Beauty Dysmorphia! Are you obsessed with perfection?
There’s a very thin line between wanting to look pretty, feeling good about yourself and becoming obsessed with perfection.
My nostrils look like bat caves! Another spot? Why are my lips so uneven? I need to get rid of these lines. Why do we do it to ourselves?
I was always a real tomboy when I was younger so never really bothered with the way I looked.
I do take good care of my body inside and out these days, I love getting my hair, nails and toes done like most of us girls, ( sorry boys that probably won’t really apply to all of you ). I have my Botox done really subtly and I regularly use skin peels to keep my skin looking healthy and glowing, but that’s where it ends.
Don’t become a frozen freak
I have been to many a Botox convention and sat next to an actual frozen freak and thought, I will never look like that, nor would I want my clients too. The Problem with Perfection? It’s right there in the title. There is no ‘perfect looking’ person out there.
Once upon a time in a land before Facebook it was only celebrities that battled constant scrutiny. But now everyone has a public image — whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or the most superficial of all the dating sites, Tinder — and it’s being viewed on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis by other people.
We’ve never had to look at ourselves (or one another) so much. And for some women/men, it creates an obsession with looking perfect … the feeling like something’s always a little ‘off’. I have a little saying for this, I call it beauty dysmorphia. A lot like the well known body dysmorphic disorder, which is a mental condition that effects about 2 percent of the population. It makes them obsessed and fixated on their personal appearance and creates physical flaws that don’t even exist.
I’ll never give a client “too many” treatments
I see this a lot at The Green Room and treat these clients with absolute caution. The majority of the time I will advise they re-visit when the treatments are due. 9 times out of 10 this will be the answer they didn’t want to hear and they will head off in another clinic’s direction.
If it’s a client I have started treating and I can see the signs I will always refuse treatments and advise that if they did continue they would look ‘weird’. It’s easier than ever to indulge in this type of behaviour as people’s photos have gone from showing the smiley, happy and often silly having fun, to an arm’s length ‘selfie’ coupled with, much practised, perfect pout.
I am very guilty of this on nights out sometimes. Selecting the perfect pics to post on of your night out with no chin rolls and awkward angle that shows my mahoosive nose at the wrong angle. Don’t laugh I bet you do this as well. Social Scrutiny on Social media really has made us even more conscious of our natural flaws. How many times have you heard people out with friends lunging for a phone, demanding approval rights before a pic is posted?
Have we taken the fun out of sharing our photos?
And ever since Instagram hit the scene — with its skin-perfecting filters — reality seems a bit tougher to take. I’ve heard girls say, ‘Oh, don’t post that pic — I look awful. They probably don’t but it really is making us even more body aware. Looking after yourself is not a bad thing, that,s not what I,m getting at here. But lets try and keep it real. We don’t all have wash board stomachs and the perfect skin. Which is fine.
Personally, what I find really attractive, and what we see less and less, is a group of men or women or both, laughing uncontrollably and truly enjoying each other’s company. It’s almost like they are oblivious to their surroundings. They are so wrapped up in living for the moment it hasn’t crossed their minds that there isn’t a mirror nearby, or that when they laugh with complete abandon you can see their fillings (or worse their dinner). It is that openness and acceptance of “self” which is truly beautiful.
And let’s face it……. This wisdom and assurance comes with age. Lord knows we have to have SOMETHING that the young and body beautiful don’t!!
Rebecca x
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