Category: Beauty

  • Wigs and Hairpieces

    Wigs and Hairpieces

    Wigs have been worn by both men and women since ancient times. Wigs are worn for a variety of different reasons, including protection, adornment, disguise, ritual, social or professional status, health or hygiene, and  religious strictures. Wigs can be  used  to  change hair  color  as well as make  dramatic shifts  in  hairstyle from short to…

  • Naomi Wolf

    Naomi Wolf

    Naomi Wolf is an influential feminist and  is considered a founder of third-wave feminism. Wolf was born in San Francisco and attended Yale University, earning a bachelor of arts degree  in English literature (1984); she then spent  a term  as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford  (1985  to 1987).  She  garnered international acclaim  in 1991  with …

  • Whitening, Brightening, and Bleaching

    Whitening, Brightening, and Bleaching

    The  obsession with  all things bright and  shiny,  from  hair  to teeth, from  face to body,  inspired the  beauty  industry to take  on  the  vintage,  sepia  tones  associated with age and  ripeness and  offer beauty  products and  treatments that  could  offer a clear,  blank,  and  often  brightened slate  to  celebrities and  regular consumers alike. Although…

  • What Not to Wear

    What Not to Wear

    What Not to Wear (WNTW) on The  Learning Channel (TLC) is a personal makeover  television show  that  teaches unstylish individuals how  to  dress  and  style themselves according to middle-class norms. The  original  WNTW is British  and began  airing  on  the  BBC Two  in 2001.  The  American version  of WNTW began airing  on TLC  in 2003 …

  • Tween Market

    Tween Market

    Although young  girls have long played dress up, paraded around at home in their mother’s high  heels, and  nagged  for sweets in grocery  store  check-out lines, only in the last couple of decades have they constituted a new marketing niche  known as tweens. No  longer  defined  in the  advertising world  as a child,  yet not …

  • Waxing

    Waxing

    Waxing  is a semi-permanent hair  removal  process that  pulls  hair  out  by the  root. A solution of wax is applied  to the  skin  over the  hair  and  removed in the  direction of the hair growth. Hair does not grow back for 2–8 weeks, depending on the area of the  body  being  waxed and  the  individual’s…

  • Madam C. J. Walker

    Madam C. J. Walker

    African  American beauty   entrepreneur  Madam C. J. Walker,  originally   named Sarah  Breedlove,  was born in 1867  in Delta,  Louisiana, to sharecropper parents who had recently  been  freed from slavery. Walker  experienced considerable hardship  in the  early years  of her  life. Orphaned at the  age of seven  and  obliged  to live with  her  older  sister  and …

  • Vogue

    Vogue

    Vogue is the world’s preeminent fashion periodical, functioning as an authoritative voice on all things fashion related. Throughout its history, Vogue has set the standard  for fashion coverage,  innovating and  changing with the  times  in a way that has  managed to  ensure its continued relevance. Over  the  years,  this  has  meant the  inclusion of varying…

  • Vitamins and Beauty Supplements

    Vitamins and Beauty Supplements

    Vitamins  are  organic  compounds  essential for  growth  and   activity  in  small amounts. Dietary  supplements are minerals, herbs, and vitamins taken  to help increase  nutritional intake  and  daily food consumption. Today, American consumers spend millions of dollars  each year on vitamins and supplements that  promise everything from  sexual  vigor and  increased body  mass  to clear complexions…

  • U.S. Food and Drug Administration

    U.S. Food and Drug Administration

    The  U.S.  Food  and  Drug Administration (FDA)  is  a  scientific  and  regulatory agency of the federal  government charged with protecting public  health through overseeing the  safety of consumer products. The  FDA  has  various  departments that serve to regulate the beauty  industry: Office of Cosmetics and Colors, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery  Devices Branch, and Center for…