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Do you have a slack? Just like sport or sex, fashion would also have the power to improve morale and mood, and bring that energy that is sometimes lacking when you wake up. Code name: the ‘dopamine dressing’, which has dominated trends since the Covid-19 pandemic. On the occasion of Brain Week, let’s see how simple clothes can play a role in the hormone of pleasure and happiness, dopamine.
Music, physical activity, sex, or even food can have beneficial effects on the brain, as numerous studies have shown. But fashion, although it has not yet been scientifically proven, could also play a role on a neurotransmitter, dopamine, which is often called the hormone of pleasure or happiness. An outfit in acid colors could improve morale, give a boost to people lacking energy, or simply put ordinary mortals in a good mood. Born during the Covid-19 pandemic, a time marked by an ambient gloom, this trend has a name, the ‘dopamine dressing’, and could make it easier for you to see life in pink.
The color to smile again
According to the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), dopamine is a “chemical substance used as a neurotransmitter that produces a state of satisfaction”. A dopamine deficiency would be associated with a decrease in motivation, fatigue, and even mood changes, but nothing is immutable. It is quite possible to stimulate its production of dopamine through diet, physical activity, exposure to the sun, and even chromatherapy, namely color therapy. Something that can go through fashion, through the colors and prints you choose to wear on a daily basis.
The principle of ‘dopamine dressing’ is quite simple to apply on a daily basis since all you have to do is mix and match – and as desired – ultra-colourful, tangy and vitaminized clothes… In other words, pink, yellow, orange, red, blue, green, and if possible neon or fluorescent colors. Color blocking in all its glory. No matter the combinations – no one will blame you – the idea is to turn away from dull shades like black, gray, or browns, which are much less exhilarating. It is also possible to combine prints of all kinds, always colorful, to add even more pep to your outfit of the day. An explosion of colors that would act, the fashionistas are convinced, on the morale of the troops.
If no scientific study highlights a link between the wardrobe and the mood, researchers have however established a relationship between the color blue and happiness. A study by scientists at the University of Sussex, published by the DailyMail in 2009, reveals that blue would – precisely – stimulate the hormone of happiness, reduce stress, and even improve self-confidence. Blue would be a perfect pick-me-up for both men and women, although the latter would also see life in pink with purple and orange. To integrate urgently into your dressing room to avoid brooding.
Good in your body, good in your head!
Make-up to smile again
The color would therefore indeed act on the brain. Something that has not escaped the notice of users of social networks, who quickly adapted the concept of ‘dopamine dressing’ to make-up. Code name: ‘dopamine beauty’. In the same vein, it would be a question of adopting a colorful make-up to stimulate the production of dopamine, and therefore be happy. In this case, it is a question of betting on eye shadows with tangy tones, the base, and embellishing everything with a line of flashy eyeliner, then adding a touch of blush and drawing a mouth. greedy. Without going overboard, such a beauty treatment would be effective in regaining the energy and good humor needed to face each new day.
If no scientist has yet validated this hypothesis, users of social networks seem to have definitively adopted the concept. On TikTok, the hashtag #dopaminebeauty has already generated several hundred thousand views, while the hashtag #dopamine has generated more than 500 million, testifying to the public’s interest in stimulating this pleasure hormone.