To find beauty treatments a bit cringe now

Society is utterly fucked up at the moment.
Young people in particular, are living a lot of their young adult lives through phones, sending their pictures to groups online which will rate your looks only out of 10 or whatever and give "advice" on what work you need doing.

Doing dating apps and pictures with filters and people getting the hump their date looks very different in real life.

There is a disconnect with actual humans and a pursuit to look like your filtered phone camera version.

I think it's dangerous.

We have teen boys and the conversations we have had with them are nothing like our parents had with us.

Hopefully there will be a backlash against this because it seems that more, males at least, are not even joining social media, and the ones who are are a bit of a novelty within their peer groups. We have groups of mid-teen boys hanging out here a fair bit and the ones we see have moved away from gaming and are playing cards, darts and ball games together. They meet up and go out and the idea of "selfies" is "what would you do that for?" - they don't mind a group-ie or will have a selfie in front of somewhere impressive but just as a day to day thing, it feels like the trend is passing.

Our teen boys are also "terrified" of the made up girls, they seem to be veering towards girls whom are, more gentle, have things to talk about rather than it all being about looks. Saying this ours are not roadmen types in the slightest! Neither are their friends, they seem to be hanging out with the ambitious, top maths set types and whilst they might rib and swear a bit they are very polite and sweet, in fact the "coolest" looking one, and looks can be deceiving, wants to perform in musicals and "is very good at ballet" nope wasn't expecting that! And he's the coolest looking one, so gives you some idea of how far from gansta and influencer they really are. It's a relief in many ways to be fair.

The overdone look is very chavvy:
Big, obvious lips
Fake hair extensions
Big, dark, squared brows
Massive false lashes
Big fake nails in lurid designs

However plenty of people get treatments and tweakments just to stay feeling their best - groomed and polished.

Each to their own.

The only ' beauty ' treatment I get is a visit to the hairdressers every 8/10 weeks . No botox , nails , brows , fillers , tweakments here . Am I a beauty - no , would having all those things turn me into a beauty - no , do I care ? No again .

I live in London and any tweaks are subtle and make up is more natural

I don’t think that’s any better though to be honest. If anything, it’s even more damaging, because that ‘subtle’ and ‘natural’ look still costs a lot of money and is still an unrealistic beauty standard for the majority.
I’m 40 and haven’t had anything ‘done’. I have my hair cut every 3 months, and that’s it. No hair colour, no Botox, no nails, no eye lashes etc. And that’s not because I don’t care about my appearance, it’s because I think I look absolutely fine as I am. Yes I’m ageing… so what? Getting older is a privilege.
I agree with the poster above who said a lot of it is about consumption. It’s just another way of parting people from their money. And on the other side, a way for people to demonstrate to others that they have money.

Varies a lot depending on where you are, around my way actually wearing clean clothes and brushing your hair is an achievement, most people go out in whatever they were wearing in the daytime and make up (apart from two resident goths) is minimal, but when I visit friends up north it’s very different, every women has eyebrows and nails done, pristine clothing, heels often and matching bags. I’m happy with my dress down community though

It's not popular amongst older teens/early 20s here at all, bar maybe a few. Botox and fillers are definitely old-fashioned and seen as something quite mumsy and cringey, and even things like artificially curled hair and high heels are old fashioned now. I know that there are pockets of youngsters still into it, but it always strikes me when I go out in the evenings that it's people my age (40s) and older that really "dress up" for a night out, the young ones are far more chilled and in trainers and maybe light makeup.

As with many trends, it became most popular and exaggerated as it trickled down to women of low education and socioeconomic status. The very black or tattooed brows, huge fake eyelashes, highly decorated false nails, excessively filled lips etc is a very working class look. Once the trend goes down to that level there's usually a move away from it in other groups. It's the same as the grey walls, grey crushed velvet, mirror furniture looks in houses which is as dead as a dodo now.
I know many professional educated women who have their nails done, but their nails are short and in plain colours, often just a natural look. They may have their eyebrows shaped and / dyed but no sticking up laminations, it's all about looking natural. No idea about Botox /fillers as none of my friends or family has had that done.

So glad I don't have a daughter and my son's gives no shits about any of it.

I think it's a bit chavy - the false look. Most people I see / know day to day do not have the nails / lips / lashes etc. It's more an Essex / Liverpool look.
I live in London and any tweaks are subtle and make up is more natural - women don't even tan and highlights are very aging.

I read a great quote the other day. It was something like...

Imagine how many industries would go out of business if women learned to love their natural bodies?

That’s not what I thought you meant by beauty treatments (facials, mani/pedi, waxing etc).
I only know one person who tried Botox on her forehead to get rid of her frown line. I suspect another has dabbled a little. But by and large my gang (late 50s/early 60s) have done nothing.
But I agree that very full lip/heavy, drawn brow and cheek fillers has been a trend, but only for those on social media; self-styled ‘influencers’ if you will (whether a following of 5000 or 500,000). My kids are university age and none of their lot have even considered it. In fact they seem anti any beauty treatment (not a waxed brow amongst them, let alone anything artificial). Even my son’s ex GF, who wanted to be a make up artist, hasn’t had anything done.

Yes I noticed that in Spain recently how natural the teen and early twenties women were and looked so much better

I spent 5 weeks travelling around European cities last year and it struck me that very few females had subscribed to this beauty trend there. In fact, I only saw one person with Russian eye lashes the whole time I was away. It made me think how stunningly beautiful some of these young people were 'au naturel'.

I think we are starting to see a backlash to this fake beauty standard. Lots of attendees at the recent met gala were going for a more natural look. Even natural teeth are starting to make a comeback, the young actress from White Lotus for instance. I hope so.

"it has increased in line with the "need" to spend ever more money on products and consumption - which is not a coincidence"

I think it's a lifestyle choice. There are people who want to look like the classic Instagram with everything hyper groomed and influencers using the products they are gifted to promote buying and overconsumption to get that look. It's just another form of advertising by big corporate entities to entice people to buy ever more stuff.

I'm seeing some rejection of that too especially with the economy hitting people so hard. People are looking to decrease their buying and reduce or go as zero waste as they can. They're cutting their own hair, shopping second hand, and being cautious with their money.

we also don't have the very toxic/damaging culture of having to starve yourself, celebrity bodies with big red circles around their imperfections, etc. We have become much more aware of body shaming and mental/physical health when it comes to beauty.

I think it's still toxic and standards are even more unrealistic.

I use a box dye once a month on my hair, always get compliments on the colour.
I trim it myself every few weeks.
I get my nails done every 4 weeks.
All in all, I spend less than £60 a month on grooming but still think I look ‘polished’.
I wear nice clothes and always spray a fragrance of some kind. I always get told I look well put together.
It doesn’t have to cost a lot, but the little bit of effort makes the difference.

Lol to the advert I get on this thread... I honestly can't see a difference between the before and after?

This! They dont just look ridiculous, it is also really sad that people are so lacking in self confidence that they think injecting themselves or covering their faces with fake stuff is going to help. It isn't you look, well, fake!

It's mostly young people I suppose who grow out if it. Certainly I don't know anyone in my peer/age group who would dream of the chavvy fake eyebrows/fake tan/fake nails etc. I suppose tastes get more sophisticated as you get older and the teens and 20 somethings will look back and laugh when they grow up. Just a shame they'll have wasted a shed load of money by the time they realise!

The mainstream beauty standard was more 'real' and unique in the past...but on the flip side, most normal people don't look like that, and we also don't have the very toxic/damaging culture of having to starve yourself, celebrity bodies with big red circles around their imperfections, etc. We have become much more aware of body shaming and mental/physical health when it comes to beauty.

We're definitely approaching peak false eyelashes although I'm not hopeful it will disappear all together. Bit like the mega heavy brows are now over but there's still a lot of women and younger girls with the very heavy dyed and pencilled black brows. It's all just massive amounts of consumption and consumption that requires repeat applications or tops ups etc.

There's always been "beauty standards" but they were never quite so costly (well in terms of finance, lead face paint in the Tudor era was pretty costly to your face). And it's so homogeneous regardless of ethnicity.

Hmm some bits I like and some I'm not so keen on BUT I find certain things useful. Like SPM for example. I have eyeliner done. As I wear glasses it's pretty impossible for me to apply it myself without them on lol. And lip blush which means I don't have to keep applying lipstick. For a shinier look I just add some Vaseline.

I like to travel in hot countries so means I'm not getting runny makeup.

Tend to have lashes done as well before I go away to save dealing with mascara

I don't do borox and the lip fillers just isn't my scene but don't care if others do

Echoing other posters people looked so much more "real" in the past & I think the lack of individuality is really sad. Also the time & money it must consume.

all on top of necessaries like hair cuts / dye.

that's necessary for you, other women will do a massive eye roll about haircut being a "necessity" and wasting money on those.

You can find some treatments a bit cringe, but if it makes people happy, who cares. It's easier than ever to improve your looks, why shouldn't people use them?

Go back to your hair dye example...

We have more time and a lot more money than ever - why should beauty and holidays be only for the super-rich. Everybody is praising Kate Middleton for her looks, why shouldn't others use the same tools?

As a mother of tween daughters, I really hope it’s peaked.

I look at young women in their 20s and they look SO much more groomed than we ever did (I’m in my 40s). Yes they look good but my god the time and the money it must use up!!

I agree also about the loss of variety - they all look the same. I can imagine if all your friends look uber groomed then you might feel you have to as well so as not to look a scruffbag by comparison 🙁