Damage Control: Women on the Therapists, Beauticians, and Trainers Who Navigate Their Bodies [Paperback]

Emma Forrest (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 12, 2007

Traditionally, women share their secrets with their hairdressers. But what about their manicurists, masseurs, chi gong teachers, and tattoo artists? In Damage Control, women wax poetic about the experts and gurus who help them love themselves, sharing stories of everything from friendships born in the make-up chair to the utter dismay of a truly horrible haircut.

Minnie Driver finally meets a Frenchman who understands her hair . . . and tries to teach her not to hate it.

Marian Keyes remembers the blow-dry that pushed her over the edge.

Francesca Lia Block tells the ugly story of the plastic surgeon who promised to make her beautiful.

Rose McGowan explains why it's harder to be depressed when you're glamorous . . . and shows how it takes a village to transform from mere mortal to movie star.

Witty and wise, Damage Control is an intimate, sometimes dark, look at our experiences with the professionals who pluck, prod, and pamper every inch of our bodies—and a reminder why we surrender ourselves to their (hopefully) very capable hands.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Any woman who's ever wondered how her pedicurist maintains her sanity rubbing strangers' feet all day will get a kick out of these essays and interviews concerning aestheticians, hairdressers, chiropractors and psychologists. Novelist Jennifer Belle contributes a short but touching piece about a masseuse who rekindled memories of her youthful body; editor Forrest writes of the sensitive artist who tattooed an Edward Gorey illustration on her back; and in a particularly memorable essay, curly-haired actress Minnie Driver confesses that as a child all she longed for was her sister's straight blond hair: "at fourteen, I genuinely believed that if I could look like her, everything would be better." The most worthwhile parts of this collection illustrate how the business of beauty has given so many people-especially immigrant women-work, self-esteem, and entry into the American middle class. Though some pieces have the feel of hastily composed journal entries, the honesty and good humor demonstrated throughout makes it an entertaining and thoughtful read.
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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (June 12, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061175358
• ISBN-13: 978-0061175350
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,646,281 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A brash new twist on feminism, January 20, 2008

By 

Jessica Lux (Rosamond, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Damage Control: Women on the Therapists, Beauticians, and Trainers Who Navigate Their Bodies (Paperback)

Editor Emma Forrest bravely tackles a new facet of feminism in Damage Control--women writing unabashedly about the primping and refining they undergo not just for themselves, but for their partners, their professions, and for acceptance in society as a whole. The book is divided into five sections--hair care, beauty, therapeutic/surgical modifications, massage, and waxing. It's a good undertaking with some remarkable reads but, unfortunately, Forrest has far less than one book's worth of quality material, and much of the text is just filler that loosely relates to the overall theme.

Frances Lia Block wrote the standout piece in the collection. In her seven-page essay (one of the longest in the book), she confesses to body image discomfort that let her to a therapist who encouraged plastic surgery. Block is a thin, delicate, pale woman who was markedly disfigured by her surgical and laser treatments. With a few years of hindsight and the maturity that comes with motherhood, Block learned to accept herself, and undergo minor treatments only to repair the most physically uncomfortable of her previous body modifications (sinus repair, for example). As a fan of the fantastical, spunky, beautiful worlds Block creates in her fiction, I was surprised to learn about her own lack of self-confidence. I was comforted knowing that she is just like the rest of us.

Other delightful essays include the tale of a freelance author (Samantha Dunn) who was forced to cut her beauty budget in lean times. Image is everything in Los Angeles, however, so when Dunn's stylist found out, she immediately arranged for the author to perform custodial duties in exchange for salon services. The gratitude and elation Dunn felt from this arrangement is truly heart-warming, reminding all women to look out for one another. (Proceeds from this book, in fact, benefit the Women for Women organization, which can be located on the World Wide Web.)

The book also contains a number of beauty tips and tricks, from the best $25 cheapo blow-out in NYC (see Rose McGowan's essay), to the top Persian Beverly Hills waxer to the stars (Soraya), and to the $12 pedicure by a workaholic Vietnamese manicurist struggling to stay alive with a fancy salon across the street (see essay entitled "Jane and Joy"). Overall, I recommend this title, but be prepared to skim through some of the filler material.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great reading., January 20, 2008

By 

J. Rose - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Damage Control: Women on the Therapists, Beauticians, and Trainers Who Navigate Their Bodies (Paperback)

I love this book of essays. Especially the ones by Minnie Driver, Samantha Dunn and Rachel Resnick.