Jessica Bennett wrote a scary Newsweek article on what she calls the “high-maintenance generation”. This is a cultural shift involving children’s use of beauty and spa treatments in elementary school.
Girls today are salon vets before they enter elementary school. Forget having mom trim your bangs, fourth graders are in the market for lush $50 haircuts; by the time they hit high school, $150 highlights are standard. Five-year-olds have spa days and pedicure parties.
The article also points out the role of the media, especially reality TV, in driving this trend:
Reared on reality TV and celebrity makeovers, girls as young as Marleigh are using earlier, spending more and still feeling worse about themselves. Four years ago, a survey by the showed that, on average, women began using beauty products at 17. Today, the average is 13—and that’s got to be an overstatement. According to market-research firm Experian, 43 percent of 6- to 9-year-olds are already using lipstick or lip gloss; 38 percent use hairstyling products; and 12 percent use other cosmetics.
And there is also the role that finances play in all this (and I would guess credit as well):
according to a NEWSWEEK examination of the most common beauty trends, by the time your 10-year-old is 50, she’ll have spent nearly $300,000 on just her hair and face.
One of the big questions we have in the Narcissism Epidemic is: What will be the effect of the economic crisis on narcissism? Apparently, narcissism is still holding strong.
