Is Beauty Overrated? It Definitely is if one Doesn't Look Within…

The famous poet John Keats rightly quoted, 'A thing of beauty is a joy forever". We all appreciate beauty around us. Only after I chose this field as my profession did I realise that beauty is still considered vanity and in India, people are concerned about their looks only upto the time that they get married. And yet, there is another group, mostly young adults who suffer from severe complexes for not having the perfect face/colour/figure. With the advancement in the cosmetology industry, beauty and correctional treatments have become easily available and affordable to the masses. Now, we can achieve a desired shape of the face, body, hair, shade of skin, etc. easily and this chase to achieve perfection is actually becoming a craze among people, especially youngsters. Going with this trend, we have seen how social media can make someone a superstar overnight!

With the unprecedented surge of the unrealistic beauty standards in the society, many MNCs are coming up with counter campaigns to bring a sense of balance. Indeed in the chase for physical perfection, the young are losing precious time which is really the time to build careers and focus on other meaningful things in life.

With the latest photoshop apps installed in our devices and advanced makeup techniques, the images we follow and set as a goal are too high and impractical to achieve. This often leads led us to criticize our actual appearance and suffer from low self esteem and confidence.

The youth today are so used to seeing themselves and others over the 'filtered' screen that they want to look like that offscreen too!! In my practice, every day, I attend to patients who have been made self-conscious by others and they want to meet up to the expectations of others. More than treatment, a counselling session works for them.

I have seen many youngsters suffering from depression (because of their looks) which affects their studies and later, their career. I have seen some young boys blaming their mothers for getting married to a bald man, which is making them loose hair as they suffer from androgenetic alopecia (blaming the genes). I meet young women coming to lose weight after child birth, who complain that their spouses are now neglecting them. These women are often on fad diets. I even meet poor fathers keeping their land in mortgage or taking personal loans to make their daughter fairer and spotless (to fulfill the most important responsibility of getting her married; and not educated). All these instances make me wonder, isn't beauty overrated? Can we be more empathetic about people who might be having some imperfections and not make them aware about it by pointing it out?

I have spent a decade in this industry and have seen the change in patient's demand and outlook about treatments. When I started, I had to create awareness about aesthetic medicine on newspaper, FM, TV and social media about the need to consult a doctor for skin imperfections like tanning, dark spots, unwanted hair reduction, scar removal, treating fine lines and wrinkles, etc. Now, with emerging technologies and multiple clinics coming up with the procedures, most of the people are aware of the treatments available at their doorsteps. We as physicians have to face the burden of unrealistic expectation of the patients who aspire to be the Cover-girl of the magazine or the DP of some celebrity they follow. Alas these people are unaware of the innumerable times those photos might have undergone photoshopping and editing.

As an aesthetic practitioner I have to update my skills constantly to deliver my best and to follow the trends. We Indians have a tendency to follow the Western World, trying to dress and style like them. We sometimes even want to change our appearance and look like them! Actually we Asians have distinct features which set us apart from the Caucasians; so trying to look like them is likely to prove disastrous. In my capacity as a physician I have always tried to counsel people with unrealistic expectations and not concede to their irrational demands. Yes, in the process I do lose some patients but at least the satisfaction of making someone understand their own attractiveness compensates. These days with advancement of medical technologies, a desired shape of body and face is possible without surgery. There is nothing which is unachievable but one should go to their trusted physicians to get the best results.

The purpose of this article is not to underrate beauty but to redefine beauty. Let us start to appreciate the real beauty within us and understand that what we want to achieve in terms of looks can be done easily when we have the right resources at the right time. I urge the youngsters to concentrate on career building (as time waits for none!) and achieve what they want in life. Getting the perfect body and face is very easy these days and not much thought should be given to it! Practice self-love and look for beauty in imperfections!!

Be Real, Be You

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