As we enter the fourth year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it’s hard for many Ukrainians to imagine a time when central heating, warm showers, and steaming cups of coffee were everyday amenities and not the ultimate luxury. Russia’s relentless strikes on the country’s thermal power plants (there have been 217 attacks since the start of 2026 alone) are a brutal effort to weaponize the weather and make civilians suffer.

Ukrainians are no strangers to the cold. Winters are routinely snowy, gray, and frigid. But 2026 is likely the coldest winter in 16 years, with temperatures dipping as low as -4 degrees Fahrenheit in January. Parts of Kyiv have gone days without heat and hot water. Power may not be restored to some areas of the city until spring, according to the Kyiv Independent. For those in regions closer to Western Europe, there’s electricity, but only for a few hours at a time due to nationwide energy rationing.

Ukrainians, ever resilient, have found some ways to cope with the cold. Businesses run on generators. The country’s State Emergency Service has set up mobile heating stations in cities (nicknamed “Points of Invisibility”), while charitable organizations like Warmth for Ukraine and Ukrainian Humanitarian Fund supply people around the country with generators and various forms of fuel. Young people throw dance parties on the frozen Dnipro River to have fun and to forget for a few hours. Yet there are realities of life without constant and reliable electricity beyond evenings by candlelight. Many of our daily hygiene routines are dependent on the energy grid—warm water to bathe in and wash your face with, lights to do your makeup, electricity to dry your hair.

For a culture that has often used beauty as a form of therapy and resistance throughout four years of war, everyday Ukrainians haven’t allowed their frigid reality this winter to stop them from living as best as they can. We spoke to six Ukrainian women, from working moms to retirees, about what life has been like this winter and how they’re staying strong, taking care of others, and supporting their country—all while greeting each bitter-cold day with their hair coiffed, nails polished, and makeup done.

The PR director whose 19-floor walk-up became her workout.

"I live on the 19th floor of a 21-story building. The building does not have a power generator, so I climb up and down the stairs every day, sometimes twice a day. I don’t need to go to the gym anymore. Without power, there's also no water, heating, and tools to warm your food. Sometimes, the temperature in my apartment is close to 5 degrees Fahrenheit. At night, I cover my 79-year-old mom, who has mobility issues, with the foil from our medical kit.

"Usually, we have five to six hours of power per day. A couple hours in the morning, and a couple hours at night. Whenever I have it, I do things super quickly. I wash myself and my mom, dry our hair, and do other household errands. I imagine myself as Wonder Woman, because you really need super powers to achieve so much in a couple hours. If the power comes back at 3:00 am, I still wake up and take a shower. It's the number one rule in Ukraine these days: if you have power and hot water, you take a shower and wash your hair immediately, even if you are still clean. You never know when the next chance will be.

"When the power situation is really bad, I go to a beauty shop [that has a generator] nearby to have my hair washed. Many of my girlfriends do the same. After the most intense Russian attacks, our neighborhood water system was broken for days. I only had cold water in my apartment so I would boil it in the kettle (when possible) and take a bucket shower. I also filled two hot water bottles to warm my ice-cold bed. In the morning, I use the lukewarm water out of these bottles to wash my face. Funny enough, I never skip my skin-care routine. Even in the candle-lit bathroom I wash my face with a foam cleanser, then apply toner, serum, and moisturizer. It’s what I was doing at 6:00 am on February 24th, 2022, when the full scale invasion started. I was shaking with fear yet continued to apply my daily cream. To me, it's less about beauty or even health, and more about feeling normal and grounded.

“My mom dreams about going to the hair salon and getting a new style and her hair dyed brunette. When the spring comes and our elevators get fixed, I’ll make this happen for her.” - Tetyana Strelchenko, Kyiv

The program manager who washes her makeup off at work.

"Since the blackouts, my daily bag has grown significantly because I now carry a whole arsenal of personal hygiene products with me so if the opportunity to take a shower or wash my hair presents itself, I have everything I need. I found all the beauty product samples I own and kept empty travel-sized jars so I could de-pot my essentials and carry them with me. I also always have Wet Wipes and daily pads. It’s not eco-friendly, but it saves me a lot. Now I have acne flare-ups that I treat with topical retinoids, which means there are a lot of restorative products in my routine. Without them, my face would be a mess.

"At work, it really helps that there is a generator, which means there’s also water. I come to work and immediately run to the sink to wash my face, carry out my skin-care routine, and apply minimal makeup. A colleague at work came up with a device for us. He ordered an adapter for the sink that makes it so we can connect a watering hose and a shower head—like a sink in a beauty salon. We also bought a hair dryer to have in the office so now we can wash our hair at work. At the end of the day, I wash my face and take my makeup off at work, because it’s not clear if there will be electricity or water at home.

“Life in Ukraine is very complicated right now. The smallest household chores become a challenge and in addition to just trying to survive, you spend a lot of resources and energy figuring out solutions to be able to experience a smidge of normality. Desires boil down to very simple things—to sleep in bed and not in a cold bomb shelter; to wake up calmly and not from a siren of alarm or explosions; to take a warm shower in a warm room and to put clean clothes on. We just want to live our days calmly, knowing that at night you will come home, eat some warm food, wash your face, and shower without the fear and panic of the power going off.” - Maryana Hulevych, Kyiv

The dermatologist who bathes her son with his sweater on.

"It's the coldest winter for 20 years in Ukraine and as of January, because of Russian bombings, we have almost no electricity. Here in Chernivtsi, we have only four to six hours of electricity a day, but it’s worse in Kyiv. We have many patients in Kyiv who have an hour or two a day, or no electricity at all. There are some houses with no electricity, no gas, no nothing, so you can’t wash your hair or your face, or even brush your teeth.

"We have so many patients with severe acne now because they can’t wash their face regularly or apply treatments, because if you want to keep using your topical treatment, you must find a way to wash your face. We tell patients who want to continue to preserve water in bottles, get a camping gas heater, use micellar tissues, or find those water face mists from the pharmacy. But then there’s the stress. Patients are more tired than ever because every night we go to bed not knowing if we will sleep or not. Maybe there will be a rocket or a bomb and that waiting is stressful. In 2018, when I started as a dermatologist, we had patients with mild acne. Now we have patients who have had acne for 10 years and nothing works for them because they’re so stressed.

"Because people’s acne has gotten so bad, I’m prescribing more oral medication than ever. Many patients are taking doxycycline or Accutane. Acne is difficult already, but for our teenage patients, it’s even worse. We try to tell them to cut back on makeup and even stop using skin care entirely for a week. Body acne is also a big problem. Many people live on very high floors and have no elevator, sometimes going up and down the stairs three times a day. They’re wearing so many layers of clothes that they start sweating, which then causes body acne.

"Nearly every second patient also has problems with their scalp. This is because people are wearing hats all the time—sometimes wearing one to bed. But that’s not very good for your scalp, and we’re seeing many more cases of seborrheic dermatitis. Their scalp becomes flaky, oily, and itchy, so we’re prescribing shampoos with selenium and with zinc oxide. But the biggest change people need to make is to wash their hair more often, which is very difficult with no heat and hot water.

"Skin conditions like dermatitis, psoriasis, they don’t like the dryness and the cold so people with eczema, like my mother, always need to keep moisturizing cream near them. My mom applies cream every hour, almost 15 times a day. My four-year-old son also has atopic dermatitis and because it’s so cold in the house, I don’t undress him fully to wash him. It’s dangerous for children. He wears a sweater and I wash only part of his body at a time. He thinks it’s play time." - Dr. Anastasiia Melnyk, Chernivtsi

The theater worker who can now do her eyeliner in the dark.

"Because I work in the evening, I have the luxury to shower during the day. Many women who need to get to work at 9am get up in the middle of the night sometimes to wash their hair.
I am retired and I work in a theater, so I feel I must look nice to greet the patrons. I keep a curling iron at work to touch up my hair and bought a mirror to do my makeup there.

"I have a whole shower ritual. As soon as electricity is on, I put on a small electric heater in the bathroom for at least 20 to 30 minutes to warm it a bit. I have a window in the bathroom so it gets really cold after six hours of no heat. I’m bleached blonde and usually before I shower I apply a hair mask and leave it on for 30 minutes. I stopped doing that because my house is cold and walking around with a wet mask on my hair is not comfortable. After these past few months I can tell my hair has suffered. It’s the driest it’s ever been.

"Because I try to shower quickly, I don’t keep my conditioner in for as long as I used to, either. I wash myself and then quickly dry my hair with the hairdryer. Usually, I would style my bob with a brush and hairdryer and the next day I would use a hair straightener. A few times, the lights have gone out in the middle of me doing my hair, so to avoid those situations, I’ve resorted to rollers. It’s hassle-free and my hair stays styled for almost a week, until the next wash.

“To avoid doing skin care and my makeup in the dark, I bought a chargeable lamp and manufactured a hook for it, so I can attach it to my existing mirror lamp. Sometimes when it’s really dark, I attach a big flashlight. Now I feel like I can do my eyeliner and mascara in total darkness.” - Valentyna Rotar, Chernivtsi

The communications director who swears by dry shampoo and a crimper.

"I split my time between New York and Kyiv. When I'm in Kyiv, I have a lot of meetings and I want to look presentable. I don’t feel comfortable if I know that my hair looks dirty or my outfit isn’t appropriate. It’s important for me to feel confident, because then I can talk confidently, so I’ve come up with “Hanna’s rules on how to look put together amid power outages, constant shellings, and no sleep.” It’s funny because in the US I have electricity and my hair tools, but I just throw my hair in a ponytail. In Kyiv, I don’t have electricity but I’m always trying to figure out how to style my hair.

"Rule number one this winter is that if you have the opportunity to shower, just do it, no matter when and where you are. My mom, who I stay with, lives on the left bank of Kyiv and sometimes has no electricity for two days. Once, when the lights came on in the middle of the night, my sister and I both jumped into the shower at 1 or 2am. My mom thought our shower was leaking. “I was like, ‘Sorry mom, I have a lot of meetings tomorrow!’” Yesterday, I spent the night at my best friend's apartment, and suddenly the lights turned on and I asked if I could take a shower because the rule is the rule.

"The second rule is always carry a dry shampoo with you because, for example, right now my hair looks clean, but it's because of the dry shampoo. I also use this [crimping] styler because the waves make my hair look cleaner and fuller for a longer period of time.

“Rule number three is about applying makeup. My mom says after 55 years of applying makeup, she can do it in the dark. That doesn't work for me, so I bought a makeup mirror with LED lights and it works because you can charge it from your power bank. It doesn’t need a lot of power to be charged. It’s even better than my regular mirror because you can see everything. To be honest, I bought it here in Kyiv for less than $20. I’ve been sending all my friends the link.” - Hanna Lychynenko, Kyiv

The salon owner who opened her doors to the neighborhood.

"I run a beauty salon and a volunteer hub in the same space in Obolon, Kyiv. On Instagram Threads, a girl invited families with children to come to her place to warm up and do their laundry. I replied: Come to us too, our doors are open! We’ll keep you warm, let you charge your devices, connect you to the internet, and, if possible, wash your hair. Nothing unrealistic or extraordinary. Just a normal offer for people in Kyiv and here in Obolon. If I have heat and electricity, what do I lose by letting in those who don’t?

"Since that comment on Threads, even more people have come to us. Some run in with wet hair and a hat on their head, carrying their own hair dryer, asking to dry their hair at our place. Others ask to wash their hair. We let some people use my office so they can work, connect to the internet, and join their Zoom meetings. Some simply come to warm up, charge their phones, and have tea.

"People now book appointments with us from other parts of Kyiv for massages, manicures, or cosmetology treatments. They say they want to support us, that good people should stand together. We’ve adopted a slogan: “Salon Luxor—beauty with meaning.” By this, we mean that we work not only for beauty, health, and mental well-being, but also to support both our military and civilians.

"This winter, with the power outages, things have become incredibly difficult. To keep my team employed, I took out several loans. I bought a generator, and recently an inverter with batteries, because without heating and hot water we would have to close. Every day I wake up with the same first thought: is the generator working? Because if it breaks, I have no way to buy another one.

“At first glance, a beauty salon may not seem essential. But in reality, we have become a small point of resilience. And believe me, a person who receives warmth, love, and care from us—who washes and styles their hair—is someone who walks back into the world feeling confident, inspired, and ready to spread kindness further. That’s why I am certain that what I’m doing matters. I want to believe that this difficult time will nurture in us Ukrainians greater empathy, love, and unity. Because that is exactly what we all need most.” - Taisiia Nechytailo, Kyiv

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