For incarcerated women, access to makeup can mean access to finding and feeling like themselves. So why is it often denied? To better understand what role makeup plays behind bars, we sat down with four women currently incarcerated.
falls to the end of the list. Items like mineral-powder foundation or eyeshadow from brands like CoverGirl and L’Oréal can be found in certain women’s prisons for prices averaging anywhere from, even the most routine commodities can be construed as a threat.
I like to wear makeup because I feel like a human, especially when I’m speaking with a beautiful officer. Before she even opens her mouth to degrade us, we’re internally giving her praise because she’s pretty and smells good and we feel like crap. And then when she barks at us, it makes us feel even lower. Who we are as people gets squashed. Not just once a day but every moment of the day. Wearing makeup, I feel like I can stand next to the best of the COs, I can stand tall next to my adversary.
Makeup affirms my freedom and independence. And as a peer mentor and recovery specialist, makeup is something that I always bring up when we talk about wellness and self-care. I spend a lot of time working with other women inside as they prepare for reentry. The program is about 40 women, and I see about five women a day.
We’re not allowed hair dyes, though some women use red Kool-Aid and bleach to color their hair. I’ve now been gray for ten years and people talk to me a certain way because of it. Maybe that’s not how I would present myself normally in the real world, but I’ve lost that privilege. And it’s clear to me that it’s a way for the correction officers, and the superintendent, and everybody along the way to remind me that I’m just an “inmate.
I am grateful to the governor, though. She listened. I don’t know if you can understand what it feels like to be the tiniest person in the whole hierarchy, fighting at the governor’s office to amend a directive. It’s easily a David-and-Goliath scenario. But I feel like Governor Hochul’s office really stepped up to the plate, because we weren’t winning inside. I’m not even her constituent — I can’t vote. But she cared about me and that matters, having a woman governor matters.
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