ISSUE 04 INTENTION
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At First Brush
The Power of Scent Good for Business Through the Looking Glass Back to Basics
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Color Me Sane
Love of Black Hair
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A Hair Story Blown Straight Beauty and the Sheets Written in the Stars
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founders Arnaud Plas Catherine Taurin Nicolas Mussat Paul Michaux
creative director Rashi Birla
editorial director contributors
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senior designer
Cover Emmysu
Sam Stone
Words Alice Bell Celia Shatzman Fiorella Valdesolo Genevieve Monsma Johanna Ferreira Kate Tellers Lee Phillips Rachel Morris Sable Yong Sophie Flack
Emily Goodman
Art Adam Kremer Allison Garcia Brad Ogbonna Brayden Olson Hana Snow Josephine Zentner Jimmy Nyeango Rich Stapleton
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Amanda Flores
designer photo editor Morgan Young
editorial assistant Emily Bowen
A letter from the Editor
“The value of practicing self-care is that it helps us find intention in beauty tasks that were once just a means to an end. When we bring purpose into each step, in an almost ceremonial way, it grounds us in the moment.” Self-care as a beauty and wellness category has really taken off over the past decade. More and more, we are accepting that minding our physical and mental health takes a bit more than an apple a day. We light candles, soak in tubs and layer on masks. Not because there’s magic hidden in our epsom salts, but because the act of turning an ordinary routine into a ritual can work to alter our mental state. The value of practicing self-care is that it helps us find intention in beauty tasks that were once just a means to an end. When we bring purpose into each step, in an almost ceremonial way, it grounds us in the moment. And in 2020, there has never been a greater need to focus on the now. For this issue, we examined beauty routines and found that an intention setting mindset can be worked into the ones that you’re already doing. Paying attention to the details is key. In her essay, “Color Me Sane,” author and former ballerina Sophie Flack finds that there is a psychological benefit to learning how to highlight her own hair at home. Not only is she purposefully carving out time just for herself, she’s giving in to the repetitive nature of the process, and finding her calm. For storyteller Kate Tellers in “Blown Straight,” it was a hairstyle that helped renew the emotional energy she felt slipping away at her first post-college job. And it’s not just about concrete tasks. Beauty brands are setting intentions that go beyond making products. We take a look at how they are building companies based on values like inclusivity and sustainability in “Good for Business.” So the next time you’re rushing through a blowout or counting down the minutes before washing out your hair mask, take a breath and set an intention for the process. Ask yourself how you can turn your routine into a ritual. It can be the difference between mundane and magical.
amanda flores
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AT FIRST
BRUSH YOUR HAIRBRUSH HAS COME A LONG WAY Today, the hair brush is pretty ubiquitous. But it wasn’t always. Here, how the brush went from a pricey tool used primarily by the wealthy—to an indispensable item almost everyone owns.
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Birth of the brush Most historians agree the hair brush is at least twomillion-years old. Read: Knots and tangles have always been an issue. Some think it was adapted from the paint brush, while others say it evolved from the comb— with soft bristles added to the hard teeth to polish hair as it removed buildup.
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An elite implement In Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, only the wealthy owned brushes because they were handcrafted out of pricey, precious materials, such as wood, bone, copper, or bronze. Some upperclass Egyptians even chose to be buried with their brushes.
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Hairy business Early brush bristles were made of hair or needles from porcupines (ouch), hedgehogs, boar, goats, and horses—with boar hair emerging as the most enduring. Today, boar hair is still considered one of the best bristle sources but synthetic, more sustainable options can work just as well.
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In 1777, Englishman William Kent launched an eponymous luxury hairbrush brand. Since that time, Kent Brushes has been deemed the official brushmaker for nearly every British monarch, including Queen Elizabeth II. 5
Family hair-looms In parts of Europe in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, hair brushes were considered so precious, they were often given as gifts to new brides and new mothers. Most brushes lasted a lifetime and were sometimes handed down to the next generation. “Something old” indeed.
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Body booster Patrick Alès, who is credited with the creation of the round brush in 1965, coined a technique he called “le brushing,” which utilized the round brush to create volume and curls while blow-drying, instead of with hot rollers.
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A return to our roots Drawing on the heritage of artisan brush-makers like Mason Pearson and William Kent, Prose launched a collection of four cushioned beechwood brushes in 2019. Each is designed to best-suit your hair’s need: from hair health to shine and manageability. Plus, it’s the perfect addition to any vanity.
“No matter your hair type, brushing boosts shine, hydrates and helps protect strands,” says Faith Huffnagle, a NYC-based stylist and Prose’s Director of Education. But not all heads of hair will benefit from the same type. Here are her tips for finding your best brush.
Dry, coarse hair A brush with boar bristles helps keep coarse hair looking conditioned and shiny. It’s similar to human hair and will glide through strands, carrying scalp oils through to ends, preventing fraying and frizz. Prose also makes a vegan alternative using a bristle blend of agave fibers and nylon.
Dry, fine hair A brush with boar bristles— or the vegan alternative—is your best bet. It is the gentlest option and will smooth hair without putting undue tension on breakage-prone strands.
Made for the masses In 1885, Englishman Mason Pearson invented the brushboring machine, which made brush-manufacturing more efficient, less expensive, and thus more accessible to a wider swath of people.
Curly or wavy hair You want something that conditions and provides enough tension to detangle, since curly hair is prone to knots. To boost shine, a blend of shorter boar bristles and longer nylon bristles with balls at the tips works well. The former polishes, the latter detangles.
Straight, fine to normal hair
Words by Genevieve Monsma Photography by Adam Kremer
Finer, straighter hair has a tendency to break, so look for boar bristles, which are the gentlest. Brush sparingly. Too much oil distribution could make your hair limp. The fix? Spritz dry shampoo into your bristles before you brush.
Color Me Sane Words by Sophie Flack
Photography by Brayden Olson
Nora Ephron once wrote,
“twice a week, I go to a beauty salon and have my hair blown dry. It’s cheaper by far than psychoanalysis, and much more uplifting.” I couldn’t agree more, but I’d also argue that there’s a psychological benefit to learning to groom ourselves. Mid-March when the Covid-19 infection rate surged in New York City, we fled to my parents’ house in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, and ended up living there for six months. Like a lot of people, we quickly reverted to living like Colonial farmers and learned to cultivate yeast to bake bread, and even sowed a garden. And like the settlers, when my mousy brown roots grew out to my temples, my hair stylist, Bradley Irion, gave me a highlighting tutorial over Zoom. Months without social contact (or any childcare) had left me irrationally excited for that call. After tucking the kids in bed, I stole to the downstairs bathroom and set out the foiling materials I’d ordered online. I propped my iPhone on the little soap dish attached to the wall, and standing barefoot in my favorite quarantine sweatpants and lacey fuchsia bra, I rang Bradley. He answered looking incredibly chic in all black and wearing his signature oversized designer shades that made him look like he was hiding from the paps, even in the privacy of his mother’s bathroom in Spokane, Washington.
He painstakingly walked me through the basics. He instructed me to mix a scoop of bleach powder with a generous amount of developer until it had the consistency of pancake batter, and not frosting. I held my bowl up to the screen for approval. He demonstrated how to avoid a stark root-line by “mapping out” the head into a series of diagonals, by foiling his own long brown hair with conditioner. I tried to mimic the way he wove the back of his rattail comb through his hair, pulled it taught over the foil, applied the mixture, then folded the foil like a sweater. He made it look so easy. My foils looked as though a woodland creature had gnawed on them, I held my hands awkwardly, and by the time I made it to the back of my head, my arms were like noodles. I held my phone up to my scalp so Bradley could check the color. The entire lesson took hours, but it was worth it; seeing the color lift to a creamy white was oddly satisfying. And, for the first time in months, I did something that was just for myself. As I admired my handiwork, I was reminded of how after my son was born, I would race to the nearest Drybar between feedings, in the hope that a blow-out, like Ephron wrote, might somehow address the seismic
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shift in my identity (and my raging Postpartum Depression). But even though I left the salon more polished, I still felt both hollow and trapped in a body I no longer recognized. While my privilege allowed me to hire someone else to do the grooming, I missed out on the very thing that had brought me relief throughout my life. My mother recalls that as a child, I’d sit cross-legged on my bed in a trancelike state brushing my doll Samantha’s pin-straight brown hair.
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“You wouldn’t even blink,” she says. “I thought you’d become a hairdresser. But what she didn’t realize was that brushing my doll’s hair wasn’t so much about grooming as it was a method of self-soothing; I pet the doll’s head as if it was my own. After one more Zoom call with Bradley, I felt comfortable trying foiling on my own. I waited until the house was quiet, mixed my brew, and one by one I folded in the foils like a deck of silver cards, hearing Bradley’s voice gently reminding me to swipe down from the root.
I soon began to lose myself in the rhythm of sectioning and swiping and folding; the running to-do list dropped away, my family’s needs evaporated, and the weight of the upcoming election lifted. I’m pretty sure that meditative state is what Thoreau was referring to in Walden, only instead of wandering in the woods, I folded foils in my bra. As I studied myself in the bathroom mirror, my aluminum crown spewing tufts of blond Muppet-hair, I thought back to those nights as a dancer in the New York City Ballet, sitting before the dressing room mirror, coiling my long hair on top of my head like an elaborate baked good. That nightly ritual before the performance was like raking patterns into a Japanese sand garden; it was a necessary mental reset after a long and grueling rehearsal day. In September we returned to New York City, more self-sufficient versions of our former selves. But within days I began delegating tasks to others: bread baking and gardening was replaced with grocery delivery and outdoor dining at our favorite restaurants. Even cupsof coffee were purchased from a local barista. We were reunited with our beloved nanny, and hired a teacher to manage our son’s schooling. Even Bradley,
who’d flown back to clean out his West Village apartment, dropped in to touchup my DIY highlights, tweaking the tone from margarine to an icy nordic blonde. I was surprised at how easy it was to slip back to our old way of life that relied heavily on outside help. Having the luxury to delegate household duties to others allowed me the time and solitude necessary to write this article, to ghostwrite a memoir, to spend quality time with my children, and to manage my mental health. In her essay “On Maintenance,” Ephron is unapologetic about her twice-weekly blow-outs, and I agree that self-care, in whatever form you can get it, shouldn’t be considered a luxury, but a necessity. While there’s no shame in outsourcing certain tasks, I am very much looking forward to touching up my own roots. For DIY hair color tips, visit prose.com/intention
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Celebrity Hairstylist Ro Morgan’s
LOVE OF BLACK HAIR Is the Inspiration Behind His Career
Words by Johanna Ferreira Photography by Jimmy Nyeango
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Even before Ro Morgan became a hairstylist to A-list celebs like Naomi Campbell, he had already developed a deep love and appreciation for Black hair. For him, it’s not just hair—it’s art.
“Texture is my thing,” he says. “[I love] the fact that I can blow it out straight or she can wet it and make it curly again. It holds a curl well and it holds styles for a very long time. It’s the versatility that I like.” After graduating with a degree in design from Michigan State University, Morgan initially had his sights set on becoming a fashion buyer. He worked at Barney’s for a little while until he realized retail wasn’t what he was meant to do. After a friend encouraged him to pursue a career in hairstyling, he completed beauty school and an apprenticeship that led him to relocate to NYC in 2011. He landed his first job working as an assistant for hairstylist Amoy Pitters at Amoy Couture Hair and that’s when things really started to take off for him. He quickly started working with models like Naomi Campbell, Joan Smalls, Jessica White, and Sessilee Lopez. Morgan’s understanding of Black hair combined with his fierce wig game is how supermodel Naomi Campbell became one of his most loyal and long term clients. He not only knew how to work with textured hair but he also understood early on that hair — for Black women especially — was very much about culture, identity, and self-expression. His work has been featured in a number of publications including British Vogue, ELLE, Essence, and Harper’s Bazaar, as well as in advertising campaigns for brands such as Calvin Klein Underwear, Bumble and Bumble BbCurl, and Alexis Bittar. “I didn’t learn how to officially do wigs the way I do now until I started working with Naomi Campbell.” he says. “She liked how I did things. I used to look at her wigs, turn them inside out and study them. She thought I was this great wig person but that gag is I was studying the way she looked. I was studying the way she did hair. In a lot of my posing, I’m emulating her posing so in case I had to do her hair, I knew how it would look on her.” Morgan speaks to Prose about the beauty of Black hair, how it’s inspired his career, and the change he still wants to see when it comes to hair acceptance.
Love of Black Hair
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When did you realize you had a passion for doing hair? I’ve always kind of loved hair. I remember one of my first projects when I was in design school… I created this look and Gwen Stefani was my muse. But I remember everyone was making fun of me because I focused on the hair way more than my looks. Like I had unfinished hems and stuff but I made wigs for the girls and my wigs were impeccable.
How has your ability to work with different textures— natural hair textures in particular—got you to where you are today in your career? From behind the scenes, from the back of the head you don’t see the race—you see texture. Especially where we’re going now there are so many different ethnicities mixing and creating different textures so if you know how to work with different textures you know how to work with hair. Coming from a world where I had to deal with the 4Cs and the 3Bs, with Black hair having so many different ranges and textures in my community, I began to familiarize myself with things like ‘oh this is too heavy for fine hair.’ And I began to teach. ‘Yes, I realize that you think she’s very dark and Black but her hair isn’t what you think it is’ and I started to talk to people in texture. And when you convey texture to people they begin to get it. Stop looking at what they look like. Look at only their hair. So being
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able to work with such a wide range of textures made me feel confident going into shows and of course, I heard horror stories.
You heard hair horror stories? You have to think about it. A lot of these girls are discovered at a young age and placed in different countries with different people. One of my girls had a weave, this is back when people were really wearing weaves. They tried to round brush her with the weave on her head and they snatched the braid off of her head. Her whole braid came off. [With] a lot of these girls I met, I had to have a magic wand because they would be like can you make magic happen now because [their hair has] been damaged for so long. I would try to tell a girl as many secrets as I could backstage because I may never see her again. At the time people were always thinking about money transactions but those girls remember those tidbits that you gave them like ‘take a heat protectant with you just in case they don’t have one’ and preparing them because they were traveling around the world and they were like my little babies. Their hair was my concern as a stylist.
How is it that in 2020, there are still well-known stylists who don’t know how to work with certain hair types? A lot of us learned how to pass the state exams [for beauty school] but with Black hair a lot of us really learn by having clients. It’s sad that we have
Love of Black Hair
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to learn by trial and error but that’s how we learn. A lot of the problem is that people need to make more time. People want to rush through everything. I remember coming from beauty school and [some of my first jobs consisted of] styling kids’ hair. Most of the time it took me 30 to 45 minutes just to blow dry but people want to rush through in 15 to 20 minutes and they aren’t giving the hair the proper care it needs.
What advice would you give to someone trying to make it as a celebrity stylist and who wants to work with all textures, but wasn’t educated or trained to work with Black hair? I would just tell them to practice and if you know you want to work with Black girls, test with those Black girls… There’s so many levels and they’ll think like ‘oh this is easy’ and it’s like, ‘No. Her hair might be easier to blow out but to keep it straight, to have it go under the different temperatures or survive different weather, it really takes practice’. Learn the basics and essentials, take your time, lower the heat, use heat protectants and a lot of the time just ask the client. Certain girls know. I have to do a quick consultation beforehand asking if ‘you are allergic to anything, do you have any reactions to anything, and which is your best side’? It’s about her feeling comfortable and her giving you the information that you need. Her telling you ‘I don’t put that on my hair because it does this’ can make things
easier instead of being like yes, we are professionals. She knows her hair better than I would.
What do you love about wigs? I love the versatility and the quick changes. In the morning you can have a short bob [and] by the night you can have hair pouring down your back. It’s like fashion. That’s what I like about wigs. You can change your look so quickly without having to sew in or clip in. They’re like hats!
Wigs are something that Black women have been rocking and perfecting for years. Recently we’ve seen it become more mainstream. Can you talk about Black women and their contributions to beauty? Black women are always overlooked and things are taken from them but nothing is given to them. They shamed Black women for wearing wigs. ‘Oh you’re wearing a wig because you don’t have any hair.’ That’s not the case for everyone. My biggest mindblowing wig moment is [in] Waiting to Exhale. Whitney Houston was wearing a French roll wig. Black women contribute so much. They’ve been the test for so many different hair treatments and hairstyles and they haven’t gotten the credit. They lost their hair and had their hair pulled out at the testing stages for so many. They walked so a lot of these young girls could run.
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We do see that both the fashion and beauty industries are evolving when it comes to inclusion. How does it make you feel that we’re seeing more Black women and Black hair in beauty ads, in editorials, and on the covers of magazines like Vogue? I’m glad that the work we’ve been doing, the editorials we’ve been doing, is now coming to the forefront. It’s gracing covers instead of just being inside stories. It’s no longer just little weird African-inspired shoots. I’m glad that people are actually doing the research now. They’re studying where the hairstyles are coming from. They are getting excited about it. They are no longer intimidating because it’s not intimidating — it’s fun. I just love how it’s being accepted because it should have always been accepted.
What kind of changes do you want to see specifically within the fashion and beauty industries? Well, now you’re seeing these highend product categories that people try to offer like Balmain. Now they have Balmain Paris Hair Couture. We still want access to the nice things so it’s about them being able to market to us and not be like a side thing. I’d like them to actually speak directly to us. It’s okay to speak to us. You’ve been speaking directly to other people for
so long. It’s okay to have marketing categories that actually speak to us.
In your opinion, where do we still need to make progress? I’m always promoting the Crown Act and natural hairstyles at the workplace being accepted but it’s still not in all of the states. I have this thing, when you have other cultures come to a work office setting with wet hair and they are able to sit and let it dry. To me when you think of a corporate world, she should be sitting at home because she’s not ready for work. But when someone comes with an afro but they are sitting home because their hair is not deemed acceptable, that’s when I have the problem. When [a Black woman] can come up with no one looking at her hair and asking to touch it like she’s a pet… and we can move on. That’s when I’ll be satisfied.
Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years with the business? What’s a big dream you have? I’ve always wanted to lead shows. You know when editors are behind the scenes and they’re asking for hair tips and hair advice. I want to do that. I want to be a professional that people come to for advice because I want people to have the best hair that they can have in their life. I’m very holistic, so if I can be the hair show lead or the campaign lead — somewhere where I’m able to give advice on how to take care of textured hair. Get more of Ro’s tips at prose.com/intention
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Ro’s Tips for Keeping Curls Healthy Cooler temps can wreak havoc on curly hair. Here’s how to keep curls moisturized and protected for winter, and beyond. Get a humidifier: Invest in a high quality humidifier, which will not only help keep your hair hydrated, but also your skin.
Be weary of hats: Winter accessories rob hair of moisture, especially hats. Make sure to use ones that are silk or satin-lined. Deep-condition weekly: Apply a palm-size amount from roots to ends and then cover with a plastic cap for 15-20 minutes. Rinse with cool water. Moisturize your scalp: Use natural oils to mimic those of the scalp, like sweet almond oil, grapeseed oil, avocado oil, and argan oil. Change the way you sleep: To wake up with great looking curls, gather hair into a high ponytail and secure with a scrunchie, so it loosely holds hair without creating tension.
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E TH POWER OF
T N SCE In her podcast Smell Ya Later, beauty editor Sable Yong explores the role scents, smells and odors play in our everyday life. Here, she unbottles the complex relationship between fragrance and hair. Words by Sable Yong Collage by Emily Goodman The Power of Scent
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“When you get down to it, we’re creatures controlled by our emotions, and therefore you could say that we’re controlled by scent.”
I like to think of the sense of smell as the underdog of your five senses. Touch, eyesight, and hearing are most-used for navigating the world, but your sense of smell creates multiple in-depth dimensions out of nearly every single interaction. Odor can, in fact, make a longer-lasting impression than visual, auditory, or tactile stimulation due to—as realtors say—location, location, location. Olfactory receptors are cozy neighbors with the amygdala (your brain’s emotional filing cabinet), so their physical entanglement gives them an uncanny ability to crystallize experiences with the scents they’re attached to. For instance, when you get a whiff of cinnamon, your brain will react by rolling the tape labeled “Christmas morning at grandma’s house” wherein you’re instantaneously reminded of her freshly-baked cinnamon buns. I’ve always been obsessed with smells, and extremely sensitive to the emotional pull a scent can elicit. When you get down to it, we’re all creatures controlled by our emotions, and therefore you could say that we’re all controlled by scent. In fact, we’re so scent-conscious that fragrance in everyday products are hugely influential to whether we like or dislike something—especially scents that cling to our hair and bodies. “Hair is made of protein and is porous and permeable. This means that smells can be easily absorbed,” says Gretchen Friese, certified
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trichologist at BosleyMD. “Depending on the source of the smell your hair can absorb it more than your skin.” That’s why fragrance is so important to beauty companies, like custom hair care brand Prose. “Our fragrance collection is interesting because, contrary to most hair care brands, it is inspired by fine perfumery,” says Alexandrine Delrue, director of product innovation at Prose. “We work closely with fine fragrance perfumers who help us build a collection of scents that are both elevated and diverse.” They go so far as to include customers who are part of The Salon, their membership program, in the creation process, asking them what they would want for, say, next year’s summer fragrance or a holiday scent. “It is amazing to see how imaginative and conceptual they can be,” says Delrue. “Many ideas for upcoming fragrance launches come directly from their suggestions.” Scent is a form of communication, especially when you’re wearing it, so it’s no wonder we are drawn to the scents we envision as exuding our own unique essence or how we want others to perceive us. One thing I always remember is how people smell when going in for a hug. There’s that one brief whiff of hairspray, perfume, cigarette smoke, or sometimes just that crisp outside smell clinging onto someone like dewdrops. I even love the way I can smell the night before on my hair when I wake up. Our experiences and memories define so much of who we are, and scent is the secret key to their most intimate unfurling. Sometimes it catches us off-guard and some of us may even hoard certain fragrances as an aromatic keepsake. The power of scent isn’t to be taken for granted. It’s an everyday kind of magic with the ability to bend time, even if just for a moment, conjuring a memory of someone close to you or anchoring you squarely in a moment, like a spell.
The Power Article of Name Scent
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SCENT APPEAL It’s never just one element that makes a scent feel a certain way. It’s the sum of its parts that can evoke an entirely new sense of self.
A FLORAL BOUQUET
Florals are a gorgeous way to illustrate a botanical sweetness, the beauty of walking through a meadow or past a rose bush. Renowned French nose Karine DubreuilSereni, the perfumer behind several of Prose’s fragrances, says she forged her olfactory heritage in the gardens of her grandmothers, which blossomed and grew all kinds of fragrant plants—like roses, jasmine, and daffodils.
Your Prose picks: Signature, Prelude
THE GREAT OUTDOORS
The concept of freshness isn’t so much a destination, as it is a feeling of escape. Fresh scents, ones that feel green, dewy, and aquatic, evoke a spring meadow or a misty ocean breeze off the coast of the Mediterranean. “The idea of summer makes me want to be outside, specifically in Marseille where I grew up, looking far out into the sea towards the island of Corsica,” explains Cecile Hua, the perfumer behind Prose’s Corsica scent.
Your Prose picks: Corsica, Botanica
A COZY MOMENT
Some fragrances immediately draw you in with inviting notes reminiscent of a lazy Sunday morning laying in crumpled bed sheets. And then there is the decadent feeling from spices and gourmands like nutmeg, vanilla, and white wood to evoke coziness or sensuality. Dubreuil-Sereni was inspired by “a chalet with an open fire, the warmth of the cozy indoors, and a stroll in a snowy, peaceful forest” when she created Prose’s winter scent Candela.
Your Prose picks: Perle, Candela
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htgneL tA 72 Article Name 27
GOOD for BUSINESS For these brands, putting PURPOSE
before PROFITS is changing the way business is done. Words by Celia Shatzman Illustration by Amber Day
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Mission Driven Beauty
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“RETHINKING TRADITIONAL BEAUTY PRACTICES THAT DON’T BENEFIT THE CONSUMER AND CAUSE EXTREME HARM TO THE PLANET IS WHAT PROSE WAS FOUNDED UPON.” - Arnaud Plas
(Cofounder and CEO of Prose) When you’re shopping for a new shampoo, of course you’ll consider how it will make your hair look and feel, but you might go a little deeper and wonder whether the ingredients were ethically sourced, or if the bottle was made from recycled materials.
change and to have a positive impact on the future.
Many of us are shopping more mindfully, carefully choosing how and where we spend our money. Now customers want to see their principles in their products and brands are evolving to reflect that.
To hold themselves legally accountable, brands become Certified B Corporation to show their commitment to their mission that goes beyond selling a product. “The foundation we’ve built to guide our business helps keep us honest and allows us to have a positive effect on everything from our sustainable ingredient sourcing and manufacturing processes to our internal diversity and inclusion commitment,” says Plas.
For many business owners, it’s important to build something more than just a brand that sells products in the transactional sense. They want their customers to feel connected and supported. “As a father of two young girls, a cofounder, and a millennial, I understand the importance of building a brand that really stands for something,” says Arnaud Plas, Cofounder and CEO of Prose. Having a clear, public mission allows Prose, and other like-minded companies, to stay humble and use their businesses to contribute to everlasting
For B Corps, that business structure is actually tied to a legally-bound commitment through a nonprofit third party, which requires companies to meet a rigorous checklist of items ranging from sustainability to how they treat their employees before they can receive the certification. Think: Fair Trade for non-coffee companies. Like other B corporations, Prose looks at their business impact on the environment, the community and their employees. “Rethinking traditional beauty standards and age-old practices that
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don’t benefit the consumer and cause extreme harm to the planet is what Prose was founded upon,” says Plas. By producing custom products, Prose is helping to put an end to the excessive waste in the beauty industry, which is at 20 to 40% thanks to mass production. “Because we’re completely custom, we’re eliminating the need to produce millions of units that could potentially sit on store shelves for months on end. We know that 100% of what we make is being used. Not only that, it’s fresh for optimal performance,” Plas says. “It’s also allowed us to localize our manufacturing and keep jobs in the US. In addition, we ensure that all of our ingredients are ethically sourced and and we are carbon neutral.”
“BEAUTY SHOULD BE GOOD FOR YOU AND ACCESSIBLE FOR EVERYONE.” - Lindsay Dahl
(SVP of Social Mission at Beautycounter)
Sustainability and giving back to the community are key pillars of missiondriven brands. Also top of mind is health and clean beauty, an ethos that brands have rallied around. Many have updated their own formulas and some go even further, advocating for larger industry and nationwide changes.
“Simply put, our health matters,” says Lindsay Dahl, SVP of Social Mission at Beautycounter. “The US has not passed a major federal law governing the beauty industry since 1938. The law that does exist is only one and a half pages long and allows for harmful or questionable ingredients to be used in the products we use every day. At Beautycounter, we are dedicated to safety, which is why we created our Never List of over 1,800 potentially harmful ingredients that we promise never to use in our formulas. Beauty should be good for you and accessible to everyone.” Since Beautycounter launched seven years ago, they’ve been advocating for safer beauty laws in the US and Canada. “We’ve sent over 175,000 emails, 1,600 phone calls and held over 2,000 meetings with lawmakers urging them to support cosmetic reform,” Dahl says. “We have helped pass over eight clean beauty laws in the US and are currently working on 11 other pieces of legislation,” Dahl says. Spreading the word that natural and clean ingredients are truly more than skin deep is personal for Eminence Organic Skin Care, a brand committed to exclusively using natural and organic ingredients. The homemade, natural products dreamed up by Attila Koronczay’s mother and grandmother (both estheticians) became the basis of the brand he and his brother, Boldijarre (also an esthetician), founded when they moved from their hometown of Budapest to Vancouver.
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Eminence strives to be much more than a skin care company. “We are dedicated to bettering lives, educating people about a healthy, organic lifestyle, and giving back through charitable initiatives,” says Attila Koronczay, General Manager of Eminence Organic Skin Care. In 2013, stemming from their belief in nourishing the body inside and out, they started the Eminence Kids Foundation, providing organic meals to seriously ill children receiving care in hospitals and long-term care facilities worldwide to help their recovery. “Boldijarre is a survivor of a rare form of childhood leukemia,” Koronczay says. “While he was undergoing treatment, he was fed organic and biodynamic foods by our mother and grandmother, and we believe this was instrumental to his ability to beat cancer, never relapsing to this day. We’ve passed a milestone of 100,000 organic meals served.”
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“SUPPORTING THOSE IN NEED, THROUGH GIVING BACK AND VOLUNTEER EFFORTS, IS THE LIFEBLOOD OF BOMBAS AND THE REASON WHY OUR BUSINESS EXISTS.” - David Heath
(Cofounder and CEO of Bombas)
In an age where we all want our purchases to have an impact, it’s important to consider how they touch the people around us. Many modern brands have built the foundation of their
company around contributing to the social impact on their community, their customers, and the people in their workplace. When David Heath, Cofounder and CEO of Bombas, learned in 2011 that socks are the most requested clothing item at homeless shelters, he wanted to do something about it. Back then, the give-back business model was gaining traction, so he and his cofounders established the brand’s mission to donate one pair for every pair purchased. “We knew that in order to donate a lot of socks, we’d have to sell a lot of socks, and to do that, we’d have to create something better than anything else on the market,” Heath says. “We spent two years on research and development to create the most comfortable socks ever. Supporting those in need, through giving back and volunteer efforts, is the lifeblood of Bombas and the reason why our business exists— it’s what drives us and continues to be a primary focus for everything we do.” To date, Bombas has donated over 35 million socks and T-shirts—and counting—and every item is of the same quality as those created for paying customers. Often what we buy has an emotional connection to it—just think of the feeling your favorite cozy sweater evokes or the mood lift a great hair day brings. Brands that can tap into similar sentiments bring an element of human touch. “At Prose, we understand that hair can be an emotional topic for some. It can be tied to an individual’s identity and is oftentimes a direct link to one’s heritage and culture,”
Plas says. He references a story highlighted in their “Down to the Root” content series about Lex, a Columbian-Greek-American, who went against the norm of her culture and cut her long brown hair into a platinum blonde bob. Her story conveys the importance of hair in Colombian culture, how people misinterpret her identity simply based on the color and look of her hair and how she had to overcome that initial struggle. “Knowing her culture is so important to her. It’s a beautiful and powerful story,” he says. It all comes full circle. Caring about the larger community has an impact in the internal workplace as well. In making customizable products that work for all hair types, Prose naturally celebrates diversity. “This has and always will be a top priority for Prose, both internally and externally,” Plas says. “We don’t believe people should be stereotyped and segmented into one box, which is why we offer truly custom, 100% unique products. The same applies to our own workforce. We want to have a diversified employee base but it’s not about filling a quota; it’s an ongoing process.” Ultimately, these brands know they have a voice and that it’s their duty to use it to make a difference. “We strive to use our platform to highlight causes and charities that are doing good for our community and the planet,” Plas says. “It’s important to continue to amplify the good work of these organizations and support our communities any chance we get. It’s just the beginning.”
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Through the looking glass
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Beauty rituals have the power to transport you to another time and place. One that’s just for you. So take a breath. Grab a brush. And give yourself a much-needed escape. Art by Josephine Zentner
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Back to Basics Back to Basics Back to Basics 36 At Length
Photos by Brad Ogbonna
In her former role as an editor at Nylon magazine, Bianca Valle’s life was ruled by excess. After the magazine abruptly folded, she would experience an awakening about this, for which she is incredibly grateful. Words by Fiorella Valdesolo
“I feel like the intentions at the beginning were very good and pure . . . then that changed into something that just revolves around . . . more toxic principles,” she says. “So I felt this need to start at the core.” For Valle that meant pivoting from the glossy world of magazines to something more holistic, literally: she went back to school and got a certification in holistic nutrition. As is second nature for someone who, by her own admission, was born into the social media generation, Valle often felt compelled to share the information about health and nutrition that she was accruing during her time as a student with her community. “It felt natural,” she says. “I kept sharing bits of my homework assignments or snippets from textbooks and people were so excited and responsive.” And inquisitive. So much so that Valle was inspired to start answering her friends’ and followers’ growing number of questions in a distinctly lo-fi way: she started a nutrition hotline. “I’m quite old school,” she laughs. How it works is simple: people call in and Valle counsels them on their health habits for 15 minutes and payment is entirely donation based. The demand has been so great that Valle has started to devote another day of her work week to manning her nutrition hotline. “I think COVID definitely has something to do with the growing interest,” she says. “I think it’s forced so many of us to stop and realize... that there’s so much, for lack of a better term, fat in our lives, and that we need to trim it... to feel better and see what our purpose is.” Valle’s own journey has proven to be invaluable in informing how she dispenses that advice to others. Our collective goal, she says, is really the same: “Ultimately we’re all just looking for healing.”
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Valle creates handmade candle holders in her studio apartment.
“We’re constantly hit with a barrage of images, and what’s considered perfection” Valle says of the Instagram mirage. “With a magazine you would pick up the magazine, say, ‘they’re pretty, their skin is nice,’ and then you put it down and walk away and enter back into your life. But now with Instagram on our phone we’re constantly being presented the ideal body and the ideal skin and this constant scroll of images of what humans think is perfect.”
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“The truth is that my long hair is mostly thanks to genetics but it’s definitely supplemented with a lifestyle of real food and living in my own truth. Doing all those things in conjunction definitely leads to a healthier body as a whole and, in turn, healthier hair. It’s always down, always air-dried, and, when I’m on the move, it’s in a braid. I manipulate other things in my life, but my hair is one thing that I’ve managed to just let it be.”
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Health and nutrition is not a binary. “I think people often think that to be ‘perfect’ you have to eat XYZ things or in an XYZ way, and none of that tracks. It’s not binary: you don’t eat this way to look that way, or you don’t look that way because you eat this way. When people discover that I think they look for help. And that help is usually me.”
“To quiet the mind I practice Vedic meditation, which is basically repeating a mantra that was given to you. Sometimes when I’m in bed, or if I’m in a place where I cannot properly meditate, I just repeat affirmations to myself in the form of a chant. I think repeating something to yourself that you want to remember, or that is powerful to you, is beautiful when the mind is spinning. Because ultimately those thoughts don’t mean anything… it’s just unused energy flying around in your head which can cause destruction.” Valle shops for fresh ingredients at local farmers’ markets.
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A Hair
Story 42 At Length
I used to lie about my hair how does mousy brown make you feel? dirty. blonde. sounds good something sharp to quiet the tension between the androgyny I felt and the fantasy they saw by submission so I sprayed that sun in matched the color of other lies like fumbling his swiss army knife high pitched voice saying oops instead of my real one, deep and grainy years later I’m chestnut brown and in college still danced different when boys were watching still way too woman when I wanted to be writer so I cut a mullet one night with dull shears me and my body both trying to be invisible on the subway smaller less there nothing there, but I was lying because hiding though not pleasing still concedes to the looking when I wanted to deny and defy it so I gave up in that good f u way I let my hair grow I left myself alone I left myself alone because I know they never will because now I’m ready for it Poem by Lee Phillips A Hair Story
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Blown Straight Kate Tellers is known for captivating audiences around the world with stories for nonprofit storytelling organization The Moth. Here, she recounts a very personal tale of finding self-acceptance through a haircut.
Words by Kate Tellers Illustration by Clara Rubin
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Blown Straight
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“I had always thought a great artist was wild and free running their fingers through their hair...” When I was 22 years old I moved to Boston to live in my best friend’s closet. J and I used to go streaking and belt Indigo Girls lyrics but after college she did an extreme about face and took a job doing market research. I was simultaneously appalled to hear her tell people she’d “shoot them an email” and thrilled that she rearranged her running shoes to offer me such a reasonable rent. I moved in with $76 in my checking account and an optimistic stack of my headshots, taken in a suburban basement which I prepped for the night before by chopping my frizzy hair into an uneven bob in my bathroom. On the back I stapled my resume, whose most significant and recent credit was a season doing Astor family cosplay during high season in Newport, RI. I was ready to bring my art to the world. Via New England. I bought a $25 mattress at a shop by Boston University that was so thin I folded it in half, wrapped it in duct tape and carried it home on the T. With my domestic life in order it was time for me to get a job, just for now, to float
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me until my career took off. I signed on with a temp agency and, despite the fact that I flunked the typing test after mistaking a blank screen for an invitation to do a free write on creativity in the workplace, I was told to report to a global financial firm in a glass building downtown and ask for Eleanor. I thought I would use my time outside of work to learn a monologue from the Children’s Hour or go to an open call audition or do anything closely related to the actual reason that I moved to this city but instead I threw every ounce of my creative energy into envisioning ways that I would fall into financial ruin and have to crawl home a failure. I had always thought a great artist was wild and free, running their fingers through their naturally wild hair, spewing brilliant ideas and observations that would be repeated for generations to come. Instead I was not free, I was in my closet, crying over my share of the grocery bill while I rage ate carrots. When friends offered me tickets to a show I said no, nervous that it would let out after the T stopped running and I’d have to take a cab. I never once bought a cup of coffee.
Back at the office I became obsessed with Eleanor and the other admins. Unlike me who wore the same black skirt every day, the lucky one I wore to nail my audition for a feminist acapella ensemble in college, they were the only people of my age I’d ever met who shopped at Ann Taylor straight off the rack. They had sensible flats. They woke up early enough to style their hair with hot tools. I had been so proud of the fact that I was going places, that this was a temporary spot before the real me set flight. But the real me was sick of getting annoyed at my roommates for leaving the lights on in the bathroom because what did they think, electricity was free? The real me was vibrating with anxiety, Eleanor(s) seemed happy to do the same thing every day, to shop at the same stores, to go home and watch Friends reruns, to come back and do it all again. Maybe they were the ones who were living. I opened up Netscape and typed in “hairdryer ebay.” Maybe I could join them. I’d need to polish myself up,
smooth out the rough edges that started with my frizzy hair. Images of Vidal Sassoon and Conair models popped onto my screen. I hovered over them. I had said “no” to so much that cost less than these plastic hot air guns. I tried to picture myself blasting myself with one to look like people who did not excite me. Sweating as I turned into the alternate “Macy’s me”. But I couldn’t click. The way out of my closet wasn’t spending the tiny bit of money I’d saved to get deeper into this job. I had to take a risk. I wish I could say that I walked out that day and onto a bus to New York. I did not but I did get there eventually. I got a job at an acting studio where I took classes and made friends who made me laugh and thought I was funny, too. I cut a rat tail into my hair because I could, and I thought it was funny that my new friends hated it. But I didn’t care. I got on one stage and then another and now I get to fly to stages all around the world to tell stories and laugh and cry with strangers. I did buy a hairdryer but I never use it. It’s just not me. For more stories like this, visit prose.com/intention
“...spewing brilliant ideas and observations that would be repeated for generations to come.” Blown Straight
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Beauty Beauty &and the the sheets sheets Words by Rachel Morris Words by Rachel Morris Photography by Rich Stapleton Photography by Rich Stapleton
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A glowy, youthful
#iwokeuplikethis look starts in the bedroom. Our top experts spill
sleep secrets for locking in next-level skin and enviable locks while you snooze. their
If you’ve shelled out for a pricey night cream recently, here’s a little secret the beauty industry doesn’t want you to know: One of the best anti-aging treatments is free. “A good night’s sleep is so important, it’s like medicine,” says Michele Green, MD, a cosmetic dermatologist in New York City. “Levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, fall while you sleep, which allows the body—including the skin—to repair itself.” The magic happens on the cellular level: While you’re snoozing, your body is busy laying down new collagen fibers—the protein structure that helps keep skin firm and plump. “When someone looks well-rested, it’s because the fine lines on their face are minimized thanks to that new collagen, explains Green. Indeed, research in the journal Sleep shows that sleep deprivation affects everything from the eyes (more redness, swelling, and dark circles) to the skin (a paler complexion and more wrinkles). People who don’t get enough Zzz’s are also perceived as looking sadder. The first step to getting the beauty sleep of your dreams: Don’t skimp on shut-eye (one in three of us is guilty of not clocking the recommended seven to nine hours a night). Everyone needs a different amount, but you’ll know you’re getting enough when you can wake up without hitting the snooze button—or without an alarm altogether, says Michael Breus, PhD, a clinical psychologist, fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, and author of The Power of When. Then, take these steps to wake up looking (and feeling!) refreshed.
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RETHINK YOUR BEDTIME
Sleep Aids Replace your bulbs and put down your phone Exposure to blue light in the evening can trick your body into thinking it’s daytime, throwing your circadian system out of whack. Choose blue light-minimizing bulbs for the bedroom and log off a couple hours before bedtime, since tech devices also emit blue light waves.
Sip on tart cherry juice The cherries are a natural source of melatonin, which helps regulate your sleep-wake cycle. Breus recommends blending the juice with banana, kiwi, almond milk, and ice for a before-bed sleep smoothie.
The body goes through multiple stages of sleep, but stages three and four have the most payoff for your appearance, says Breus. “This is when you have the largest emission of growth hormone, which helps with cellular repair.” Exercising regularly and sticking to a consistent sleep schedule increases time spent in these stages of sleep, but better yet, pay attention to your body’s internal clock—aka circadian rhythm. Going to bed at the time your body is programmed to results in a ramped up production of growth hormone. “If you’re an early bird and you go to bed early and wake up early, you will be able to get more cellular repair from your beauty sleep,” says Breus. In fact, a new study in the journal Nature Cell Biology found that messing with mice’s internal body clocks interfered with the creation of collagen fibers. More research is needed to replicate the findings in humans, but consider this one more reason not to binge on Netflix when your body is telling you to head to bed.
SWITCH UP YOUR SLEEP POSITION Don a sleep mask Light can disrupt your slumber, but wearing a sleep mask can help. Research shows the eye coverings increase REM sleep and melatonin levels. Better yet, look for a mask that wraps around the eyes and ears to block out light and sound.
Slather on lavender lotion Some studies suggest that a lavender scent may have a calming effect on the nervous system, leading to less restlessness at night. Massage a lavender cream onto hands before bed for sounder sleep and softer mitts in the morning. 50 At Length
A note to all little (and big) spoons: the side sleeping position isn’t great for beauty sleep. “I’ve seen that when someone sleeps on one side of their body, they develop more lines on that side of the face,” says Green. The wrinkles are due to compression and tension that occurs when the face is pressed against a pillow or mattress. It doesn’t help that as you get older, you shift around less in your sleep. This leads to more time spent smooshed into a singular position, which reinforces lines. Green says that the best position for minimizing sleep wrinkles is on your back. If the position doesn’t come naturally, using a pillow designed for back sleeping may help you to adopt the supine position. Look for one that cradles the neck, such as the JuveRest pillow, designed by a plastic surgeon. This will provide support while preventing you from rolling over during the night.
Try a new night-time do Heat gets trapped at the nape of the neck while sleeping, leading to extra sweating and tangled, oily hair the next morning, says Vincent De Marco, hair stylist and owner of Vincent Hair Artistry in Los Angeles, CA. Snoozing on a silk pillowcase can help (it’s naturally cooling) as can a sleep-specific coif. Use De Marco’s styling tips, starting tonight.
If you are frizz-prone
If you have short hair
To allow heat to escape while sleeping, separate hair into two high, loose pigtails on either side of the head. If your hair is oily, you can use an astringent on the scalp. Just be sure to add a little extra oil back before bed to help prevent the body from overproducing natural oils while you sleep. Place a drop or two of apricot kernel oil on the fingertips, then lightly tap wherever the astringent was applied.
Tired of waking up with unruly bedhead? Keep your tresses under control while you snooze by wearing a silk sleeping cap to bed.
If you have fine, thin hair For gorgeous waves in the morning skip the braids and instead gather hair into two high, loose ponytails. Take one ponytail and, starting from the bottom, fold the hair up like an accordian. Pull the elastic over to secure (the ponytail will now look like a bow). Repeat on the other side.
If you have curly hair To avoid waking up with flattened coils, use your fingers to gather hair loosely into a top knot. If you have a little frizz in the morning when you let hair down, spritz with water, brush the frizz into place, and blow dry using a diffuser.
Written in the Stars
Words by Alice Bell
Illustration by Allison Garcia
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How a chance astrolog y reading gave A lice Bell a deeper understanding of her inner universe. During my freshman year of college, I went to therapy for the first time. I had started off our Skype session by crying about a boy when my therapist asked me “What is your exact time, date and place of birth, Alice?” She looked up my astrological chart and read me like an open book. Up until then, I had thought that astrology was as simple as reading your weekly horoscope in the back of a magazine. I’d learned that, as an Aquarius, I was kind of weird and that was really the extent of it. Thinking about external forces and how they shaped my personality wasn’t really for me. I’d grown up going to church every Sunday, but organized religion didn’t really resonate with me either. In fact, I spent my teens and early 20s believing in nothing. Instead, I let other people’s views of me shape my personal beliefs. I lived with constant anxiety that stemmed from trying to control everything around me in order to create the image I wanted others to see. It caused me to become a habitual nailbiter and hair puller. A natural strawberry blonde, I used to sit in class and yank out the reddest strands of hair so that I wouldn’t be called a “ginger”. Being left alone to deal with all of my emotions was a huge fear, which was only intensified when I got to college. To numb any stronger feelings
I would either spend hours vegging out in front of the television or get blackout drunk during nights out. If a guy I went on a couple dates with was suddenly no longer interested, or if I was having trouble making friends, I always blamed myself. I believed that I could have tried harder or done better, which eventually led me to that first fateful therapy session. Listening to my therapist go over my birth chart (which is a blueprint of what positions the planets occupied in the sky the minute a person was born), I was fascinated by how she was able to ascertain very personal aspects of my life. She saw that the relationship with my mom was difficult, that I had a love for reading and writing, and that I had difficulty showing affection. It was cool hearing someone else explain my life to me, but I still didn’t really know what to do with that information. I pushed astrology to the back of my mind until a couple of years later when I found myself unfulfilled, working at what I had thought to be my dream career in fashion. Once again, I had expected some outside factor, such as a job title or a relationship, to bring me happiness. It never did. Remembering the insightful visit with my therapist, I revisited my birth chart that winter, doing further research into each
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planetary placement on my own. This time around, something clicked and I found myself more interested in incorporating astrology into my life. Instead of having just one sun sign to look to for explaining your personality traits—what you normally see in magazines or online—everyone actually has a full chart which is made up of “twelve houses” and “twelve planets”. It’s super detailed but here’s the overall idea: The sun, moon and rising signs are the three core elements to the chart, but there are other planets to take into consideration as well, such as Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Pluto. In addition, the “house” a planet falls into shows what area of life the energy of that planet becomes apparent. It explains why someone might have better luck with career-related matters, while someone else is a serial dater. Here’s what it means for me. By looking into my Pisces moon and Venus in the 8th house, I realized that my first instinct when I was upset was to keep quiet about how I felt and retreat into my own little world. However, with this Pisces energy, I needed to be engaging in activities that brought a sense of mental calmness and helped me to feel like I was connected to something bigger than myself. I started doing yoga videos on Youtube and eventually incorporated a morning meditation into my daily routine. I learned that my 12th house, Mars in Cancer, coupled with a 7th house, Aquarius sun, meant that I should be putting more effort into relating to other people, and that maybe by working through someone else’s problems I could gain a better perspective of my own. I also became aware of even the most minute details of my chart, such as having Jupiter in the 3rd house, revealed that I’m prone to overthinking. Even my beauty routines are mapped out. I have a Leo rising that indicates that I have a thick mane of hair that needs constant tending. Now, my self-care routine involves nourishing it with hair oil and a leave-in conditioner, and making time for blow-drying.
ly able to gain acceptance and understanding I was final for my quirks that I had tried to repress for so long. Though there is a challenging side to all of these planetary placements, my birth chart ultimately represents my natural talents and what I would be the most fulfilled doing. As a fulltime astrologer, I’ve been able to master old behavioral patterns that were no longer working, in favor of bringing new, healthier routines into my life. Everyone has their unique traits, it’s just a matter of tapping into these qualities and using them to your advantage—strawberry blonde hair and all. Find a self-care routine that works for you at prose.com/intention
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Self-Care by
Astrological Elements
Fire Signs:
Air Signs:
You crave constant adventure in your life to feel satisfied. You may often feel like you have too much energy inside, so it’s important that you get up and get moving. Engaging in a sport, making travel plans or pouring your efforts into a creative hobby all bring you a sense of calm and perspective. To wind down at the end of an active day, try a bath with epsom salts and a multi-step skin care routine.
Your mind never rests. You like to spend your time reading, researching new topics, and swapping ideas with others. Syncing with like-minded people helps ground you when you’re feeling anxious. To avoid getting wrapped up in your own thoughts, try connecting with your body through activities like yoga or meditation. Multitask during these calming moments with beauty rituals that help you to slow down, such as a deep conditioning treatment or masking.
Earth Signs:
Water Signs:
You like to have control over your schedule, and you probably follow a to-do list or have a set five-year plan. To keep your energy levels up, you like nourishing your body with healthy food or squeezing in time for a daily workout. You may also be picky about the ingredients that go into your beauty products, and prefer to shop natural so that you know exactly what you’re putting on your body.
Your own emotions can often feel overwhelming, so you might like spending time away from people to reset your energy. Some of your best creative inspiration comes when you take these moments to be by yourself. Because you’re very intuitive and easily pick up on other people’s moods, it’s important to have self-care activities that help center you, such as writing down your thoughts in a journal or having a spa night at home.
Aries, Leo, Sagittarius
Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn
Gemini, Libra, Aquarius
Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces
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At Length is a biannual magazine created by Prose. The publication explores the intricacies of hair and all of the ways in which it influences our culture, our daily lives and our personal choices.