Beauty Trends of the Past

Anything But Mid is hosted by Amy Edwards and Whitney Stropp. Neither host is a doctor and nothing here is medical advice. Lightly cleaned for readability.

Amy: I'm Amy.

Whitney: And I'm Whitney. And this may be midlife, but you're anything but mid.

Amy: Right.

We won't tolerate mid.

No, we will not. No.

You don't really sound very convicted there.

Whitney: I feel like I just had a hot flash. So I'm like, oh man. Anyways, well, that is part of midlife.

Amy: It is. So, that's your mid moment, is this hot flash that you're having right now?

Amy: Perfectly natural.

Whitney: Something weird is going on. This is a mid thing, I believe. And I'm almost 55 in a couple of days.

Amy: Really?

Whitney: Tomorrow, I'm 55.

Amy: Are you sure you're not 54?

Whitney: I think so.

Amy: What year were you born?

Whitney: This is a mid moment. When you have no idea how old you are. I'm 1971. You're right. You're right. I'm going to turn 54 this year. Okay, yeah, wow. I thought for a second I was wrong and I was going to be 54. Damn it. Anyway, in the last six months of my 54 years, I have felt that my skin is completely changing. And of course-

Amy: Crepe-a-habit, ladies, skin.

Whitney: But it almost is happening overnight, and it's not just-

Amy: Like, oh! Holy shit! I see what you mean.

Whitney: Hey, that's not nice. Foul.

Amy: Just rubbed your arm and said, "Oh, shit."

Whitney: That's not nice. No, but, yeah, it's the texture is changing. This is so sad. But it's not just about, like, the wrinkly creepiness. It's like little bumps and and like growths and I know. And then, I don't know what's been going on. I actually took a picture of it because it was happening on the way over here. In the last two weeks, I've been getting these rashes out of the blue, and it's making my face itch, my neck itch, my chest, and my back. And I don't know what I'm doing.

Amy: Dear god!

Whitney: Because I'm not doing anything different at all. But look at what Look at what was happening while driving over here.

Amy: Gosh! You know what? I'm going to try to insert that. Send me that so we can definitely insert it. I'll put it into the

Whitney: And it just happened out of the blue, and I'm like, I don't know. My laundry detergent hasn't changed. I'm using the same stuff, and I'm, by the way, I'm not putting anything on my back, but maybe just once your body starts reacting, it goes everywhere. But I don't know, and it's very disheartening because I've never thought about my my skin like that before. Like, even my legs, like, I'm noticing, oh wow.

Amy: It's like the elasticity?

Whitney: I guess. It's the elasticity, and it's just the coloring. And I don't know. I honestly was like thinking, I'm going to have to get my entire body lasered.

Just like Just dip me in. Hopefully, they'll create like, yeah, they'll create this full body tube, and you just step in there and they zap everything, and you, you know, walk around for several days with just like, you know.

Amy: Burn burns, but

Whitney: Yeah, exactly.

Amy: And get into a hyperbaric chamber and just heal or something. Do you ever think about, like when you were young, the mean things you used to say to your mom without meaning to be mean? Like, I would say, like I would tell her skin was like Saran Wrap. And I'd be like, "You're you're like Saran Wrap on your feet and stuff." And she'd be like, "Ah!" You know?

Whitney: Kind of like what you just did to me, where you rubbed my skin and you're like, "Oh no!"

Amy: I'm I'm sorry.

Whitney: It's all right.

Amy: But I know what you mean. And I would say mean things to my mom. I feel bad about him now, because like, I don't know.

Whitney: Well, I used to have like super I mean, even though I've always had freckles, you know, my skin didn't look bumpy or anything. It just was smooth. And now it's always, no, it's bumpy. And And right now I'm still having that weird I don't know what's happening. I don't know why I'm reacting to something, but I don't know what it is.

Amy: Well, could it be from that BBL Heroic?

Whitney: I thought about that, but it's not a constant thing. It like flares up. And then it's on my back.

Amy: Oh, but not on your back. Okay.

Whitney: Yeah. It's so weird. But that's what starts to happen, I think, in midlife. Weird stuff starts happening and you're like, where did that come from? Why is that happening? And you never find the answer.

And you have to live in the and then you're looking around for some full body laser tube just to try to help yourself out.

Amy: My dad always said, "Getting old ain't for sissies."

Whitney: No, it's not. You got to toughen up, because it's just happening. And then you reframe and you go, "It is a privilege. I'm getting older. Some people would, you know, give a-"

Amy: "Die."

Whitney: Die for this. And they already did. So, yeah. You know, it is it is true. And be gentle with yourself, because the way that you are pulling yourself apart, other people don't see it at all.

Amy: No. No.

Whitney: So, you just have to Yeah. Just be kind to yourself.

Amy: We're here to laugh with you.

Whitney: Yeah. But man, I'm becoming that person. Like remember like I I would in movies and stuff when older ladies would be getting ready for bed, they're lotioning up. Yeah. You know, like they're all lotioning up, and now I'm becoming like, I've got to start lotioning up. But I need to find-

Amy: It's not like beef tallow or something? Problem?

Whitney: No, but that just help Oh, with the problem.

Amy: No, it might it makes your skin more slicker.

Whitney: But this is happening at random times. Like I'm driving here and it happens. I was at a store earlier in the week and it happened. And my ears start itching and it's weird. It's some sort of allergic reaction, but I don't know to what.

Amy: To what?

Whitney: I don't know.

Amy: Weird. The part with your back, I mean makes me think maybe

Whitney: Conditioner or something?

Amy: could it's happening, that would happen immediately.

Whitney: Yeah, it's just like you know, damn it! I didn't shower today, let's be honest.

Amy: Added to our list of mysteries.

Whitney: Yeah, there's a lot of midlife mysteries.

Amy: The life is mysteries by a segment of midlife mysteries. I love it.

Whitney: Well, so we both share a midlife moment. Well, in that kind of vein of you know, I was looking for some sort of a tube, a laser tube, that I can just jump into and it's, you know, singes off three layers of skin. We're going to talk about beauty trends historically, cuz we're doing some crazy shit right now. They were doing some crazy shit back then.

Amy: My god!

Whitney: And so it kind of makes you feel a little bit like, oh shit, what are they going to be talking about in a 100 years that we were doing?

Amy: Doing with now, okay, and you know, I don't know they know what.

Whitney: Yeah, the history of vanity is you know, is it started like 100,000 years ago.

Amy: That's so cool. What?

Whitney: It's crazy, and like to the point where we have the glow up, they were having glow-in-the-dark situations, because they were using radium. It's insane what these people were doing. And I'm sure like I said, people will be looking back at some of the stuff we're doing and be like, were they fucking nuts?

Amy: Yeah.

Whitney: And the answer is yes.

Amy: The enthusiasm.

Whitney: When you're looking for the Fountain of Youth, you can get a little crazy.

Amy: Oh, I mean salmon sperm. Hello!

Whitney: Salmon sperm?

Amy: Yeah, salmon sperm facials.

Whitney: Oh! Well, snail, we're putting snail snail mucin. That's

Amy: I I bought some snail mucin, and it was not for me. I I bought it.

Whitney: I bought some, too. I'm going to do an episode on Korean skincare.

Amy: Ooh, yes, please! You hear so much about it.

Whitney: Anyway, okay, so, historically, beauty equals wealth. And I feel like that's even today, like if you look beautiful, then that create a certain kind of status, right?

Amy: Mm-hmm.

Whitney: Back in the day, though, the way that you showed health and wealth was by seeming like you can't do anything on your own, like you can't breathe, you can't move, you can't see, you're so rich that you have somebody that does all that for you. It's crazy. So

Amy: Like Marie Antoinette or something?

Whitney: Yeah, well, like some of the things that I'm going to go through that people do, it actually is debilitating to them. But in society, it shows that I hire people to walk for me, I hire people, you know, my hands aren't dirty, my skin is pale, that kind of a thing.

Amy: Yes. Yeah.

Whitney: Because the first thing that I wanted to know is for for me, for us, I feel like the driver is we want to look younger. We don't want to look like we're, you know, our actual age. And I was like, is that why people were doing it back in the day? But it was really about status back in the day. And I was like, do people even live long enough to worry about looking old?

Amy: Yeah, I don't know.

Whitney: But they did, actually. The infant mortality rate was very high, but if you could get past infancy, then you could live, you know, into your 60s,

Amy: Hang on to your

Whitney: Yeah, you survived your first five years, you'll live until your 60s, which is still very young. But they were definitely looking to be they were trying to feel younger, but they were looking to feel rich. Uh, that mattered way more.

Amy: That's such an interesting correlation.

Whitney: The first sense. So, when I was diving into where did this beauty and the beauty trends first begin? It was over 100,000 years ago, archeologists found the first makeup kits.

Amy: Damn.

Whitney: And it was clay, this red clay, and these little abalone shells, and they would use that and apply like what they was like makeup. Back in the day, 100,000 years ago, they didn't have plumbing or houses, but they were like, "How can I accessorize and put make my cheekbones look you know, better?" I thought that was so funny.

Amy: It's a trip. I my ex-husband was reading a book about like early humans. And he was telling me about it one day, and he was like, "They were exactly like us." And I was like, "What do you mean exactly like us?" Like Like they laughed and said shit and joked around. He was like, "Yes, that's exactly," and I'm like, to think that they were exactly like us like with the way we function and think and talk to each other and stuff like that is such a like wild trip for me.

Whitney: Yeah, well, and and status was important even back then. You're you're you're trying to just stay alive for that day and not get eaten by a tiger, and you're also worried about do I look like I'm higher status than that guy? You know, I'm going to put this clay on me, or I'm going to wear this this shell necklace, or I'm going to

Amy: I hate

Whitney: how do I make my outfit pop?

Amy: I know. I hate so much that that's natural that that we've been

Whitney: It's the human nature.

Amy: Damn it!

Whitney: It is.

Amy: I don't like that. I don't want that.

Whitney: So, you know, we were talk we talked a lot about I was talking about my skin and and and your complexion and everything, that has been something that people have been trying to maintain for years and years and years. In the first century, this guy, Pliny the Elder, wrote that women use

Amy: Pliny?

Whitney: Pliny the Elder.

Amy: If your name's Pliny

Whitney: Pliny didn't give a fuck about looking younger. He wanted to be the elder of the group. But he wrote that women used lead to whiten the complexion despite knowing that taken internally, you're poisoning yourself. and lead poisoning. Yeah, the use of lead to whiten skin was running rampant and it really reached its apex in, something called Venetian ceruse. It was a 16th-century cosmetic that holds the Guinness World Book of Records for the most toxic makeup ever.

Amy: Holy shit.

Whitney: That was white lead paint and they put it on their face.

Amy: Ugh, lead, lead is so bad. You know, if you, do you know much about the history of lead in this century, or in the 1900s?

Whitney: As far as, as far as make up?

Amy: No, just lead poisoning led to the serial killer boom of the '70s and stuff. People were inhaling it in leaded gas and they bought lead, unleaded gas.

Whitney: Yes, oh, yes. They have, they have like conclusively linked it to serial killers and stuff.

Amy: So I wonder what was going on back then.

Whitney: That's what I was just wondering. It's saying in ancient Rome, and then again, during the Renaissance, men and women slathered this stuff on because a pale complexion said, "I don't work outdoors like a peasant." "I'm so pale because I'm so wealthy and delicate and other people are doing the hard work." But lead poisoning, this is what's crazy, the lead poisoning actually caused skin lesions, hair loss, disfigurement. So what did they do? They put more lead on to hide those things. So it was literally, vanity wins again.

Amy: A matter of death. It also makes you go completely insane, like you go, you lose your mind.

Whitney: Yeah. Okay, well, they don't talk about the murder rate here, but, it's crazy to me that you're putting something on your skin and then you're getting lesions on your skin. And they're putting more on their skin. Anyway, the Romans did something, just a side note, this was so gross. The Romans had a trick for a dazzling smile, urine mouthwash.

Amy: Ugh, gross.

Whitney: They specifically wanted, the prized urine was Portuguese urine.

Amy: Stop it.

Whitney: And I don't know if the Portuguese would sell the urine, or if they were slaves or something and they had to. I don't know how they got the urine. But, that Portuguese urine was the, was the, was the prized possession.

Amy: Gagging.

Whitney: And, you know, pee has ammonia in it, so it is a cleaning agent, but, can you imagine?

Amy: No. I'm trying not to imagine.

Whitney: I'm wondering what we do now that's equivalent.

Amy: That's equivalent.

Whitney: Something in your mouth, I don't know. Anyway, fast forward to the Victorian era. The ultimate pale delicate look, consumption chic. So remember in the '90s, remember in the '90s it was heroin chic?

Amy: Yeah.

Whitney: Well, this has been going on since the Victorian age. So tuberculosis was running rampant back then, all right, and it became a bizarre beauty standard.

Amy: And that was hot?

Whitney: Yes, people wanted to look like they were dying. So healthy women would paint their faces white, they'd do this really red-tint fever-red lips, and they'd widen their eyes to create this shining look of a terminal patient.

Amy: Are you sick or just hot?

Whitney: Right. Exactly. But if you think about it in the '90s, people were doing the heroin chic, and even today, the beauty standard is super thin, where you almost look, like you don't look like you could lift a weight. Her head is, what do they call it, the lollipop, bubblehead?

Amy: Or a bobblehead.

Whitney: Yeah, yeah, but, so we're not that far off. Anyway, they used something called arsenic wafers.

Amy: You hear to those, wow.

Whitney: Yeah, arsenic. They were dying, they were literally killing themselves to look like the beauty standard of the time. In the 1920s, the discovery of radium.

Amy: Oh yeah, I know.

Whitney: They put it in their face cream. It's radium. But they said, like there's something called Tho-Radia promised energy and luminosity.

Amy: Yeah, like it makes you radiate.

Whitney: Radiate, yeah, wasn't it?

Amy: The girls that were working in the factories, cause they would use it to paint glow in the dark watches and things like that, and the girls would use these really fine paintbrushes, so they would, they would paint it and then they would lick the brush to make it more of a point, and they started getting, at first it was really cool to work there, you would get the dusting of the radium all over you and they'd go out dancing and they would glow and sparkle, and they painted on their eyes, and things like that, and then they started to become disfigured, and get really, really ill, and the company, of course, didn't take any responsibility. It's a tragic, tragic story, but, yeah, it was fashionable for a while, too. They would market it in all different ways.

Whitney: Yeah, it's crazy. And so there was this whole skin level, but then you're talking about disfigurement, that was accidental, but there are actually history beauty trends where they intentionally disfigure themselves.

Amy: What, like that?

Whitney: Okay, well, you know the ones just like with the the corsets.

Amy: Oh, your waist.

Whitney: Right, like say with tie, if you can't breathe, that means you're beautiful, like you look fabulous.

Amy: I had a corset that wasn't even that tight at my wedding, and like for my second dress, and we did this hug sprint at like the beginning of the reception, and I could not fucking breathe. By the, according to the way the hugs were, and I was like, "Why am I winded? Why can't I breathe?" It wasn't even that tight and I was like, panting, couldn't catch my breath, sweating.

Whitney: Well, that's why they had those fainting chairs back then, as those lounges, because women couldn't breathe and they were fainting left and right.

Amy: Yeah. And if you were doing that all the time, too, you can train your body to where you have to wear a corset to hold your body up.

Whitney: Well, okay, so this is what it's saying in here. The engineering of that corset, it was whalebone and steel and you,

Amy: Oh, my.

Whitney: you would get your waist super, super small. Your liver was literally pushed into your stomach. And people thought hysteria was a medical mystery, it was just because they couldn't take a deep breath and your organs were rearranged.

Amy: Holy.

Whitney: Ribs were broken, all for this perfect silhouette. Crazy. If you think the corsets extreme, here's another thing, and you've probably heard of this, the Chinese foot binding.

Amy: Oh, yeah.

Whitney: So little girls between four and nine years,

Amy: Oh, my God.

Whitney: they would get their feet tightly bound to break the arches and curl the toes under.

Amy: Have you ever seen pictures?

Whitney: I have, yeah, some.

Amy: Don't look up pictures anybody, if you have.

Whitney: They were trying to achieve a smallest possible foot, but it ultimately, and it was a status symbol, because they weren't able to work in a field, or walk long distances. It was again that idea of, "I'm so delicate and wealthy. I'm, I have other people to do all of those things." But it caused permanent, excruciating disabilities and infection.

Amy: Hate that so much.

Whitney: But it meant you had money.

Amy: So much.

Whitney: So crazy.

Amy: I hate it.

Whitney: And then, I'm sure we've all seen the neck coils, from the African tribes, and Thailand tribes, things like that. Starting at age five, girls would wear these heavy brass coils. And they wanted it to stretch the neck, they thought it was stretching the neck, but it actually was pushing your clavicle down and your rib cage down. So it wasn't actually elongating your neck, it was pushing everything else down.

Amy: Oh, my God.

Whitney: Isn't that horrible?

Amy: And they I know that they couldn't take them off because

Whitney: Because after a while, your neck could no longer, your muscles, your neck muscles atrophied.

Amy: It's like the corset, too, what

Whitney: They had to, they had to wear it, I had to, and like, oh, my God. So let's talk about hair. Hair is something that everyone is trying to achieve beautiful hair. We have extensions. I actually, my friend,

Amy: Oh, what do we have here?

Whitney: my friend bought me these bangs. Isn't that crazy?

Amy: Cute.

Whitney: These bangs, and it actually is the perfect hair color. Like you can't really get, it's hard to find a color that matched my hair. But, yeah, so I mean people are doing all kinds of crazy things. Those of you who can't see and just listening, I have some

Amy: Oh, my God.

Whitney: brow, bangs, bang extensions.

Amy: It's really cute.

Whitney: So, anyway, taking me back to the '80s. But, yeah, there was a so hair has always been a crowning glory. Back in the 17th century, the periwig became popular and it was the men and women with the big wig white wigs. And it was started because King Louis the, whatever, XIV, 14th, yeah, and King Charles of England, both started balding prematurely and they didn't want to seem old or, you know, weak, so they started wearing these giant wigs.

Amy: They just I like that they just went there. They're like, "You know what? I'm not going to pretend. Let's just go big or go home."

Whitney: Right. Better than the comb-over.

Amy: Yes, it is.

Whitney: But because it was the king, it started a trend where nobleman, anyone going to the the castle, wanted one of these wigs, and they were enormous powdered wigs. They were made of human hair, goat hair, horsehair,

Amy: Oh, fun.

Whitney: and styled with like this lard thing and then heavily dusted with flour. Now, here's what's disgusting. Because these wigs were rarely washed, they became nests for lice, fleas, nits, and you would have to they would have to take their wigs and bake them to kill the parasites and stuff that were in there. Can you imagine?

Amy: Ugh, I've heard stories about how bad people smelled then.

Whitney: Oh, sugar.

Amy: Because bathing was seen as something lower class, which was What?

Whitney: That's wild.

Amy: Yeah, yeah.

Whitney: I didn't know that.

Amy: So, and some people like just wore all these perfumes and shit.

Whitney: That's crazy. Well, also at this time, syphilis

Amy: Oh, yeah.

Whitney: was running rampant and patchy hair loss was a symptom of syphilis. So men wore these wigs to hide the fact that they were sick.

Amy: Oh God, that

Whitney: And these full, voluminous wigs said, "I'm healthy and I definitely don't have an STI." And and you know the term "bigwig"?

Amy: We said, "You bigwig."

Whitney: That's where it comes from. The bigger the wig, the bigger the deal. All right, eyebrows.

Amy: Can't say I have syphilis.

Whitney: Right. Women were thinking about their eyebrows back in the day as well, just like we do now. But people in the 18th century, if they plucked their eyebrows too thin, would would glue strips of mouse skin to their forehead.

Amy: That, dying, mouse-in-the-haze saying.

Whitney: Isn't that crazy?

Amy: Little mouse brows?

Whitney: Yes. Dead mouse hair, glued to your eyebrows. Isn't that insane?

Amy: Yeah.

Whitney: All right, so that, you know, it just is interesting that even back then they're thinking about eyebrows, they're thinking about voluptuous hair. You know, you know those little patches, nowadays like for a pimple, you can get those little patches,

Amy: Oh yeah, like a star or a heart.

Whitney: that came from the French. They were hiding their scar, their syphilis scars and stuff,

Amy: What?

Whitney: and they would they would glue fabric onto their face in designs.

Amy: No.

Whitney: Yeah, isn't that crazy?

Amy: What's he?

Whitney: I know. All right, here's some really nothing is new.

Amy: Nothing is new.

Whitney: Nothing is new.

Amy: No.

Whitney: But also, when are we going to learn? Like we're listening to this and going, "That is disgusting." And then we're also like, "Sign me up for the snail and the salmon."

Amy: What are they doing in there?

Whitney: Yeah, whatever they're

Amy: put on themselves. I want to pass on our facial.

Whitney: Okay. All right. So here's just some other quick, quick fire highlights of what the hell were they thinking. Beauty Trends. In ancient Rome for a luminous complexion, people would buy vials of gladiator sweat.

Whitney: Sweat scraped off famous gladiators and use it as moisturizer.

Amy: That sounds amazing.

Whitney: Isn't that hilarious?

Amy: I want at that one, I'm I am pretty much on board with. Yeah.

Whitney: Well, there is also we talked about corsets and Grecian bend in the 1870s. There was a specific corset that made them women lean forward and walk with their butts sticking out, making them look like a duck.

Amy: When the When the bustle was in and stuff?

Whitney: Yeah, probably. They wanted crazy.

Amy: They wanted that ass.

Whitney: They wanted that Even back then.

Amy: They wanted They wanted that ass, a big old a big old booty. Baby got back.

Whitney: If you wanted really smooth skin in the 1920s, doctors offered X-ray hair removal, and they used X-ray machines to burn off the leg hair. It worked, but it also caused cancer and-

Amy: I'm having a faintings I'm having a fainting spell over that one. Isn't that crazy? Wow.

Whitney: And here's my personal favorite. And honestly, it is not that far off from some of the things people do now. I don't think there was something called the tapeworm diet.

Amy: Oh, God.

Whitney: And in the-

Amy: I don't want to hear.

Whitney: early century. Why? You hate-

Amy: I hate, oh, I hate worms. Oh, please. Oh. I hate worms so much. The thought of a tapeworm, there's a-

Whitney: They would swallow a pill with a tapeworm egg in it so that they could eat that the tapeworm would eat your food.

Amy: I'm going to be ill.

Whitney: You literally had a parasite.

Amy: I'm going to be ill.

Whitney: And it was a beauty trend. Isn't that crazy?

Amy: I've heard stories of that before.

Whitney: Yeah. I mean, the truth is, like we said before, humans have always found a way to try to look good, to be you know, a higher status than other people, and they are willing to do dangerous, expensive, and really crazy shit to get it done. We're no different. We are no different. I'm not going to wear mouse hair, but look, who's to say I don't know that this is I don't know what these bangs are made of.

Amy: Might I This might be rashed to brows. Somebody was like here, I made these little ones that look look pretty good. And I mean they're mouse hair, but and be like, well, that's about the length of my regular brow hairs.

Whitney: Yeah. I don't know. I just This This works with my natural brow, found this.

Amy: I found this.

Whitney: I don't know. I just I worry sometimes. What am I doing now? Because I'm I inject things. You know, these peptides, all I just order online and then I just shoot myself with it.

Amy: And then when you're like, God, what did I actually put in there?

Whitney: Yeah. You know, wow. What did I do? Wow. So it's just a matter of using common sense. Don't follow the trend necessarily. You know, and if something starts creating lesions on you, stop using it. Stop using it.

Amy: Mystery rash.

Whitney: I know. And I have no idea what what to stop using, cuz I haven't done anything. I don't know. Anyway, have you tried the vampire facial?

Amy: No.

Whitney: Is that just the your own blood?

Amy: I think it's like they take your blood out, they spin it around, and then they inject it back into your face.

Whitney: Yeah. There are so many things that you could do, but-

Amy: Exosomes.

Whitney: Exosomes are hot right now.

Amy: Oh, yeah. After that, I was listening to exosomes, I've to And and I saved my kids stem cells because cord blood, you know, because that could be who knows, right, what they could

Whitney: Well, are does that mean then that they are you're you're they're stored somewhere and you're paying monthly for the storage?

Amy: Heavy annually.

Whitney: And then do you you can get access to it for any reason? You don't have to show why you want to use it or

Amy: Yeah. It's yours. It's really theirs. It's theirs. Yeah. So could you use it? I think I could.

Whitney: Hmm. That's It's crazy.

Amy: It's crazy.

Whitney: I know. Because I'm like, oh, wow. You can inject some of those stem cells, but I mean, now we're talking about taking our babies cells and then injecting them into ourselves.

Amy: Sounds great. Sounds funny. Yeah. I mean, like I'm not I'd be lying if I said I had considered it. I mean, yeah.

Whitney: Well, there that's the whole point is that just like we said at the beginning, who we were 100,000 years ago, at our core, we are still those people, and we will stop at nothing for beauty and status. When does it end?

Amy: I don't know. It's it's encouraging to hear you share about men, too, though. You know, it's across the board. You know, that we're it's not just women. No. No, because I think a lot of times we feel like we're the ones that are most brainwashed.

Whitney: Or not even brainwashed, just Well, there's a higher and I do think that there is a higher uh uh What's the word I'm looking for?

Amy: We're held higher?

Whitney: Yes, a higher standard for women. But it is getting hard for men, too. I know my boyfriend is like, "I need to start taking Hims hair stuff." And he didn't want to let his hair go gray, but then he was coloring it this and then to not look gray. Oh, I hate that. And I'm like, you just need to stop coloring it.

Amy: Or go to the salon and have somebody do it. Not just from-

Whitney: And so now he's just gone gray.

Amy: I love it.

Whitney: And it's fine.

Amy: Oh, good for him. No, I have seen it. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I know when I went to ancient Egypt, or when I went When I was in ancient Egypt back in another 1,000 being when I visited Egypt, like, you know, a lot of the things that have worn off of the statues and everything like that are these like cartoonish eyes.

Whitney: Yeah, with the kohl.

Amy: Men were doing it as well. And like when you look at how things looked before they were worn off, it was something. You know, and you're like, ah.

Whitney: It's like clown make-up.

Amy: It is. It's a cartoon, clown, whatever. And so so men were were doing it just as I don't know just as much, but like as women.

Whitney: Right. Well, I think that's it's a great point because when you get caught up in the the group mentality, like if everyone's doing it, it's kind of like what we were talking about with the facelifts. Like everyone is like, "Yeah, now I'm going to get a facelift." And you're like hold on a minute. Like, you're going to go under anesthesia for 6 hours. You're going to cut your face and then have it all pulled up and then you're you know, it's like let's really think about this, but

Amy: It's so calming. The Capitol, Hunger Games. Like you know.

Whitney: Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Amy: I mean really. Sometimes I I think we're not that far. You know, and you watch Hunger Games, you're like, "Ah."

Whitney: Yeah. I mean, look, we're still going to do what we want.

Amy: Yeah, we are. And if you going to look like you know If you're If you're willing to take that risk. But like looking back at history, it's like do you think they would have done it had they known that it was killing them? But I guess so, cuz that elder guy was saying they already know it's poisoning them. They already knew it was poisoning them. That's such a trip.

Whitney: Well, we're injecting botulism or whatever, I know.

Amy: And we don't really know the long-term effects. We've only been doing it. It's only been around for like 20 25 years?

Whitney: Yeah.

Amy: Maybe?

Whitney: But don't get me wrong. It's I just got it again, and every time I don't like it. I only do my forehead. And it just creates a new problem every time. Now my eyelid is saggy because the heaviness right here. And I'm like put in the absolute minimum that you can. They're like, "Well, that's 28 units," or whatever. And I'm like, "Fucking A, why?" Yeah.

Amy: And so, I just

Whitney: You know why. Because you keep going back. You don't want those wrinkles there. So you're not happy for the first week or two, but then Then you seem to be fine with it.

Amy: Vanity wins. Well, and the best part is when it starts to wear off. I have movement in my forehead and no wrinkles. That's my ideal. That That's the part I love, so it's about 4 months, 5 months in, and then I'm like this is awesome. And then the wrinkles come back. And then I'm like, "Damn it. Now I have to go through the cycle again."

Whitney: Well, and I think you know, I will speak for myself. I want I want it fast. This is the I I am I I grew up with like instant gratification, and it's only getting worse because kids now you know, we grew up having to like get up and change the channel on the TV or wait for the following week for the next episode. You know, it's instant gratification constantly now. So if you said, "Oh, go do the BBL, and it'll take four or five sessions, and then your skin's going to be great." I'm like, "Fuck. Well, what can I do today that's going to work tomorrow?"

Amy: I know. You know, when I got Ultherapy, they're like, "It's going to continue to improve over 2 years." And you're like, "Uh." So when people are like, "What have you done to your face?" I'm like, "Shit, I don't know." You know, your guess is as good as mine. Could have been that serum last night, or it could have been that Ultherapy 2 years ago.

Whitney: Yeah. Exactly. Some of it, I think, is just mental. Once you do something like that, then mentally you're like, "Okay. I just-"

Amy: I have a little something better. Yes.

Whitney: Yeah. I did something to help myself.

Amy: Listening.

Whitney: Yeah. My skin needs to listen to something.

Amy: Talk to it. Tell it everything. Say, "We're healing up, guys."

Whitney: Hey, guys.

Amy: Hey, arms and legs and bodies, and Yes. Well, that was super fascinating. It's good to know that it's not just us.

Whitney: That's right. We like to blame commercials and society and stuff, but there were no commercials back then. It's really about trying to be better than everyone else. How can I look better than everyone else? How can I look wealthier than everyone else? It's crazy shit.

Amy: It was a wild ride. Humans, we're insane, period.

Whitney: 100%.

Amy: The end, right? So thank you so much for being here. If you have a topic you want to hear us talk about, we are open to it.

Whitney: Right. Just send it along. You can email us at anythingbutmidpodcast@gmail, or you can hit us up on Instagram @anythingbutmid.

Amy: Please Please throw us a follow. Please like we're really working to build it. Share this with a friend, pretty please. And

Whitney: And if you want to see the video part, because I know a lot of people listen to their podcast through audio, but we you can see us on Spotify and on YouTube.

Amy: And now Apple Podcasts.

Whitney: Oh, yeah. That's all that.

Amy: They're finally getting in on that game. Took them a-

Whitney: Yeah, that was weird.

Amy: What happened, Apple? Get with the program. So anyway, apparently, Apple's going to be having video, too, so hopefully, we'll have it there, too. So, we're we're available.

Whitney: Find us. And

Amy: And we love you so much. Thank you for being here so much, and you're you're beautiful. Do what you fucking want, and you're anything but mid.

Whitney: Yeah, you are.

Amy: Bye.