After 70 countries and seven continents, Kia shares her tried-and-tested beauty tips for other long-term travellers
When I quit my desk job nearly a decade ago and set off on a trip around the world, I was rightly excited but also naive. I thought that life on the road would free me of the so-called ‘beauty tax’ – the price that women pay merely for being women.
This tax is paid with money but also time: minutes and hours that turn into days and weeks spent applying eyeliner, blow-drying hair, filling in brows, blotting lipstick, filing nails and the multitude of other things we do to keep up appearances. I thought that instead of spending hours every week getting ready for the office, I would embrace the ugly comfort of hemp skirts and Birkenstocks and become newly liberated.
After setting off, however, I quickly discovered that long-term travel has challenges of its own. A searing sun like the one we found in the South Pacific turned my skin leathery and my hair into straw. My sleep patterns were disturbed by constantly changing hotels, and an unbalanced diet left me tired and bloated. I realised that I did still care about the way I looked, not least because it affected my health and mood.
Ten years on, I follow 10 cardinal rules whenever I’m on the road. Below, I share these hard-earned beauty tips for long-term travellers so you can start your trip informed.
1. Be very wary of the sun
Unlike Peter, I tan rather than burn in the sun, so when we set off on our trip around the world, I was lax about sunscreen. I grew rather pleased with my deep golden colour but as our trip wore on, I noticed that my legs were becoming dry, cracked and scaly. I had broken the number one rule of long-term travel: sunscreen.
Long-term exposure to the sun will cause premature ageing, damage your hair and increase your risk of getting skin cancer. What’s more, if you’re a woman of colour like me, you may develop melasma, brown patches of pigmentation that usually appear in your cheekbone area.
With that in mind, it is absolutely essential to wear sunscreen and protect your eyes. I recommend wearing SPF50 and Warby Parker sunglasses, each pair of which includes scratch-resistant, anti-reflective lenses that block 100% of UV rays.
Warby Parker is currently offering a 15% discount when you buy two or more pairs of prescription sunglasses. You can also select up to five…
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