Making the Most of Your Hair & Skin
 Love it. Hate it. A woman’s fickle relationship with her hair and body is a lifelong affair. The pressure to look attractive starts when we are girls and continues all our lives. And the challenges as we approach our forties, fifties and beyond may be the toughest of all.
Hair and skin care companies recognize the vast potential of the maturing market. Did you know 75% of women in the U.S. color their hair? (Source: Hair Color Chemistry by Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.) Upscale skin care and makeup products are growing exponentially, as witnessed by sales in the category in the U.S. of $5.9 billion for the first nine months of 2007. (Source: cosmeticsdesign.com)
Kathy O’Brien, Marketing Director for Dove, the global beauty brand, notes, “Our research indicates that women in their fifties have different skin and hair needs. Cell turnover slows down and skin loses its ability to retain moisture and vitality. As a result, skin might appear dull, wrinkled, and dry. With age, hair becomes finer and less abundant.”
“I think there is more pressure on women today to really look their best than there ever was before,” says Pat Brading, an aesthetician and owner of Facial Reality in Westfield. She cites pigmentation, lines and wrinkles as the biggest complaints older women have about their skin.
Hair designer Lynne Fitzpatrick, owner of Guillotine Salon & Spa in Westfield, believes that the “basic challenge that women have is they want to continue looking young but yet look their age. They want the look to be appropriate and natural.”
“It’s that changing image of yourself,” states Isabel Dassinger, Director and Owner of the Healing Zone, an integrated beauty and wellness center in Montclair. “Inside you still feel you’re exactly the same.”
To expose existing stereotypes around beauty and aging, Dove launched a global study, Beauty Comes of Age, surveying 1,450 women from 9 countries and ranging in age from 50 to 64. The study “showed that nearly all women over 50 wanted to see a change in society’s view on women and aging,” says O’Brien. The study found that 97% of the women surveyed believed that society is less accepting of appearance considerations for women over 50 compared to their younger counterparts, especially when focused on the body.
Although it’s not possible to turn back the clock, there are solutions that can help women look their best. Dove has created the pro•age line of products “to meet the unique skin and hair changes women experience as they age,” O’Brien says. The advertising campaign for the pro•age product line, part of the company’s Campaign for Real Beauty, shows real women over 50 in tasteful nude poses. Beautiful and elegant, the women unashamedly reveal their wrinkles, age spots and gray hair. “Dove decided to talk about aging in a positive tone,” says O’Brien, “by launching the pro•age line to celebrate women fifty and over and show their honest, real beauty.”
“Nearly 4 million people around the world have visited Campaign for Real Beauty and shared words of encouragement, appreciation and hope that we can change society’s narrow definition of beauty,” states O’Brien. “It is important to educate women that what they see in movies and magazines represents an unrealistic standard of beauty, not an everyday achievable look.”
For help in reaching that achievable look, many women are turning to natural products and organics, the fastest growing segment of the market. A second trend is toward products that contain the latest technological breakthroughs. At one time products of this type were only available at spas, but L’Oreal, Oil of Olay and Avon have recently launched lines of anti-aging products, capitalizing on cellular regeneration technology.
Proper makeup techniques also make a big difference in avoiding the ‘clown’ look. “I can show you how to look good without looking like you have a lot on,” notes Brading. She stresses that you may need to adjust your look as you grow older. Dassinger found this to be true for herself. She had never been in the habit of wearing makeup, “but I’ve begun to enjoy the way I look when I wear makeup, especially in the winter. I found an organic line that I really enjoy, so it’s become part of my life as I get older.”
With so many places to turn for help, taking advantage of the latest research and scientific breakthroughs, there is no reason every woman can’t turn her love/hate relationship with her hair and body into a love relationship. At least most of the time.SPW
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