The ‘Birthing makeup’ TikTookay trend is dividing new mothers

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New mothers are divided by the “birthing makeup” trend on TikTookay.

With hashtag #birthingmakeup racking up greater than 81.3 million views on the platform and one video from person @laedout garnering over 3.5 million likes alone, it appears as if welcoming your little one with a full face of make-up has turn out to be widespread amongst common girls. Some make-up artists predict that this trend is right here to remain.

“My Instagram inbox is full of women wanting to book me for their birth,” make-up artist Sarah Stillenberg instructed Glamour. “Lots are women having planned C-sections who know the exact date and time, and so feel they have the time to book an appointment with me. I also get women asking what the most enduring foundation for labor is or which waterproof mascara is the best so that they can still look good in those postbirth selfies.”

In the previous, birthing make-up was typically relegated to image-conscious influencers like former actuality TV star Heidi Montag, who posted a video of her make-up artist at work within the supply room in 2022. The choice to get dolled up for the birthing course of has lengthy sparked disdain for “unrealistic beauty standards.”

Former Love Island contestant Hannah Elizabeth obtained backlash in 2019 from her followers when she donned a full face of make-up and blown-out hair within the images she posted of herself after giving beginning to her son.

“Got dolled up to have a wain…disgusting,” one individual wrote on the time, whereas one other added: “I love you but this is such an unrealistic display of what birth really is for most women.”

Others on the time have been extra supportive, praising the influencer for going for a “glam” look.

“So lovely how you wanted to make such an impression on your baby,” one individual wrote. “No one should have to compromise who they are or what they like for others or because it’s the ‘norm’.”

“If she had no makeup and messy hair she would get slammed,” one other defended her. “She wears makeup and has her hair done she gets slammed. Leave her be and let her just enjoy being a mum. Women should empower women. Especially new mums, makeup or no makeup.”

This idea of birthing make-up isn’t model new. In the mid-1900s, girls have been confronted with unimaginable societal stress to look “pristine” and ideal always, together with within the supply room. To this present day, the British royal household and press preserve this custom, with royal {couples} like Prince William and Kate Middleton showboating for the plenty by trying picture-perfect on the steps of the maternity ward.

Back in 2018, Keira Knightley wrote an essay for Scarlett Curtis’s e-book Feminists Don’t Wear Pink and Other Lies on how the Princess of Wales was “out of hospital seven hours [after birth] with her face made up and high heels on,” which performed into the concept that girls ought to present “the face the world wants to see.”

“Hide. Hide our pain, our bodies splitting, our breasts leaking, our hormones raging,” the actor wrote on the time. “Look beautiful, look stylish, don’t show your battleground, Kate.”

Some medical professionals are anxious that the birthing make-up trend is a aspect impact of the stress to look excellent, but in addition one among internalised misogyny, harkening again to the times wherein males wished girls to look and act a sure method after beginning.

“I see so many women putting on makeup in the ward now and have had some new mums ask me if I thought they should do the same,” one midwife allegedly admitted to Glamour. “We often remark about how it feels as though we’re being pulled back to the days where women were given the ‘husband stitch’—a stitch performed by doctors to narrow the vaginal entrance, supposedly meant to ensure greater pleasure for men—without being asked.”

But some mothers notice that they placed on birthing make-up for themselves – not for the boys of their lives – primarily as a result of they need to have the ability to look again at images of one of many happiest moments of their lives and never cringe at how “drained” they appear.

“I didn’t wear any makeup when I gave birth to my first child, but now I can’t bear to look at those photos because I look so broken and drained in them,” Sherma – a mom of two – instructed Glamour. “It was such a happy experience, but the photos of the moment don’t show that at all. So, for my second birth, I decided I was going to wear some makeup but wasn’t sure how I could given that I was having a planned C-section and so wouldn’t be particularly mobile and probably limited to one hand. I searched online and came across the birthing makeup trend on TikTok, I found the product recommendations really useful and really treasure the photos I now have from the birth of my son.”

Other girls known as the act of placing on make-up empowering post-birth, saying it introduced them again in contact with themselves. “For me, putting on foundation, bronzer, mascara, and lipstick brought me back to feeling myself after I’d given birth,” Jenen Unac defined to the outlet. “For 10 months I felt totally out of control of my body as I grew my baby and even less in control when I went into labor and my initial birth plan went awry.”

“Everything was new and alien,” she added. “Being in hospital, being a brand-new mum in, what felt like, a brand-new body, but applying makeup made me feel normal; it provided me with a link back to those mundane everyday tasks that made up my life prior to this moment.”