The beauty routines for astronauts in space: How women wash their hair, apply makeup and do their skincare while orbiting Earth
As NASA’s Artemis II blasts off towards the moon with Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen inside, the four astronauts will be attempting to settle into their new lives in space.
Yet as they work towards gathering more information about the moon, the foursome will also be navigating day-to-day life while moving up to 270,000 miles from Earth in an Orion capsule.
From washing their hair and teeth to applying the odd bit of makeup, female astronauts in particular can face additional challenges and needs while travelling through space.
Due to a lack of gravity, water forms in floating, sticky blobs, rather than flowing downwards, while the microgravity also forces long hair upwards and leaves it floating freely in all directions.
Powders and perfumes must be swapped for creamy products due to concerns over powder particles damaging lungs or machinery, while a simple cleansing routine is key because of the precious water supply.
Commercial astronaut Kellie Gerardi previously told Glamour: ‘NASA will provide a personal hygiene kit for every astronaut, and each astronaut is allowed to personalise this based on their preferences – for example, like a certain brand of toothpaste.
‘So whilst you rarely see an astronaut applying a full face in space as you would here on earth, certainly astronauts take things up that make them feel less washed out.’
But long gone are luxurious showers, with a more humble wash rag required for a quick wash.
Meanwhile, hair washing is undertaken in foil-and-plastic water bags with rinseless shampoos and can take around 20 to 25 minutes to complete.
When it comes to shaving, a generic razor and unscented shaving cream is the only viable option, with a ‘conservative’ amount required for such lengthy journeys, according to NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor.
From washing their hair and teeth, to wearing tampons and applying the odd bit of makeup – female astronauts face additional challenges in space. Pictured: Astronaut Karen Nyberg reveals how to wash your hair aboard the International Space Station
NASA astronaut Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams (pictured), shows how to brush your teeth while in space. Long gone are luxurious showers – with a more humble wash rag required for a quick wash
She told Marie Clarie: ‘I usually bring eyeliner, eyeshadow and maybe an eyebrow pencil, but I found that it’s almost more trouble than it’s worth to put it on in space. other female astronauts wear makeup daily though.
‘I swear my skin looks younger in space because there’s a massive fluid shift that occurs in orbit. When I do video conferences with people on Earth, they even comment on my skin looking younger.’
Female astronauts will typically opt for loose hair to allow for better aeration and reduce the chances of clogged follicles, dandruff or bacterial growth.
Famously, NASA astronaut Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams, who was stranded in space for 288 days, left Earth with long, flowing chestnut hair, with Donald Trump referring to her as ‘the woman with the wild hair’.
Yet when she splashed down off the coast of Florida in March last year in a SpaceX Dragon capsule, the hair that was visible through her helmet had gone entirely white.
While she had gone nine long months without a touch-up, Sunita’s drastic hair change was likely due to adrenaline and cortisol speeding up the depletion of stem cells that produce melanin in hair follicles.
While travelling on Mission Futura in 2015, European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti revealed that a special soap pouch is used to manage a daily skincare routine.
In a viral video showcasing her daily routine, Samantha squirted the solution onto her arm, which almost floats on her skin as a result of the surface tension.
She then dried off the excess water with a towel, which she left close to a ventilation grid so that it can also dry off.
NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor told Marie Clarie: ‘I usually bring eyeliner, eyeshadow and maybe an eyebrow pencil’. She added: ‘I swear my skin looks younger in space because there’s a massive fluid shift that occurs in orbit’
With trips to the nail salon no longer a possibility in space, female astronauts must cut their nails themselves, before hoovering the residue to prevent them from flying around the space station.
And while brushing your teeth may seem like a relatively simple task, astronauts are required to either swallow the toothpaste or spit it out into a towel due to the lack of gravity.
When astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch, who is currently onboard NASA’s Artemis II, were onboard a spacewalk in 2020, the pair revealed their top beauty tips and tricks, while also offering a rare insight into life as they orbited Earth.
Opening their pouches filled with beauty and wellness products, Jessica turned to Christina and said: ‘This is that exfoliator I was talking about..
‘I used it and I loved it!,’ responded Christina, before adding: ‘I used it the other day and I felt like my skin looked really good.’
Our understanding of the needs of women astronauts has certainly drastically shifted since 1963, when Valentina Tereshkova historically became the first female astronaut to travel to space aged 26.
Meanwhile, when NASA welcomed its first female astronauts onboard in 1978, the space station had to make adjustments to its equipment.
These included its Maximum Absorbency Garments (MAGs), essentially an adult nappy used for launch, landing and spacewalks, alongside crew equipment such as clothing, parachutes and helmets.
In 1978, NASA even devised a makeup set for their top female astronauts containing mascara, lip gloss and blusher (pictured)
Sally Ride, who became the first American woman and third woman to fly into space, told the BBC that there were numerous other beauty-related issues female astronauts had to contend with including tampon supplies and ‘more female-friendly lotions and potions’
Remarkably, in 1978, NASA even devised a makeup set for their top female astronauts containing mascara, lip gloss and blusher.
Sharing an archive image of the cosmetics kit in 2018, the US space agency wrote: ‘The engineers at NASA, in their infinite wisdom, decided that women astronauts would want makeup – so they designed a makeup kit.
‘You can just imagine the discussions amongst the predominantly male engineers about what should go in a makeup kit.’
Retired NASA astronaut Rhea Sheddon, who was selected as part of the first group of female astronauts in 1978, previously disclosed that some women were keen to have makeup products in space with them.
She wrote on her website: ‘If there would be pictures taken of me from space, I didn’t want to fade into the background so I requested some basic items.
‘All agreed that a small kit with items of our choosing would be a “preference item,” that is, stowed only if requested.
‘It was interesting to me that that I wasn’t the sole space traveler whose in-flight pictures showed a bit of lipstick and blush.’
Sally Ride, who became the first American woman and third woman to fly into space, told the BBC that there were numerous other beauty-related issues female astronauts had to contend with.
These included trying to replace the British Sterling deodorant, shaving cream and men’s hair tonic with ‘more female-friendly lotions and potions’.
Kathryn Sullivan, who became the first American woman to perform a spacewalk, added: ‘They put some tampons in the PPK for Sally to look at and she pulled one out and it was like unreeling a string of sausages.
‘Tampon, tampon, tampon, tampon, tampon. There were like 100. And they said, is that enough? Sally was hysterical and said, “No, no”. She thought that was really too much, thank you very much.’
