Does My Vagina Really Need A ‘facial’?

Hi Ugly,

I person been noticing a barrage of ads for “vaginal wellness” products: suppositories, balms and serums, and moreover a “vagi facial” astatine a section spa. What’s up pinch this? I was ever taught that my pussy was self-cleaning and beautiful. Suddenly I americium not truthful sure, and moreover find myself wondering if my labia are “normal” aliases successful truth gross. Is this really happening?

- Concerned Vagina

Call it nan “box boom”.

In nan past year, Kiehl’s has rolled retired a 96-hour vulva “freshener” and Dove launched an “intimate” deodorant advertised to nan tune of Khia’s 2001 deed My Neck, My Back (Lick It). There are muff-specific moisturizers now, arsenic good arsenic crotch-brightening creams, sprays to make your various “nooks” smell for illustration bergamot and supplements to make your pussy sensation sweeter. (Thanks, Kourtney Kardashian.) Even nan aged defender is stepping it up: Vagisil conscionable announced a “groundbreaking” business pinch WNBA champions nan New York Liberty.

The “feminine friendly care” marketplace was weighted astatine $7.8bn globally successful 2024, and that figure is expected to astir double complete nan adjacent decade.

Then location are nan procedures: you’ve noticed that vagi facials exist, but what astir “Ozempic vulva” fat grafting, labial “lip filler” and “boxtox” to support your snatch looking, well, snatched? Global rates of labiaplasty – nan surgical snipping of nan labia, sometimes called “designer vagina” room aliases nan “Barbie Procedure”, though immoderate ethicists for illustration to mention to it arsenic “female genital mutilation” – person besides accrued nearly 37% since 2016.

So yes, Concerned, this is really happening. The mobility is: why?

I person a theory! Maybe we’re progressively obsessed pinch our genitals because nan government is progressively obsessed pinch our genitals. See: abortion bans, commencement power debates, anti-trans laws, Britain’s caller ruling defining “woman” arsenic “biologically female”, nan emergence of pro-natalist rhetoric, and Donald Trump’s renewed focus connected rigid gender roles. These policies trim group to bodies – to parts pinch prescribed uses. This causes a benignant of wide genital anxiety, which companies tin leverage to waste america products.

According to nan logic of vaginal cosmetics, erstwhile nan authorities is policing your body, policing it yourself tin reconstruct immoderate consciousness of control. Or if your early is wished by your vagina, you mightiness arsenic good optimize it.

Lest this mentation sound a small conspiracy-minded, fto maine punctual you that authorities has agelong had its manus successful our pants.

In 1873, nan national Comstock Law successful nan US banned doctors and advertisers from promoting “birth power accusation and devices”, according to a 2010 paper by Michelle Ferranti. Douching was considered a shape of contraception backmost then, and advertisers sidestepped nan rule pinch a caller euphemism: “feminine hygiene.” Companies that sold vaginal douches dropped definitive contraceptive claims from their ads and alternatively “focused connected nan purported hygienic and therapeutic aspects of douching”.

By nan clip nan FDA approved nan pill successful 1960, douching was wide known to beryllium an ineffective commencement power method, and advertisers had to invent caller reasons to douche and caller products to sell. They turned to “demand creation”, aliases nan creation of trading alleged solutions to problems consumers didn’t cognize they had. Deodorization quickly became nan ascendant pitch, alongside improved tone, elasticity, youthfulness, plumpness, purity and nan emotion of freshness – thing to propose “women’s bodies were aesthetically defective and successful request of cosmetic improvement”, Ferranti writes.

Sound familiar?

We cognize coming that douching isn’t an advisable “hygiene” believe – it tin origin bacterial vaginosis and whitethorn beryllium linked to infertility and STDs. But nan industry’s propaganda is much salient than ever, and caller friendly attraction products travel pinch their ain imaginable problems.

The genital area is “very sensitive,” Dr Angela Wilson, a board-certified OB/GYN astatine Montefiore Einstein Advanced Care, tells me, and utilizing these products “may origin irritation aliases infection.”

You were taught right: nan vagina is self-cleaning. “There is simply a normal vaginal discharge, made up of h2o and normal bacteria, successful astir women,” Wilson says. “It people keeps nan pussy cleanable by continuously removing nan dormant cells from nan vaginal lining.” That takes attraction of that! She does not urge utilizing immoderate products wrong nan vagina.

In fact, for illustration “feminine hygiene”, nan word “vaginal wellness” is simply a trading misnomer. Most products successful this class are intended for nan vulva – nan labia, clitoris and mons pubis. And still they’re unnecessary. “Less is best” erstwhile it comes to keeping your vulva cleanable and healthy, Wilson says. “Wipe from beforehand to backmost aft utilizing nan restroom.” When you shower, “wash externally pinch soap and water.”

Even soap has its limits, though. “Harsh soaps aliases wipes,” according to Wilson, tin propulsion disconnected nan pH of nan area, starring to chronic inflammation, burning and/or itching. Dr Jen Gunter, writer of The Vagina Bible, has recommended washing pinch “a gentle facial cleanser” for this reason. Bonus: you won’t beryllium supporting a marque that profits disconnected genital shame!

More from Jessica DeFino’s Ask Ugly:

• Why is this file called ‘Ask Ugly’?

• My begetter had integrative surgery. Now he wants maine and my mother to get activity done

• How should I beryllium styling my pubic hair?

• How do I woody pinch imperfection?

• I want to disregard beauty culture. But I’ll ne'er get anyplace if I don’t look a definite way

Whatever you use, debar perfumes, dyes and alcohol, Wilson adds. If you announcement a beardown and different odor, it could beryllium a motion of infection, truthful don’t drawback a fig-scented freshening spray – spell to nan doctor.

Cosmetically speaking, I tin guarantee your labia are not “gross”. If they origin you symptom aliases discomfort, spot an OB-GYN. Otherwise, scroll done The Labia Library – a non-profit women’s wellness assets – and delight successful nan divers scope of wholly normal-looking labia connected display: Long! Short! Pink! Brown! Hairy! Waxed! Pierced! Whatever!

The adjacent clip a “vagi facial” advertisement pops up, retrieve that advancement toward women’s liberation has ever been met pinch escalating unit connected our bodies. The thought that your pussy should smell arsenic caller arsenic a daisy aliases look for illustration a doll’s is an onslaught connected your autonomy, an reproach to your humanity and a hazard to your health.