Halle Bailey, the talented actress and angelic voice behind our favorite Disney Princess, has for better or worse lived a majority of her life as a public figure. Her latest single, “Braveface,” gives us a glimpse of what that experience is like, especially when plagued with emotional difficulty, and prompts us to consider how beauty plays a role in wellness and self-preservation.
Receiving their first big break after Beyoncé discovered them on Youtube in 2015 and brought them into Parkwood Entertainment, her music label, Halle and her sister Chloe Bailey have since evolved into multi-hyphenate entertainers. Experiencing milestones in the limelight can be difficult, even more so when those milestones are fraught by unhealthy relationships that affect our self-esteem and mental health.
Within the music video for her song, Bailey appears singing as women are dressing, undressing, and making themselves up in different ways. Imagery also depicts Bailey through different lenses, one through a camera which she watches herself on, one under a magnifying glass and so on, as it represents the different ways she feels viewed and scrutinized. The powerful visuals accompany resonant lyrics, wherein Bailey uses the concept of a makeup routine to distract or “blind” onlookers from what is really going on beneath the surface, while at the same time giving her a sense of confidence to take on public opinion.
Ruminating on Bailey’s lyrics made me contemplate the ways beauty can be used as a shield, mask, or armor of sorts. In both literal and energetic senses, beauty practices can help boost the inner confidence needed to face the anxieties of the outside world. Whether it is a daily routine that makes us feel most like ourselves, or extra concealer for a stubborn breakout, sometimes the extra help is needed.
Wellness expert and mindfulness teacher Le’ Jai’ La Troi offers a compelling view from a spiritual perspective, “Halle is bringing her audience back to the reverence of beauty, historically. Throughout ancient mythology, goddesses of beauty like Hathor, Aphrodite, and Lakshmi represented not only physical adornment but also prosperity and divine connection.” She also goes on to explain that many of the deities across mythologies and practices that rule over love and beauty, also rule over war and protection. Grounded in this spiritual lens, beauty is protection.
Mental health professional Stacy McCall-Martin, LMFT lays out an important point when she says, “The [phrase], ‘thank God I don’t look like what I’ve been through,’ or the belief some of us carry that we can’t let “them” see us break, strengthens our resolve to persist despite feeling like we want to crawl into a hole for a bit.”
In a way, beauty routines can serve similar purposes as daily affirmations, and show us the power we can hold over our own minds to reframe a situation with a more positive or sustainable outlook. Troi believes Bailey’s lyrics support this thought process, as she focuses on the “I just want to feel good,” section of the song, which she believes serves as a reminder that “taking care of yourself [helps you] feel better mentally.”
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Beauty rituals can also serve as grounding, somatic practices. Take, for example, dry brushing or gua sha-ing. On one hand, they yield great results such as exfoliation or lymphatic drainage, respectively. On the other, the two practices can help us connect to our physical bodies, an effective practice used for those with anxiety. They can also contribute to overall mindfulness routines as they offer the time to sit with yourself in a methodical practice, as is supported by Troi. She looks back to practices of ancient Egypt, where women and men engaged in beauty routines not only for physical benefits but for the spiritual connection as well.
If we aren’t careful, however, leaning too far into physical beauty can complicate our wellbeing. “Sometimes doing all the things for the sake of beauty worsens our mental state. It can mask our experience, making it difficult to ask or receive support,” McCall offers. Through this tactic, a tough or polished exterior can prohibit us from stepping into the vulnerability we need to seek and accept help. In addition, it can worsen our mental state by causing us to hyper-fixate on the surface issues and exacerbate insecurities, turning vanity into a vice rather than a helpful outlet. To that note, Troi reminds us that beauty can be unhelpful, when, “beauty is filtered through external validation rather than internal connection.”
McCall-Martin and Troi offer some valuable tips for improving wellness, both internally and externally. These include, above all, setting and respecting your own boundaries. By honoring yourself, you not only strengthen your mental wellbeing but can also incorporate wellness further into your beauty routines. Other tips include daily gratitude and positive affirmations which can be done in the mirror during beauty routines, EFT tapping for somatic therapy, journaling, and pursuing activities that evoke genuine personal joy and peace—for yourself, not for external validation. Importantly, McCall urges us to “find spaces where we can be vulnerable, cute or not.This is about community, acceptance, and (psychological and emotional) safety.” As Troi reminds us, “mental wellness is a practice of coming home to yourself, over and over again.”