The Price of Beauty

We certainly are a society of smelling good, looking young and just down right fighting the natural progression of our aging process, aren't we? Hey, I am not criticizing. I'm just stating the facts. I fall into the trap myself. I'm no fashionista. Prefer jeans myself. I do not wear much on the side of make up. Cherry chap stick and under eye concealer and a wisp of mascara are it for me. If I don't do the concealer and mascara, you may not be able to see if my eyes are open or not. Yes, I shave my legs. Oh, and I do color my hair. Yep, fell into that one a few years back.

It's hard to admit to the gray. It is distinguished for the fellas, but can make the ladies seem tired and older than they are. So, yes, I played around with color a little bit. First I was blonde. Way too much upkeep for me. Then more red. Which actually turned orange. No thanks. Back to the brown with a little tiny bit of red. That's where I'm at now. Every seven weeks, back to the shop for a tune up. Those roots are one thing that I can count on. You can set your watch to them.

Have you ever had your eye brows plucked/waxed? I did this once while waiting for the color to grab onto my stubborn grays. The stylist so innocently said, "Ever had your eyebrows waxed? It might be nice to shape them up a little." So, I calmly laid my head back on the soft towel and felt the warm wax being applied above my eyes. I actually thought at that very moment, life is good. Then the little strips of paper and within seconds---RIP! I can't really type the thoughts that went through my head. Oh my word! My left eye started watering like someone had turned on a faucet. It watered so profusely that my eye actually clamped shut. I looked like Rocky. Like I had taken a huge hit. Then my left nostril started dripping. Like, I'm not kidding. The kind of dripping that calls for shoving a Kleenex up your nose.

The stylist said to me, "Wow, I've never seen that kind of reaction before." Well, I said, you won't see it again either! Here's the thing. I didn't even need my eyebrows waxed. They are naturally kind of shaped and thin. No uni brow thing going on. I did it because everyone else does. Well, to answer the proverbial question, if everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you? The answer is no and I now say no to the eyebrow waxing, too. Just writing about this experience brings back a few tears to my left eye.

I really don't judge any one's need to care for their body. People want to look good. Of course we want to smell good and not offend. I truly don't even care if people want to put themselves through some medieval types of maintenance, surgery, whatever, if it makes them feel good. I think that the world is full of beautiful people. I love the variety.

Personally, though, if I'm armed with my chap stick and concealer---ok and a little bit of hair color, I feel pretty good.
© 2010 Ann M. De Broux