Words by Vandana Pawa
Beauty trends cycle across the Internet on a daily basis, with TikTok being a goldmine where creators can continue to invent and reinvent regimens for hair, makeup, and clothing. However, despite the quick shifts from #ColdGirlMakeup to #CryingMakeup, we’ve been noticing that some TikTokers are throwing it back a few hundred years, give or take, and identifying which aspects of their own routines are actually ancestral beauty trends.
South Asian women across TikTok have identified multiple trends when it comes to beauty and style. One creator showcased her usage of kajal, black kohl eyeliner, in her makeup routine, and threw it back to her Indian ancestors using the same to protect their eyes from the sun, pollutants, and the evil eye. Another wore a nath, a nose ring with a chain connecting to an earring or hairpiece, in a video conversing with an imaginary ancestor about their favorite piece of jewelry. The trend extended to clothing, with one user shown fixing her saree in a public college setting met with a South Asian woman of the past who had to give up wearing traditional clothing to assimilate, surprised that young women aren’t strictly wearing Western clothing.
@taka.bout.it Hajichi was banned by the Japanese for being too primal. Today, Okinawan girls tattoo eachother to continue the trafition that was taken from our family. #hajichi #okinawa #okinawan #japanesehistory #ryukyu ♬ original sound - 🌊🏄🏼♀️🤙🏼
The connection to ancestral beauty went deeper for Okinawan American creator Taka Miyagi, who showcased her Hajichi hand tattoos—a once banned form of traditional body art worn by the indigenous women of Japan’s Okinawa islands. The tattoos are hand-poked, and once a commonplace practice for Okinawan women, but faced near-extinction due to assimilation when Japan annexed the region. Hajichi is making a comeback with the help of young women seeking to revive the art, and TikTok’s latest trend highlighted how meaningful this moment is for Okinawan women and their ancestors. In an imaginary conversation with her great grandmother where she learns that the last person in her family to have Hajichi tattoos was five generations ago, Miyagi shares the rebirth of the tradition on her own hands.
@artemisthewitch the way i've cried so many times bc of this trend over the last few days #historyrepeats #korean ♬ original sound - 🌊🏄🏼♀️🤙🏼
Other iterations of the trend included a Korean creator sharing an ancient hairstyle utilizing sticks, talking with an ancestor about how her mother taught her the trick. A creator from the Philippines shared their use of a hand fan to beat the heat, with a visit from an ancestor in the 1800s asking about “fan language,” an unspoken but widely understood language used to convey emotions between potential lovers during Spanish colonization.
While beauty conventions and norms may transform over time, the tried and true methods of our ancestors remain with us as generations pass. Some things never quite change, and we hope they never do.
Published on March 28, 2023