Little known fact,but I used to work in the beauty industry, many moons ago. Always remember being told that sales of lipstick went up exponentially during World War II.The ‘nice’ reason given was that it was seen as an affordable luxury,an escapism during war time.More sinisiter

Reasons include that women were encouraged to keep up appearances and look good in order to boost morale. Also to uphold the gender norms of feminine and masculine roles, even during war time. Red lipstick in particular became symbolic and iconic and fully loaded with meaning

Not exhaustive, but this article gives you a small insight into the history and weaponisation of make-up, if you will. https://www.bustle.com/p/makeup-war-are-more-intricately-connected-than-you-realized-51078

Fascinating stuff, if like me, you enjoy history and how it’s led to where we are today. So how can a bit of make-up help us now? Or dyeing our hair,a really close shave, putting on good clothes? It may seem frivolous or vain under such tragic circumstances. But it has value

For me, when my skin looks good, I’ve hidden the dark circles and put on a red lip, I look in the mirror and I recognise myself. Even if the world is in turmoil, I’m still in there somewhere. So I understand the panic about hair cuts. It’s more than feeling dishevelled,you won’t

Feel like you when you look in the mirror. And you need a sense of normalcy and to feel like you, especially now. Groomed, you feel ready and prepared to deal with this onslaught, in a way zebra pants and manky hair can never achieve. I don’t mean a full face of make up, but do

What you need to do to hang on to you.And then do some of the work behind the eyes to come out of this ok.For me,I’ve lost my focus completely, so I’m training myself to read again, which I miss terribly.I used to read 2 or 3 books a week,now I can barely manage a toothpaste box