and super-powered corporations and shrinking middle class.

According to The Atlantic journalist Annie Lowrey," 'Late capitalism,' in its current usage, is a catchall phrase for the indignities and absurdities of our current economy, with its yawning inequality and super-powered corporations and shrinking middle class."[8] While Lowrey's tone is sardonic in its over-usage within modern vernacular, I agree with the term's current application, for I was able to witness and experience its effects in person in my career as a cosmetologist.

Late capitalism is a postmodernist term that Jameson holds responsible for most cultural influences in the present day. Product corporations, like Redken, that dictate the hierarchy of the beauty industry put a strain on upper-end chain salons and pink-collar stylists who worked from home. Jameson pointed out that the oppositional culture, along with its existence being established by the unavoidable and uneven development of late capitalism, creates a Third World within the First World by its own inner dynamic.[9] 

Late-Stage Capitalism is how segregation was sustained in communities, and the lack of benefits for the stylists came to be. Since the beauty industry is capitalistic, corporations like Redken control the cultural structure of the hairdressing community. While other companies outside Redken also exploit these marginalized communities, the beauty industry's social structure has improved.

The issues within cosmetology have existed since its inception into the beauty industry, and there are many more areas to explore with similar troubles. One area this paper does not have the space to elaborate on is the exploitation of marginalized gender identities. Sexuality is deeply tied to the beauty industry and its ability to allow self-expression; therefore, it also exploits the LGBTQIA+ community. Although there are more Black-owned beauty companies and schools (and for a long time, the salon has been seen as a haven for LGBTQIA+ members), the women, men, and non-binary individuals, consumers, and workers are financially exploited and worked to exhaustion by beauty corporations with little compensation.

The industry has provided little to no personal benefits, yet communities rely on their service providers to maintain the social structure through beauty standards. One suggestion would be to allow hairdressers to unionize; however, capitalism keeps beauty workers scattered through various salons and as independent contractors, which makes this extraordinarily difficult.

In becoming aware of how capitalism affects beauty, the body, racial structures, and power dynamics, I am grateful that I no longer work in an industry that exploits the people who care so deeply about helping others feel good about themselves. Eventually, the beauty industrial complex will see an overhaul; however, our perspectives of beauty are deeply ingrained in us, and the establishments that produce beauty standards exploit the anxieties of the consumer's social status. Therefore, it will be easier for society to shift to a different social and beauty design if copious amounts of education are provided to industry leaders, like cosmetologists, whom society turns to for achieving beauty.

Sources:

Bok, Gaut Im. “Understanding Alienation, Subjectivity and Relations among the Beauty Employees in the Retail Beauty Industry.” PhD diss., The University of New South Wales, 2016.

Dourado, C.S., Futinoni, S.M., Schirmer, J., Brandão-Souza, C. “Body, Culture, and Meaning.” J Hum Growth Dev. 2018; 28(2): 206-212. Accessed October 7, 2022, Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7322/jhgd.147240.

Jameson, Fredrick. Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. London: Duke University Press, 1991.

L’Oréal USA Partners with the NAACP to Launch Its Inclusive Beauty Fund. L’Oréal USA News. L’Oréal Groupe.  January 29, 2021. Accessed October 27, 2022. https://www.loreal.com/en/usa/news/commitments/loreal-usa-partners-with-the-naacp-to-launch-its-inclusive-beauty-fund-/.

 Lowrey, Annie. “Why the Phrase ‘Late-Capitalism’ is Suddenly Everywhere.” The Atlantic. May 1, 2017. Accessed October 25, 2022. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/05/late-capitalism/524943/.

Maria Teresa M. Pool, “Behind the Chair: The Experience and Meaning of Work in the Lives of Hairdressers.” PhD diss., The University of Michigan, 2006.

Russell, Constance Dionne. “Styling Civil Rights: The Effect of Sec. 1981 and the Public Accommodations Act on Black Women’s Access to White Stylists and Salons.” Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal. 2008; (10892907) 24: 189-277. Accessed October 27, 2022. Doi: https://search-ebscohost-com.proxyiub.uits.iu.edu/login/aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=33553022&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

[1] Gaut Im Bok, “Understanding Alienation, Subjectivity and Relations among the Beauty Employees in the Retail Beauty Industry,” PhD diss., (The University of New South Wales, 2016) p. 152.

[2] Cláudia de Souza Dourado et al., “Body, Culture, and Meaning.” J Hum Growth Dev. 2018; 28(2): p. 207, accessed October 7, 2022, Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7322.jhgd.147240.

[3] Maria Teresa M. Pool, “Behind the Chair: The Experience and Meaning of Work in the Lives of Hairdressers.” PhD diss., (The University of Michigan, 2006) p.6.

[4] Pool, p. 165.

[5] Ibid. p. 211.

[6] Constance Dionne Russell. “Styling Civil Rights: The Effect of Sec. 1981 and the Public Accommodations Act on Black Women’s Access to White Stylists and Salons.” Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal. 2008; (10892907) 24: 192, accessed October 27, 2022, Doi: https://search-ebscohost-com.proxyiub.uits.iu.edu/login/aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=33553022&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

[7] L’Oréal USA Partners with the NAACP to Launch Its Inclusive Beauty Fund, L’Oréal USA, L’Oréal Groupe, January 29, 2021, accessed October 27, 2022, https://www.loreal.com/en/usa/news/commitments/loreal-usa-partners-with-the-naacp-to-launch-its-inclusive-beauty-fund-/.

[8] Annie Lowrey, “Why the Phrase ‘Late-Capitalism’ is Suddenly Everywhere,” The Atlantic, May 1, 2017, accessed October 25, 2022. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/05/late-capitalism/524943/.

[9] Fredric Jameson, “Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, (London: Duke University Press,1991), 159.