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Last update - 14:43 10/03/2008
In show of modesty, Haredi women make up in private
By Tamar Rotem, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Ultra-orthodox, Yaffa Larrie 

In Bnei Brak there is a woman who wears too much makeup. Bright red lipstick that can be seen from a distance, eyes emphasized with dark eye shadow. For years they've been gossiping about her as she walks down the street.

Her husband, on the other hand, is a disheveled type who boasts of the stringent prohibitions he takes upon himself in terms of sexual modesty. How does that work? The husband usually takes off his eyeglasses when he leaves the house, so that he won't slip up and, God forbid, look at women. So his wife paints herself without interference, and he doesn't notice.

This story is an extreme example of the paradox involved in the desire of ultra-Orthodox women to meet the norms of beauty in secular society, in spite of the instructions to practice tzniut (modesty) that are practiced in their society.
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"It's true that 'Charm is deceptive and beauty is vain' takes precedence in this society. But in reality, there is no limit to the investment of ultra-Orthodox women in their appearance," says Yaffa Larrie, the owner of a Jerusalem beauty salon. "You have to remember that they are 'ordinary' women, with needs. But they have restrictions, and therefore everything with them is hinted, not emphasized."

Alongside home beauty salons, whose existence is passed along by word of mouth, in recent years many beauty salons have opened in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, where they specialize in improving the "natural look." They offer all of the treatments available on the market - anti-wrinkle treatments, permanent makeup, injections that fill out one's face - "everything goes," says Larrie.

Secret exits to maintain privacy

The Ye'elat Chen beauty salon, managed by Larrie, has been operating for 24 years in Jerusalem, not far from Mea Shearim and Kikar Shabbat. The side entrance on the main street is suited to women who want to steal in without being seen. Behind the simple door a surprise awaits. A pleasant and aesthetic space divided into cubicles. Several rooms have a secret exit to the salon's backyard. They are meant for the wives of leading Hasidic rabbis, women from extremist Hasidic sects, along with several female MKs who have heard about Larrie. In other words, all those who have to maintain their privacy.

There is nobody more expert than Larrie when it comes to social sensitivities. "Sometimes a mother-in-law and her daughter-in-law come to us, or a sister and her sister-in-law," says Larrie. "Neither of them knows that the other is being treated at the same time. It's not legitimate to talk about it. We understand that the name of the game is discretion."

Larrie is the "Ronit Raphael" (owner of a chain of medical-cosmetic clinics) of the ultra-Orthodox public. She is a religious woman who wears a wig, who brings the latest innovations in the field to ultra-Orthodox women. When she finished a cosmetics course she consulted with a Jerusalem kabbalist, and he advised her to offer her services to the ultra-Orthodox public.

"I was shocked," she says. "I knew that this was a public without much money, that it's not acceptable. At the time even the word 'cosmetics' could not be published in the newspaper. I didn't know what was permitted and what was forbidden." But she did as the kabbalist said. And slowly but surely women began to come. Over time she learned to distinguish among the various streams and Hasidic sects, knowing who were more open and those who were less so. She knows the limitations of each woman. This one will absolutely refuse to remove her head covering, others are not permitted to open a single button in their blouse.

Annual treat

In a random visit to the salon, the wife of an ultra-Orthodox former minister was spotted. But aside from the ultra-Orthodox elite, poorer women come as well. "I have women with 17 children. Someone came with a wrinkled bill in her hand and told me, 'this is what I've saved. Give me a treatment.' Some collect the change in a small envelope in the kitchen, for a treatment. I give them materials and teach them how to be their own cosmeticians. For them the annual beauty treatment is a refuge from the routine.

"Sometimes they tell me that they didn't sleep the night before because they were so excited. I'm their television, I'm a glimpse at magazines from abroad," says Larrie.

Sima Salzburg, who researched the attitude toward beauty in the extremist Toldot Aharon Hasidic community in Jerusalem, as part of her doctoral thesis at the Hebrew University, discovered that one's external appearance is of great significance even among the most extreme.

She says that cosmetic treatments are common mainly for young women. "An 18-year-old girl who is about to about to be introduced to a potential match doesn't have the time to impress her partner or his mother with her qualities, and therefore her external appearance is more important than anything else," she says. "The meeting with the designated partner is very short: from one meeting in the Hasidic sects to several meetings in more open communities."

Salzburg found that young married women in Toldot Aharon use makeup under the noses of the "supervisors," older women who are in charge of the behavior of the younger women. "They use neutral colors," she says.

Similarly, women use the wonders of cosmetics in order to bypass halakhic (religious law) prohibitions. For example, permanent makeup avoids the inner struggle of women who cannot apply makeup on Shabbat. Until now, many applied makeup in spite of the specific prohibition.

In this area there are halakhic problems, says Salzburg, because some consider searing the skin as a type of tattoo (which is strictly forbidden by halakha). "But for now it's an unsupervised arena. The rabbis are apparently avoiding a confrontation with women in an area that is so close to their hearts," she explains.
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  1.   Amazing the services you can get on tax payers money 11:35  |  SJ 10/03/08
  2.   Pathetic article 12:23  |  Israel 10/03/08
  3.   SJ`s distorting mirror 12:29  |  Umm Danny 10/03/08
  4.   SJ #1 - Drivel 12:31  |  Israel 10/03/08
  5.   # 4 check your facts and take off those blinkers 13:00  |  SJ 10/03/08
  6.   Haredi women make up 13:09  |  chelemer 10/03/08
  7.   Writers Hallucinations 13:47  |  Isi 10/03/08
  8.   beautiful Haredi women 13:54  |  Shoshanaci 10/03/08
  9.   An outsiders nonsense 14:46  |  Batsheva 10/03/08
  10.   To #1 #5 - Why soes Shas desrve less for its educational sys ??? 14:58  |  Harry 10/03/08
  11.   SJ #5 14:59  |  Israel 10/03/08
  12.   to SJ, Tel Aviv 15:01  |  molly 10/03/08
  13.   What nonsense 15:07  |  Bluma Richel 10/03/08
  14.   SJ #5 continue 15:10  |  Israel 10/03/08
  15.   to #1, SJ 15:17  |  teacher 10/03/08
  16.   # 10 here you are check this out 15:21  |  SJ 10/03/08
  17.   sorry # 14 i just dont buy it and neither does the Israeli publi 15:26  |  SJ 10/03/08
  18.   Absolute Nonsense-Inshow of Modesty 15:29  |  Black Realist 10/03/08
  19.   #5 15:41  |  Rafael 10/03/08
  20.   Molly #12-needing correction 15:50  |  THK 10/03/08
  21.   SJ - you have been brainwashed 15:53  |  jake 10/03/08
  22.   SJ #14 16:00  |  Israel 10/03/08
  23.   THK 16:05  |  Israel 10/03/08
  24.   Vanity of vanities 16:08  |  Yaakov Sullivan 10/03/08
  25.   Make up and money and poverty 16:36  |  Moshe Chaim 10/03/08
  26.   Israel- #23 16:45  |  THK 10/03/08
  27.   Moshe Chaim on sinat chinam 16:47  |  Yaakov Sullivan 10/03/08
  28.   Big deal. 16:47  |  Susan 10/03/08
  29.   Fashion DNA 16:53  |  Chaval 10/03/08
  30.   Shas Funding 16:58  |  Eric 10/03/08
  31.   THK 17:21  |  Israel 10/03/08
  32.   haaretz how low can you fall ? 17:35  |  yehuda 10/03/08
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  34.   THK: I said "ALMOST" non-existent 17:41  |  molly 10/03/08
  35.   Yaakov Sullivan- you dont understand 17:47  |  Kiva 10/03/08
  36.   Very bitchy article 17:56  |  x-ray 10/03/08
  37.   Kiva and covering the hair of married women 18:00  |  Yaakov Sullivan 10/03/08
  38.   One of the more interesting articles 18:22  |  Karen 10/03/08
  39.   Isreal 31. Time to end 18:51  |  THK 10/03/08
  40.   Self-hating Jew 18:53  |  Mendy 10/03/08
  41.   Molly #34 18:54  |  THK 10/03/08
  42.   Interesting article 19:16  |  Jack 10/03/08
  43.   Mendy, Mendy, control your urge for lahson Hara 19:21  |  Yaakov Sullivan 10/03/08
  44.   yaakov sullivan is a 19:33  |  traitor 10/03/08
  45.   God-given hair 19:51  |  David 10/03/08
  46.   traitor on torah bashing 19:54  |  Yakov Sullivan 10/03/08
  47.   #1, speaking of taxpayer money... 20:15  |  Michoel 10/03/08
  48.   Baloney! 20:31  |  Humble Jew 10/03/08
  49.   SJ, calm down. Not all datim deserve your wrath like... 21:57  |  bat yam 10/03/08
  50.   How ya gonna keep them down on the farm 22:09  |  Yonatan 10/03/08
  51.   #46 Humble Jew from Brooklyn 22:13  |  Yonatan 10/03/08
  52.   Women of the world, unite! 22:48  |  hala 10/03/08
  53.   THK #39 Couldn`t agree more 22:53  |  Israel 10/03/08
  54.   Halacha Mavens much? 23:19  |  Di 10/03/08
  55.   I think Haredi women look HOT, and know it. 23:39  |  d.dor 10/03/08
  56.   traitor (44),to take the front row seat in hell is not so bad 23:47  |  Karl 10/03/08
  57.   SJ #39 - Could not agree more! 23:54  |  Israel 10/03/08
  58.   I vote for beautiful women! 01:24  |  Bobby the Jew 11/03/08
  59.   People with a serious mental illness 02:30  |  Mark Lincoln 11/03/08
  60.   Charedi women and makeup 03:43  |  Shani 11/03/08
  61.   This article seems written by a dumb (haredi) blonde 04:34  |  Fortuna Benmayor 11/03/08
  62.   beauty was always important especially for poor 04:51  |  Simcha 11/03/08
  63.   Neurei Karta 05:29  |  Shani 11/03/08
  64.   In my Quaker school days 05:47  |  Mark Lincoln 11/03/08
  65.   Bobby the Jew - right on 05:49  |  Mark Lincoln 11/03/08
  66.   Once married women are controlled like breaders 06:57  |  Avishag Hashunamit 11/03/08
  67.   Shani #30 08:31  |  Toby 11/03/08
  68.   to #20: check this out 09:12  |  HH 11/03/08
  69.   Hi #55 d.dor 09:55  |  Shmiel Yoisef 11/03/08
  70.   Haredi women 11:04  |  ruth 11/03/08
  71.   Some areas are best regulated by women themselves