How Beauty Became My Escape During Chronic Illness
Main Image – Serge Filimonov/Stocksy
Welcome to The Beauty Debrief where beauty editor and nail tech Tori Crowther shares her musings on the latest beauty trends, buzzy treatments and misinformation. Today, she’s discussing how beauty has helped her through dealing with a chronic illness.
Beauty is ingrained into every aspect of my life. Not because I’m on some kind of self-obsessed vanity pursuit but because I’m a beauty editor.
Although beauty has become my paycheck, it’s also helped me through periods of bad health. To many, that sounds trivial and silly but it’s been such a source of joy in the past and one that I think is so often overlooked. In the same way people use clothes to dress up with nowhere to go when they don’t feel their best, I use beauty.
My love of beauty runs deep, long before this became my job. Between dealing with periods of chronic illness and equally fun acute accidents and bad health, I’ve used beauty to help aid my recovery. Sure, it doesn’t actually cure my illness, but it does help me mentally and sometimes that’s the best we can ask for.
When I say beauty, I’m not talking about full glam right out of surgery (although if that’s anyone’s thing then I salute the effort). After a ski accident almost 15 years ago, I was badly concussed and my mental health really suffered. I was in my spray tan era at the time as I was an Irish dancer (if you’re unfamiliar, we had to wear buckets of tan for competitions) but after the accident, I wasn’t able to dance (or tan).
I’ll never forget my mum coming into my room when I was feeling particularly low and asking me if I’d like to go and get a spray tan. At the time, it seemed a bit ludicrous (and hilarious). What’s the point? I’m not going anywhere. Although quite hilarious, I knew it would work. A light layer of bronze and a trip out of the house — doing something that was routine before the accident — transformed my mood and in that moment, I realised how powerful small acts like this can be.
Image – Maitepons/Stocksy
More recently, I’ve used beauty in so many ways during bouts of chronic illness and surgery recoveries. My main beauty therapy (I say this as someone who has been to actual therapy because let me be clear, beauty can never, ever replace therapy) has always been nail art. Although I have a nail tech qualification now, it’s been a passion long before then. It’s one of the new things I’ve been able to do when my body was screaming at me but I needed to use my brain in a creative way aside from work.
When I was flaring up, on high-dose painkillers, not able to leave the house for long periods of time or engage my brain in work for long stints, I could rely on practising my gel extension technique or learning how to use a new builder in a bottle. I could spend 3 hours meticulously doing a set of nail extensions with intricate art. It was such a welcomed outlet becoming something I relied upon.
Aside from nails, during a flare-up when I’m barely able to function but need to face the world or get a pick-me-up, I’ve been known to use a hair gloss to pretend I’ve had a cut and colour at the salon. I’ve slathered on fake tan as soon as stitches have come out. I’ve got facials if I’m able to get out of the house long enough to enjoy one.
I’ve painted my toes neon orange to inject some much-needed colour into my day-to-day. Trying a new blue mascara when all I’m doing is WFB (working from bed). Beauty can be so much more than just the outcome. It can be about the creative process, experimenting and playing.
Beauty can, in fact, make us feel better, too. Of course, it’s a layered topic with issues such as unconscious bias coming into play but as far as using my silly little routine at home to maintain normalcy and fun goes, beauty is a helpful tool.
Image – Erin Drago/Stocksy
There’s every chance you’re reading this thinking “That’s obnoxiously vain” and perhaps it is but I view it differently. I view it as caring for ourselves and I think that’s an important part of our lives – whatever that looks like for you. For me, it’s brightly coloured fingers and toes, a layer of bronze akin to how I’d look after a few weeks in Spain and perhaps a slick of mascara if I’m feeling really fancy.
There’s also an element of control in maintaining routine when you feel like other areas of life (such as health) are beyond your control. Particularly for chronic illnesses when it feels like there’s a limit to how much medical intervention can help. Combining boring self care with fun (or in my case, beauty) self-care can help feel less like things are beyond your control.
Now that I’m 3 months post-surgery, I don’t need to use beauty in the same fundamental way but it’s still a huge part of my routine – aside from being my job. Coming out the other side of a chronic illness gives a whole new meaning of gratitude for the small things. It’s made me appreciate the little things more than ever before and if adding a bit of Isle of Paradise and a slick of blue nail polish does the trick for a mood boost, then that’s a huge win in my book.
Beauty often gets a bad reputation, and look, the industry is far from perfect, but I believe that sometimes it’s there right when we need a bit of escapism.
Get Glowing!
