According to a Japanese quote: “Do not envy the fresh blossoms of youth. Accept yourself as you are. Jealousy, worry and negative feelings will destroy your beauty far more than the natural wrinkles of age.”
Dermal declination over time is a natural process. It stems from the effect of elastic fiber that provides smoothness and suppleness. Women seem more conscious about the effects of skin degradation than men. A combination of dilemmas and social attitudes trigger women anxiety over ageing.
Media’s lofty claims like clock stopper, age-eraser and before/after pictures about anti-ageing products and procedures promising to disguise every abuse, flaw and blunder of past decades are misleading and implicit. Fashion and beauty magazines setting the youthful look as standard promote youth culture that leads to ageism against women. Eventually in the quest of eternal youth, women frequent beauty salons and clinics which have sprung up everywhere as a booming business. Parlours these days are equipped with every weapon in beauty. From minor skin treatments to cosmetic surgery, hair dyeing to transplants, muscle stimulating devices to laser therapy, all is offered to prevent signs of ageing. These age-defying techniques are applied on consumers without concerning doctors and dermatologists. Such negligence invites side effects that make these treatments controversial.
Anti-ageing products are also advertised online and their sale has risen with the growth of online shopping.
Above all women have always been victimised by double standard of ageing. Ladies who displays marks of ageing are more likely to be treated unworthy, ignored or regarded less attractive. On the contrary men with facial lines or gray hairs are characterised as more distinguished and respectable.
SIDRA TALHA
Karachi