If, like many of us, you get paid at the end of the month, chances are you will have FINALLY gone through the checkout process for all the skincare and makeup products you've been collecting in your cart since the last payday. Hooray!
You may be awaiting an array of products like face masks, a restocked mascara or a new seasonal lipstick. But let me ask you, would you be put off buying from your favourite brand just because they dared to share a picture of a model with visible facial hair? No, right? Because why would you get so worked up over something so silly?
Well, it turns out that some people really do get offended by the sight of natural, untouched facial hair. Men get moustaches, and women get them too - although usually on a barely visible scale. Cosmetics brand M.A.C shared a picture on Instagram last week which shows a close up of a model applying lip liner, where her darkish facial hair can be seen.
Here it is:
It might seem relatively harmless to you or I, but some people were outraged that the hair was left untouched - in the sense that the model didn't choose to wax it, or that M.A.C didn't photoshop it out.
The post attracted nearly 1,400 comments, which is quite a deal more than the 100-500 comments that M.A.C's posts usually get. People got pretty nasty about it, writing things like: "What about the yukyyyy hair on the lips ...omg" and "They couldn't Photoshop her whiskers out?". Someone else asked, "No upper lips waxing?".
"OMG what about the small hair or the moustache on her mouth," wrote another.
But while the sight of facial hair got the most sensitive of folk riled up, others praised the makeup brand for leaving it in the shot. "Love the real beauty not being photoshopped!" someone wrote, while another said: "the amount of hate that guys r giving for the facial hair is killing me lmao let’s rock our staches".
Someone else added, "I thought I was the only one with tiny hairs like this", and it's comments like this that show why it's so important to see promotional images that aren't photoshopped sometimes. It makes people realise that models who appear to be flawless actually do have some of the same normal, naturally-occurring "flaws" that we recognise on ourselves.
"Thank you for not PSing out imperfections," agreed another individual who could relate. "I have PCOS and extra facial hair is a huge problem for me. Seeing a photo like this means so much. WOMEN DO HAVE FACIAL HAIR. It's normal."
And really, it shouldn't be such a big deal. I think this comment from someone just about sums it up:
"Thank you MAC. Beauty is not always about perfection. Colour is gorgeous. And shock horror woman have hair on their bodies!! Who knew right!"