To find beauty treatments a bit cringe now

[SueSuddio]

For years I've seen the beauty standard rise and rise, do you think we've reached peak?

I don't understand how and why people have the time and money to pay for it all - Botox and fillers are now mainstream, eyebrows now need laminating or tinting, nails are now expensive gels, lashes need extending, blah blah blah, all on top of necessaries like hair cuts / dye.

Now we've kind of peaked & it's got a bit excessive, does anyone else find these looks a bit cringe now? It's not my money or my life, but I can't help but think what a waste of time and money.

I know live and let live but I can't help to take an interest because as a woman I'm a target for these treatments too.

I spend a lot on my health and well being... gym, PT , pilates, physio....plus hair cut and colour every 5 weeks, nails twice a month, podiatrist every 6 weeks, hydrafacial every 6 weeks .
I'm worth it at 66 😀

My mother holds nothing back, and had to be told that I have Botox, after she sat in front of me slagging it off and saying people who have it don’t look natural and have no expressions 😆

@frozendaisy your son and his friends sound great. Hope mine goes in that direction!

Wait @andthatso all the young people you know aren’t like this…but your argument is that society is fucked because most young people are like this.

Maybe you’re wrong and actually the majority of young people aren’t like this?

They can’t be competing for male attention because I can’t think of any man who finds the overdone look attractive. They are more likely just competing with one another. I think beauty tweakments is one industry that’s driven by women - the vast majority of the aesthetic doctors and nurses who promote and perform these procedures are women. The increasingly extreme standards are profit driven - new treatments, higher frequency, etc. means more profit for the practitioners.

I follow an incredibly successful aesthetic doctor to the stars and the price tag for her recommended suite of treatments and tweakments is thousands of pounds a month. Her patients/customers are always tagging her when they post about their latest treatment - she has become a status symbol in and of herself. Then below each post is dozens of women commenting on how great they look and what a genius Dr is. It’s the female equivalent of a circle jerk. (Full disclosure, I buy into this shit to some extent 😅).

So yeah, it’s really not about attracting men.

That’s the thing - it’s the people who have too much that stand out!

I do have to admit that I have once went to a different nurse though who was more heavy handed with it, and it gave me a bit of a heavy brow. I looked furious for months (that one lasted for bloody ages as she had put so much in!)

So, the less is more thing definitely depends of the practitioner’s skill too.

Yes I had that once too @TonyChocolonybut she tweaked it at my review appointment a few weeks later, was no big deal.

@CertainUncertainCertainly not patting myself on the back,no! I have very sensitive skin. I don’t judge anyone for their choices
I do have concerns about Botox though.
It’s botulism toxin, which was discovered to be effective to relax muscle spasms in Cerebral Palsy( which I have)
Yes, it wears off in time, but repeated use I’m not so sure.

People always pap on about stuff that the younger generation are doing as if if never happened before. As for individuality - what about the 60s - copying fashion Twiggy/Mary Quant - 70s when everyone was shaving the eyebrows of an drawing a thin one on - electric rollers. 80s drawing on beauty spots and mega hair and perms. 90 s hair straighteners - things evolve - people have the option to do it or not as they always have. Aesthetics is a newer complication and has potential to be permanent and damaging and the pendulum is swinging back away from it for younger women to a more natural look - it is older people still wanting botox and fillers.

I find it hilarious when the botoxed up, hair extensions in and lips swollen mum squads in their little trackie sets all look the same! I don't understand it at all, people don't look unique and interesting any more.

I honestly don’t care what people look like, it’s none of my business how people look. It’s the preying on people’s insecurities to part them of their cash that bothers me. And that’s what it is… a big cash industry.

Which part? Hairdressers? Beauticians who do waxing and threading? Botox clinics? Nail bars? Cosmetic dentists? Make up artists?

All of it 🤷🏻‍♀️

I agree and said something similar upthread, however what isn’t a big cash industry these days? The economy is about finding more and more ways to get people to part with their money so that some other people get rich. It’s completely endemic. I went for a routine dental exam yesterday and the dentist spent half the appointment trying to upsell me cosmetic treatments (whitening, Invisalign) then gave me her business card after the appointment?! Admittedly I am in the US where healthcare is a bit of a racket, but I was still surprised by how brazen the money grabbing has become.

@MereNoelleassuming you’ve never had so much as your fringe trimmed then.

Damn that patriarchy. All these men getting haircuts all the time, and you resisting on behalf of sisters everywhere 💪

You can surely see the difference between basic grooming and treatments designed to enhance people’s (usually already perfectly fine) cosmetic appearance? Are you likening a fringe trim to lip fillers?
Like I said, I don’t care how people choose to look. But it is designed to get more and more money out of people, so I’m not sure why you took such offence at my comment. As was mentioned upthread, some would say that’s a good thing because we need people to spend money for the economy. I just wish they wouldn’t prey on people’s insecurities to make that money.
(You mentioned the patriarchy by the way, not me. There are plenty of men paying for cosmetic treatments too).

I’m afraid that there is far too much emphasis on false enhancements. I was at a service station the other day and a family with teenage children, mum and dad pulled up beside us. I couldn’t stop staring at the mum because she had awful false eyelashes and work to her face which looked odd. I know I shouldn’t stare but I couldn’t help it. I also feel sad when I see younger girls with ridiculously long eyelashes and fillers in their lips. They are young, fresh faced, no lines or wrinkles. Embrace this. BTW I go to the hairdresser for hair dye and have my eyebrows waxed every couple of months. I don’t think I could be bothered, nor afford or have the time for eyelash extensions, Botox, nail gels etc

I am happy to support small businesses, it’s important. My Botox lady is a former nurse but due to some awful life changing circumstances, she can now only work from home. Botox/fillers/skin boosters make up a big part of her income and I’d rather give my money to her than to a cosmetics giant flogging make up in high street stores across the world.

Re: nails, I don’t get mine done professionally but it is quite a booming industry locally. Again, some mums who can only work school hours really benefit from the flexibility of being able to set up their own business.

But @MereNoelleyou specifically said all beauty treatments, so I was just checking what you meant, and it turns out you meant what most other people on this thread mean - what you get is ok, but what other people get isn’t ok, basically because it’s not your kind of thing.

Yes, 100%. Fillers, pumped up lips, hair extensions, the eyebrows - it all looks awful, so tacky.

Eh? I don’t care what beauty treatments people get. Genuinely. Do what you want to yourself. I said repeatedly that I don’t care what people do.
I said it’s a big cash industry and it plays on people’s insecurities to get more money out of them 🤷🏻‍♀️. Even hairdressers. People are susceptible to it to greater or lesser degrees.

Yes, funnily enough, it’s women who actually benefit from the boom in grooming and beauty treatments. The aesthetic doctors and nurses, the nail salon owners, the beauty brand entrepreneurs - nearly all women.

It's the sameness that depresses me. The same very long flat hair parted in the centre, same false eyelashes and pouty lipstick. They look like Victorian dolls or those plastic models you see in shop windows.

@OurManyEnds you’re quoting the wrong person there.

I’ve found they look tacky always op.