Reclaiming beauty
A research-based project exploring ways our concepts of beauty are restricted. Gender, ageing, culture, sexuality, imperfection and self-love are part of our inquiry.
We would love to hear what beauty means to you, especially if you had a moment where you felt compelled to push back against external expectations. Please email or message Teresa on WhatsApp at +44 7889558746.
Reclaiming beauty project team and advisors
Beauty is unapologetically being yourself, not influenced
by a narrative projected on you.
My decisive moment was when I shaved my head. I felt empowered. I looked at myself in the mirror and I felt so confident. I felt tough, and I felt beautiful.
When I was young, I wanted to be a boy. At age 7 my mom let me get a buzz cut. It was my first experience with misogyny. My Dad was very upset to see ‘his daughter’s long beautiful hair gone.’
I worked three jobs, was a pizza delivery girl, when I was 18, in order to earn enough to take a hairdressing course. I wanted to be part of the UK hairdressing scene and I made it to Glasgow! But I’ve had low moments. I’ve cried in the middle of George Square.
14 years ago, I felt I’d lost who I was, I wasn’t listening to my voice, realised that I hated the (beauty) industry for being so superficial. Clients and workers have to wear a ‘mask’, they can’t be themselves, you have to be a ‘day maker’ for your clients, it’s a rush, you need to sell products,
SO I LEFT, went from job to job, needed to do stuff for myself, and now have a salon where you can let me know what works for you.
My thing: I always wear cowboy boots.
Provocation: Do we need to 'reclaim' beauty? Is it not, always ours, and can't be taken away from us?
Sensing real beauty is a deeply embodied moment.
My definition is closer to that of the sublime: the boundless, chaotic, the vast, such as a raging ocean, a colossal mountain or the infinite night sky. So, I guess, when it comes to a person, it is fleeting and special.
Decisive moment: After many years of contemplating a performance which would involve cutting my own hair, I finally had the opportunity to do this to camera. It was liberating but confusing. I had to have the remaining hair cut quite short to even it up, and after my hair started to grow, had it cut even shorter. These haircuts made me think very deeply about gender and how I perform it, and the connection between beauty and gender. The short haircuts may have been a cut too far, and I’m figuring out how to step back from that.
As our decision about how we wear our hair has so much to do with presenting our most attractive self, it made me think about what it was about me that could be, in the right moment, beautiful.
I was raised as the honorary boy in my family, having two sisters, until, much later, my brother was born. I loved ‘being a boy’ and all the benefits it conferred on me. I was also the ‘bright’ child (my blond sister was the ‘beautiful’ one). I was once told by my parents that my personality was my best feature—there was a strong implication my looks were not up to some standard. Funny thing, they were not entirely off the mark.
My thing: I don’t wear makeup.
Provocation: In what context is beauty important?