Elise Hu's 'Flawless,' a deep dive into Korean beauty industry - The Washington Post

During one particularly dire stretch of the pandemic, I gave up on washing my hair. What was the point? There was no one to see or smell me, save for my then-and-understandably-no-longer partner, who had already witnessed me in my most feral state. My refusal was not a courageous protest targeting beauty norms but a measure of my isolation. To my surprise, I found I missed primping and prettifying, which were part and parcel of the privilege of being looked at by other people. At the same time, my descent into unkempt abandon was undeniably liberating. “The pandemic offered a rare opportunity for people to switch the script,” writes journalist Elise Hu in “Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture From the K-Beauty Capital.” “We stopped wearing makeup because we didn’t want to.” Hu is well-positioned to understand just how revolutionary a respite from the rigors of beauty can be: From 2015 to 2019, she worked as NPR’s bureau chief in Seoul, where she was bombarded with images of the same

During one particularly dire stretch of the pandemic, I gave up on washing my hair. What was the point? There was no one to see or smell me, save for my then-and-understandably-no-longer partner, who had already witnessed me in my most feral state. My refusal was not a courageous protest targeting beauty norms but a measure of my isolation. To my surprise, I found I missed primping and prettifying, which were part and parcel of the privilege of being looked at by other people. At the same time, my descent into unkempt abandon was undeniably liberating. “The pandemic offered a rare opportunity