“Some days are hectic, some are chill. Doesn’t really matter. If I’ve planned a face mask or a small beauty treatment during the workday, I just do it,” says Shanida, a 25-year-old Dubai-based customer success manager at Kendal AI, who recently went viral on Instagram for attending a Zoom meeting unapologetically with a face mask on. “Love that I went viral for the right thing,” she chuckles.
But it’s not just her. A number of younger workers are trying to fit in a salon visit during their lunchtime, which begs the question: can weaving beauty rituals into your 9-to-5 offer an escape from today’s hustle culture?
For many, the shift toward midday maintenance is born of pure logistical necessity. Darpanna B, a 25-year-old Mumbai-based PR professional, found herself forced into the “lunchtime facial” when her best friend’s wedding collided with a gruelling work schedule. “My dermatologist leaves by 6 pm, while my workday ends at 6:30 pm,” she explains. With the clinic just five minutes from her office, the lunch hour became her only window.
“I was actually quite sceptical at first,” Darpanna admits. “Usually, after a facial, you don’t really want to step out immediately or face people. I was constantly rushing the staff, asking them to hurry. My mind was racing: What if a client calls? What if something urgent comes up?” However, 10 minutes in, the physical reality of the treatment forced a mental pivot. “I had no option but to relax. My face was covered in a mask, my eyes were shut, and I just let go.” By the time she headed back to her desk, the lingering work stress had been replaced by a “surprising sense of calm” and the quiet thrill of reclaiming time. “Please tell me I’m not the only one who feels a little extra happy ticking off a personal task during office hours!”
This sentiment—that beauty is an efficient, mood-lifting task rather than a frivolous distraction—is echoed by Prathi Jagan, a 25-year-old architect based in Chennai. For her, the midday appointment is a productivity hack. “It’s an efficient way to get a task from my personal life done. Especially if I’m going out that night, it makes getting ready after going home so much easier.” Instead of feeling guilty for leaving her drafting table, Jagan finds that the break sharpens her focus. “It’s a good break from monotonous work. I feel relaxed knowing I finished this task.”
However, what starts as an occasional indulgence can also evolve into an efficient routine. Zoya, a 21-year-old medical student in Dubai, has transformed her lunch breaks into a full-scale maintenance calendar. She’s managed everything from brow laminations and blow-dries to microneedling in the middle of hospital shifts. “It’s a monthly schedule now,” Zoya says. “I even go to my laser hair removal appointments during my lunch break. It’s a fixed date that cannot be moved.” For Zoya, these appointments are “mood lifters” that ensure she feels like her best self when she finally steps out of the lab or ward.
But there is a deeper, more professional layer to this trend. In industries with rigid standards, looking “put-together” isn’t just a preference—it’s a requirement. Muriel McCracken, a 27-year-old trainee lawyer in Paris, sees her midday manicures as a practical use of time driven by the “professional expectation to look polished at work”.
“In some of the law firms where I have worked, nail artists would even come into the office,” McCracken says. “It reinforces the idea that maintaining a polished appearance is part of the professional standard.” However, she notes that not all treatments are created equal. While manicures are fine, she now reserves massages for weekends. “It can be difficult to fully relax if work is particularly intense... I often feel slightly tired afterwards, which is not always conducive to a productive afternoon.”
The necessity to step out during lunch to pamper yourself might seem like a choice, but when work-life balance is thrown out of the equation thanks to 9-to-5s morphing into 9-to-9s and weekends become all about recovery, it doesn’t seem all that surprising. Our quest for productivity has also crossed the fine line between ambition and a toxic, unrelenting hustle culture that demands we treat our bodies like machines and our time as a depleting resource. We’ve been conditioned to believe that rest is a reward to be earned rather than a fundamental human right, leaving us to squeeze the essence of “living” into a 48-hour window that is often spent recovering from the week preceding it.
True wellness and self-care shouldn’t be luxury prizes reserved for the top tier of the corporate ladder; they are deserved by everyone, from the intern to the executive, as a means of survival in an era of burnout. By reclaiming the lunch hour, young professionals are acknowledging that a fresh manicure or a hydrating facial isn’t just about vanity—it’s about asserting that we exist outside of our spreadsheets.
As the lines between our personal and professional lives continue to blur, Gen Z is clearly negotiating a new contract with the 9-to-5. If the office is going to demand our evenings and our energy, perhaps it’s only fair that we take back the hour between 1 and 2 pm for a little bit of glow.
