July 10, 2008

Vanity and the Korean female


When it comes to appearances, I think I'm a pretty vain person. I always like to make sure my hair looks nice, my makeup is on, and all my clothes are nice and put on right side out. That is, I thought I was pretty vain until I moved to Korea and came into contact with the species known as the Korean female in her 20's. I read that Korean women were incredibly concerned with appearances before I came, so I was ready for it. But reading about it didn't really prepare me for it.


Case 1: while sitting in Starbucks on my first Saturday here, a young Korean woman came walking in. It was pouring rain outside, so yes, a mandatory hair check was in order. Hair? Check. I thought that was it. Then, to my absolutely amazement, the girl proceeds to pull out of her bag a mirror, eyelash curler, mascara, blush, eyeshadow, and everything else you need to pain your face. She sat there for twenty (yes, TWENTY) minutes, and put her makeup on. Isn't this the kind of stuff you do BEFORE you leave your house? It sure is! Maybe it's a cultural thing, in Korea no makeup until you get to Starbucks, and then it's a free for all.


Case 2: There are a lot of stores here like Sephora. Makeup stores where everything is out for you to test and buy. Normally you'd have maybe two people working in such a store, but Koreans have a worker for about every two square feet of store space, so they are flooded with girls working the makeup counters. And what do they do with all those mirrors and makeup testers? They constantly check their hair, reapply their lipstick, primp their hair, and check the outfits. It baffles me.


The oddest thing I've encountered since I've been here is skin whitening cream. It's women who use it, and the idea is that the whiter the skin, the prettier the woman. In this I'm assuming that my browning body and tan lines make me look like a worker in a rice paddy, but whatever. Anywho, it's this cream, and they put it on their face as we would put concealer or powder on our face. Only where we use powder to blend our skin into one pretty color instead of blotches and freckles, the whitening cream looks like just that. It looks like clown makeup to me. They don't attempt to blend it in, it's just white on the face. The first time I saw it I just stared like a dumbass, it kind of freaks me out a little bit. Oh well, I let it go as a cultural thing.


While we're on the topic of cultural things, people here TOUCH MY HAIR! I understand that my hair is red, curly, and that most people here haven't seen it. My boss said "that hair here is very rare". Does it mean every Korean has to TOUCH it?! NO! It would be one thing if the weather was cool, then I could straighten it. But I've been walking around for 2 weeks with Curly Sue like hair due to the humidity, and people literally STOP, TURN AROUND, and STARE. Sometimes they like to switch it up a bit. They'll point. Or say "Waeguk" really loud. I don't like it. I think I might start touching their eyes if it keeps up.


Ranting done on my end..... time to go ouside and brave the heat once again!


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