The body natural and the body unnatural: Beauty work and aging

This paper examines older women's perceptions of natural and unnatural aging in relation to the use of beauty work interventions, including anti-wrinkle creams, cosmetics, hair dyes, cosmetic surgeries, and non-surgical cosmetic procedures. The data are drawn from in-depth interviews with 44 women aged 50 to 70. The women tended to define natural aging as a lack of beauty work intervention and argued that this was a commendable goal. However, …