Stay Pretty in Prison

While I was in jail, I was impressed by the creativity and ingenuity of my fellow inmates. They cooked and made perfume and makeup, they decorated their prison shoes with artwork, it was amazing to watch.

Why do women want to look better in jail or prison? I found the best answer in a blog post called Get Ready For Orange Is The New Black Season 3 With These Prison Beauty Hacks

"In prison, makeup can be a little luxury that makes a person feel connected with her old life and who she used to be. It can communicate individuality, which is important in a world where everyone has to wear the same orange uniform. It can even make a person feel powerful. When Red first sees her old rival, Vee, in season 2, the first thing she does is run for a makeover, because she knows a struggle for dominance is coming, and she cannot face Vee without her black eyeliner and her mane of bright red hair." Read more: at the Gloss

One woman ran a full service salon from her bunk near the bathroom. A woman in my area was rumored to have smuggled a curling iron in via her va- jay jay. There was a curling iron being used by salon lady.

She would thread facial hair, braid hair, curl it or fingerwave it for a certain amount of soups. She liked Chili Ramen and she frequently collected strings that she saw hanging from peoples bunks or uniform. She also collected old tshirts to make rag rollers.

Another woman had little bags of crushed candy and pieces of pens and pencils hidden in her jumpsuit. She was a make up artist.

There was also a colorist who had purchased coffee and kool aid from commisary. She would color your hair for a trade-off. Her favorite ways to be paid were vanilla coffee creamer and cheez doodles or a bottle of baby oil.

The jail sells a few beauty items but most of the women spend the bulk of their $70 per week limit , if they have that much available on their books, to buy food.

Make your own make-up- at your own risk

Foundation is made of any lotion or baby oil, or water if you are desperate, mixed with some baby powder - mix ingredients until its a paste and slowly add coffee grounds until its your shade.

Trust me. You will want to purchase vaseline if nothing else. It has so many uses but lip balm is a priority in the cold dry jailhouse. according to Sarah from XOJane who had this to say

"The worst thing about my short time in jail? Honestly? Besides the indignity and the shitty food and the crushing boredom and the derision from the staff and the self-loathing just being there obviously inspired? Chapped lips."

An article called Beauty Hacks: Rikers Island Edition on XOVain gives an honest view from a person whose loved one was incacerated, "Apparently, in jail, Vaseline is your friend. Every day, you can go and get a bit scooped out of a giant tub into a little ketchup container and it has myriad fabulous applications in a restricted environment. You can go to "art" class every few weeks, which I naively assumed was wildly progressive art-therapy vibes, but apparently it is just where you can write letters and speak with your lawyer. However, there are graphite and coloured pencils kept in the art room, making it an important date on the beauty calendar. Someone creates a distraction and everyone else stuffs pencils into their underwear."

An article I read on Mashable, titled 9 surprising beauty hacks women use in prison mentioned that "A lot of inmates use colored pencils or crayons in place of eyeliner, according to Total Beauty. They melt the tip so that it is gentle enough for the eye. This definitely might be the only possibility in prison, but Crayola recently made a statement saying their products are not safe to use as eyeliner, or suitable for makeup. But with desperate times come desperate measures..."

The Marshall Project ran a story called Fakeup How women in prison remake makeup. included the following quote “Colored pencils dried out the eyelids. Girls eyes would be red,” says former Las Colinas Detention Facility inmate Annie Burchard, who is now at the nonprofit, Welcome Home Ministries. Her favorite fakeup trick? “Using a T-Mobile ad [in the newspaper]. It has the perfect pink. I would put baby powder on my hands and use it as a base. Then you take the newspaper ad, and run it on your cheekbone. It’s like a sheer blush.”

Safe or not? I don't know. The video below shows the type of colored pencil eyeliner that was done in our jail. What do you think?

How would someone who was used to living a posher lifestyle keep up their appearance?

"She revealed that real-life prisoners use Kool-Aid or other powdered drink mixes as hair dye, cheek stain, or lip stain (mix it with Vaseline to create lip gloss). Instant coffee can be used as eyeshadow, and it’s easy to turn colored pencils into eyeliner — just hold the tips of the pencils under hot water to soften them up. Teresa Giudice might be able to afford a package of the cheap hair rollers at the prison commissary, but hopefully she tries using tampons to make waves instead." from an article regarding Teresa Giudice's proposed prison beauty routine

I did not witness any of my fellow inmates using tampons as curlers because there was a shortage of tampons during my stay.

Check out the ladies at Clevver Style as they try out some of the prison beauty tricks

Keep your brows at their fleekest with thread

It may seem painful at first

But it is easy to do - once you get the hang of it

Keep your nails in shape

Use Sandpaper as nail file

Image from original article provided by

media.giphy.com / Via media.giphy.com

"Red is seen on the new season of OITNB tending to her iconic red manicure with a piece of sandpaper- take a cue from the former head cook and try this cheap and effective alternative to a nail file or emery board." this tip comes from a Buzzfeed article titled 20 Brilliant Prison-Inspired Beauty Hacks

What is your best tip for looking your best while on lock down?