The Pretty Price Check: Your Friday round-up of how much we paid for beauty this week.

• 10 million American women and girls suffer from anorexia and bulimia.
• 25 million more suffer from binge-eating disorder.
• Over 80 percent of 4th grade girls have been on a fad diet.
• 35 percent of dieters will progress to pathological dieting or eating disorders.
• Oh, and also: 95 percent of diets fail. (All via NOW’S Love Your Body Campaign.)
  

Those numbers aren’t new. You’ve heard them before, here and in a million other places, and I’m even betting your eyes glazed over a bit as you read that list. But I thought we’d kick Friday off with that price reality check precisely because of how very not new those numbers are.

I’ve been thinking (ahem, even more than usual) about body issues this week: Why they are also political and economic issues, why banning fat talk might help, and why yelling at fat people does not help. And as we wrap up the third annual Fat Talk Free Week and mark NOW’s 13th annual Love Your Body Day, I admit, I’ve been feeling frustrated by how much work we still have to do. See numbers, above.

But I’m also hopeful  — if only because we totally owned fat-basher Steve Siebold and hey, no victory too small. Thanks to Dances with Fat, Bikini Birthday and Jezebel for getting up in his business with me.

These conversations have also got me thinking about my own feelings about fat, which have gotten a heck of a lot more complicated since Beauty U. That post is coming next week, so stay tuned. But first, a few body image-related public service announcements:

Attention, owners of armpits: (That would be all of you, I’m thinking.) One of my fellow Feminist Blog folk, Joy Mari, wants you to send her pictures of your pit hair. She’s collecting pictures to showcase, in an effort to normalize the notion that women grow hair in places other than their heads.

The Brazilian Blowout controversy continues (in case you missed it, I also talked this week about why the environmental-health impacts of our beauty routines go hand in hand with their mental health consequences over on No More Dirty Looks) as the company hired their own environmental and occupational safety lab to test salon air quality and find no dangerous levels of formaldehyde. I’m waiting on the official OSHA results, since their initial testing found formaldehyde at levels high enough to cause nose bleeds, eye irritation, migraines and other symptoms. But some Brazilian Blowout devotees are undeterred by the health risks, reports MSNBC’s Diane Mapes (and thanks, MSNBC, for mentioning Beauty Schooled in the story!).

“It’s not like you’re putting it in your hair every day,” one fan told Mapes. So the price she’s willing to pay for pretty? $250 and her hair stylist’s health.

Much love and congrats to Eat the Damn Cake’s Kate, who got married last Sunday! And hired my amazingly talented makeup artist friend Katherine to do her hair and makeup, which meant she got to look beautiful and problematic and just like her own self wearing a fancy dress, not like Transvestite Barbie as she feared. Lovely.

PS. Kate: When you get back from the beach, we’re waiting for joyous pictures of you eating your damn wedding cake!

PPS. Clever readers, have you noticed Beauty Schooled’s new pages? Check ’em out via the tabs above in the header. Beauty U will give you every single beauty school story in chronological order, so if you’re new to the blog, you can get alll caught up from Hour 1. Tip Jar features every client story posted thus far. You’re welcome.