God created each one of us with different features, a special and unique face, some are blessed with beautiful eyes, others with perk up noses, some have fair skin, and others have a cute dimple, these features make us distinct. We could look at a face and tell if they are happy, sad, confused, if they are young or old, if they are Asian, Indian, or Arab, we could even guess the ancestors of Egyptians if they have a Turkish blood or if they come from north or south of Egypt just from a first glance, but not anymore, for some are proud of who they are while others tend to change. We all remember the famous Michael Jackson and the transformations he performed on his skin, after a while the voice lost its allure and all we could remember was that this person used to look like a regular colored American but looks like a freak now.
Plastic surgeries which were once performed only for accident, fire or war survivors, have been generalized and now serve millions of women who are willing to submit to a scalpel and the imagination of a plastic surgeon to do a nose job, widen an Asian eye, lift a face, remove a mole or add one. Science opened the door to everyone to do whatever alterations they required to their face or body, some countries even added cosmetic surgery to their health insurance. The treatments are not restricted to scalpel, stitches, sterile gowns, pain and recovery, its becoming more like a trip to a beauty salon…….and the results are stunning. Science has offered the solution through external and internal treatments, this big scientific revolution started based on the demands of women to look beautiful. There are a vast variety of compounds and techniques which proved to be effective in fighting wrinkles or plumping a face; Collagen, Botox, Strivectin, Cosmetic acupuncture, laser, dermabrasion and God knows what else, are all different strategies to counter back the effect of time or change an undesired feature. These treatments come in every shape and form, there are creams, lotions, pills, injections which promise eternal youth, there are industries based on women’s eagerness to believe these promises, and cosmetic companies all around the world race to be the first to launch a new product , collect the profit and benefit from the ever growing scientific discoveries and the human quest for beauty.
But just as there are great benefits from scientific revolution in every aspect in life, especially those related to beauty/maintaining youthful looks/removing signs of aging, there is also the risk of discovering a hidden risk, a hazardous or maybe a lethal impact of whatever it is foreign we are burying inside our bodies.
It doesn’t take a genius to discover that if someone drinks, smokes, doesn’t cleanse, eats an unbalanced diet, is under stress, that this would take its toll on the skin and eventually early signs of aging would appear. The other important fact is that we are going to age, whether we like it or not, its out of our hands, they are scientific facts which have been proven right and are not going to stop even if we have a million cosmetic treatment ( Notice how admiration turns to sympathy when we see the famous singer Sabah). So, why do people go for the fiction of eternal youth when we just have no control on this part?
Maybe, it’s the easy way: if there is a cream which we could apply once a day or a drug which we could get injected with once a year, if we are lazy we choose the once a year injection and forget about it for a while. If we could take a pill which has all the vitamins we need for skin/hair or nails or eat the necessary intake of fruits and vegetables, then we would opt for a once a day pill. God forbid if we should stick to a schedule of aerobics and special diet when we could go for a tummy tuck or liposuction. There is this tendency to go for the easy way. We take our bodies for granted and then try to do a quick fix to alter the damage.
Or maybe its because of dissatisfaction: some women look great, they are not old but still they are not satisfied with how their life is going on, so they think that facial changes would trigger bigger changes, but how would a nose job cause a change, especially if the new nose looks like everyone else’s nose.
Fear: some women fear age, they fear they would lose the attention of their husband’s, lose the husband to a younger woman or gain the mock of friends.
Maybe this is true for superstars who got used to the attention but in real life, its life which adds uniqueness, individuality, distinctiveness to a face. It is also a sign that if the husband runs away or friends mock, then they are not relationships we fear to lose.
It’s in style: OK, so everyone else is doing it, everyone has a pointed nose, why can’t I do it too. Pure imitation is not convincing, but ironically, some women fall for this crap.
Some people would say that if science has the answer, then why waste it. I am not against some of the treatments, but really, some women go overboard, it becomes addictive, and besides, once you start you just follow up.
If everyone changed how they look then a day would come when we would have limited looks for a human face, depending on how the surgeon perceives beauty and the extent a woman is willing to reach to change how she looks, and definitely we would have limited facial reactions in older women who reached their limit of injections or tucks. Faces would be expressionless and special national features would not be distinctive. I read once that face brightening creams were voted against in India, the idea was that if they agree that girls lighten their dark skin then they would lose pride in the way God created Indian women. Another thing is that lines on a face are marks that we lived an adventurous life full of happiness and sadness. I heard a woman in her sixties saying that she is very proud of every line she has on her face because it tells a story of joy or grief, she says, my face says it all. So why look like a mannequin when we could look alive.
Well, just as God created us different in looks, we were also created different in views about how we should look, age or treat a let down, so its really a personal decision after all, but I personally think that if we eat well, sleep well, laugh a lot and accept who we are; we would not be inclined to fight the natural course of life. That is my view in my late thirties; I’ll let you know how I think in another ten years!!!!