Beauty money diaries: “I made so much as a stripper but I spent it all on Botox”

“It’s like a circular economy. Men spend money on us and we spend it right back on beautifying ourselves.”

There is a beauty standard hierarchy in the club, Daisy* tells me. “The top earners, also known as the ‘upper echelon girls’, are always the ones with the big blow job lips, a snatched waist and a cosmetically enhanced ass.” 

A dancer with nearly three years in the industry, she’s observed how strip clubs create a fictional space for exaggerated, caricature-like versions of women to present themselves. Beauty shaped by the male fantasy.

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“In the club, beauty standards are extremely heightened and almost theatrical, because that’s what men are paying for: this very unrealistic, idealistic version of their fantasies. If men wanted normal-looking women, they’d go to a bar.” 

The male gaze is about wanting something younger, more beautiful, more perfect. “You’re trying to look like every optimised part of what men want. Maybe what their partners used to be like, what they’re not now, and what they wish they were,” she tells me. “The beauty standards are almost child-like in the club, because that’s what the men like.”

And Daisy earns enough to keep up with them. As a stripper, fifteen minutes of your time can earn you $150. Half an hour can get you $250. And an hour is $500 to $600, depending on the club. Daisy has made up to $2,800 in a single night. But with lucrative and immediate income comes a massive lifestyle inflation, she tells me.

“The things that once seemed expensive to you don’t anymore. For example, getting your nails done every two weeks is just a normal thing. Spending $200 on laser every two to four weeks is also fine. Also, spending $450 every six weeks on Botox in your forehead is something you do because you’ve got the money, it doesn’t seem like a big expense.”

And unlike the outside world, the beauty maintenance Daisy gets can directly affect her earnings.

“We [dancers] justified these beauty purchases because we felt like if we looked expensive, people would spend more on us, which often was the case,” says Daisy. “It’s almost like a circular economy. Men spend money on us, and we spend it right back on beautifying ourselves. It’s all part of the brand.”

Beyond the superficial, there’s a psychological angle of commodifying your features, too. “Every bit of beauty you invest in makes you feel more powerful. Your lips are worth $500, your eyelashes are worth $1,000 and your new bra set? Let’s just say it’s $400,” she adds. 

Cosmetic surgery is a rite of passage for many women in the industry. Botox, lip filler and breast augmentations – these are the beauty benchmarks that signal you’ve ‘made it’. “When I first got lip fillers, I spent $900 to go to the top technician,” says Daisy. “You could hardly see them! But they were nice and juicy when I got them the second time, which was $400 for a whole ml. Suddenly, I felt like I fit in more with the girls in the club.” 

Daisy says she loved having her lips done but admits they didn’t look real. “With lip fillers, you’ll never look like Angelina Jolie, who has these beautiful cracks and lines. When you get your lips done, they go smooth and sausage-like and all your natural lines go away,” she says. “Some of the girls at the club had so much filler you couldn’t even see the line between their lips and their chin.”

It was jarring when Daisy saw the girls without makeup in broad daylight. But in the club, under the dim lights, they looked incredible. “It’s like stage makeup. I did heaps of theatre when I was a kid and they always said to do darker foundation, use more bronzer and overdraw your lips. It’s almost like that, but you’re also cosmetically enhancing yourself.”

“The beauty purchases feel like an investment,” Daisy adds. “I’d always say things like, ‘Oh, I bought this new lingerie set the other day or I am off to get more Botox tomorrow, but it’s going to pay for itself.’ And it does.”

But the mental cost of beauty upkeep is significant. Cosmetic enhancements and spontaneous spending come with psychological side effects. Exhausted from long shifts, Daisy sometimes spent more on beauty products to feel better. “If you’re feeling shit, you can always change how you look. And that doesn’t have to be body-altering – it can be as simple as putting on concealer. When you have disposable money, you can get a little Botox or lip filler whenever you feel like it,” she says.

For Daisy, cosmetic injectables became a quick fix like buying a new lipstick. “This mindset is common in the club: ‘Oh, I feel so shit right now but it’s okay because I’m going to get my jaw filler in a few weeks, after I’ve saved some nights of working, and then I’ll feel great!’”

On reflection, Daisy says she didn’t save any more money when she was stripping than she is now. “Now, I’m living within my means, which are low. But I saved the same amount when stripping and had a higher income.”

But her experience as a stripper also taught her something else about beauty, and money. “One thing I really have to say, which is a credit to all the dancers I worked with, is that I met such an incredible, badass community of strong women,” she says. “It can feel empowering to use your sexuality to rinse these guys of all their worth, and if you are a feminist it can be quite satisfying.

“Whenever I had a horrible customer, I was like, well you know what, I’m going to make him book me for another hour and give me another $250. At the night’s end, he’ll leave really broke and I’ll leave with a lot of money.” 

*Name has been changed for privacy.

For more on beauty standards in strip clubs, read this.