Beauty is timeless: current trends in aesthetic medicine

Magdalena Al-Nagash , aesthetic surgeon, chief physician of the laser and hardware cosmetology center Nucu Cosmetics, international and national speaker Allergan (Ukraine)

“The beauty of a woman’s face” is also part of fashion

I don’t want to return to hackneyed quotes and examples of how the canons of beauty have evolved over time and changes in ethnographic-geographical reference. The images of Nefertiti, Venus de Milo, the so-called examples of beauty of the Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles have long become classics.

And if from time to time we are surprised by the next mention of the beauties of the Middle Ages (shaved foreheads, temples and eyebrows, plucked eyelashes, skin destroyed by lead white and blackened teeth, a figure pulled by a metal corset until complete anthropomorphism in the chest area), then we don’t need to look far for For examples of ethnographic differences in the assessment of women’s appearance, just recall the differences in the tastes of the inhabitants of India, Japan, Europe and Africa. It is not for nothing that a situation has become a historical anecdote when the aborigines of one isolated African tribe expressed condolences to a tourist married to a beautiful blonde about “an ugly wife with the eyes of water spirits, mortally thin, which means she is probably terminally ill...”.

I am sure: there is nothing more windy than fashion and the desires of women.

The concept of beauty in aesthetic medicine has changed as rapidly as fashion has changed. Modern industry further accelerates the cycle of changing desires and needs.

Viva la Diva!

A whole galaxy of fashion trends flashed through my memory alone. Initially, it seems to me, the image of a “diva” arose, which in aesthetic medicine can be characterized as excessive, emphasized grooming and somewhat aggressive sexuality. The faces of such patients were not disfigured by a single wrinkle or a single emotion - perfectly frozen facial expressions, perfect lip contour, perfect skin. But what happened in the end? To paraphrase Chanel’s words that “very expensive clothes age you,” I would say that the image of the ideal “diva” adds years.

The deliberate sexuality exploited by “divas” is, in the most vulgar cases, associated, perhaps, even with a sex shop. It is from this image that “fish” or “duck” lips come from, emphatically “oriental” cheekbones, so popular just 5-10 years ago. And now the vast majority of our luxury patients have become pronouncedly cheekbones, regardless of their individual face shape and anatomical features. In some patients, this was layered on old problems, on permanent filler in the lips, which was introduced at the peak of the popularity of powerful lip volumization. As a result, the resulting image is no longer even a “diva,” but a grotesque “beauty.” This is the most difficult category of patients. As a rule, plastic surgery is already indicated for them.

"Eternal Girl"

Tired of excess sexual aggression, the public asked for more gentle, soft images. This is how a new fashion trend, baby doll, appeared, and in aesthetic medicine, the baby face trend arose - a doll-like, emphatically toy-like appearance, often combined with exaggerated defenselessness and innocence. Similar images include the “sinful innocence” of Lolita. A girl in the image of a baby doll, with soft contours of a “childish” face, emphasized by delicate colors, lips reminiscent of the outline of a child’s mouth, seems to be asking for protection and care and withdrawing from aggression.

Natural course

Nowadays people are increasingly talking about the trend of natural beauty – natural look. Most specialists draw parallels between the possible and the impossible, that is, they try to correlate the type of face with a certain correction option. For example, I have more than once heard reports at various congresses on the principles of assessing the “inflated expectations” of patients who demand to create the lips of Angelina Jolie and experience acute disappointment from a clearly unsatisfactory result, when the initial basis was natural “boat” lips on a round face, etc. P.

I am sure that such patients come not so much for “Jolie’s lips,” but for her image of a legendary, successful, confident, happy woman.

It is incredibly difficult to persuade a patient who has already gotten it into her head that it is “Jessica Alba’s capricious mouth” that will make her beautiful, that her original anatomical data makes it impossible to create such lips, moreover, the natural features of her face will make these lips disharmonious and alien. But still, I try not to follow my patients’ lead. Each of them comes to me with a great deal of trust, and I help them create not individual features, but an integral image that reflects aspirations, desires, in tune with their inner world and age. And all kinds of modern visualization programs and professional makeup skills help convince you of the correctness of the chosen strategy.

Talk to the patient!

I try to instill in my patients the idea that a harmonious person is, first of all, a holistic person. And the created image should not antagonize the woman’s inner world.

If I see that a young girl, with her demeanor, appearance and speech, completely identifies herself with the image of the “girl next door”, but at the same time tries to persuade me to help her create the image of a “diva”, I try to convey to her that this the concept will not work and will not bring results.

I give examples of women (usually the best illustration in this case are celebrities) who were able to become happy and realize themselves in an image similar to the image of my patient. For example, the same Angelina Jolie in her youth was the personification of Lolita, went the way of the “James Bond Girl”, managed to be a true “diva”, and now increasingly appears in the image of harmonious classicism and minimalism.

Involuntarily we have to move away from our professional tasks, helping the patient to think, weigh his worldview, and evaluate the real tasks that he wants to accomplish with the help of such changes.

One plastic surgeon from Los Angeles, an acquaintance of mine, told me that one day he decided to experiment and hired a psychologist on his staff. As a result, his number of patients fell by half. He fired the psychologist...

Understanding all the humor of the situation, I, however, urge you not to create facial features or simply fulfill the patient’s order “on the lips,” “cheekbones,” and so on, but I say that creating a complex image that is in harmony with age, with the inner “ "I" women is always a win-win strategy. It is this option of work that will bring satisfaction to the patient and make him return to the specialist again and again. And it is a doctor of aesthetic medicine who can convince a young patient that now she, in the image of a “vamp,” will look more awkward than sexy. And a lady “well over twenty” should be convinced of the need to move from the image of a “girl” (a subconscious desire for fatherly protection and an expression of the need for a strong male shoulder) towards a self-confident, sexy, bright “grand lady”.

So, today, having a huge arsenal of not only rejuvenating, but also transformative techniques, and when choosing a face, as in the case of clothes, we choose the image that we like, that suits our taste. This is how we bring balance and euphony into our inner world, into our lives. It is the correspondence between the inner world and the external image that gives birth to true harmony, and therefore a true Woman. And we can only urge patients once again: before “ordering” procedures from specialists, listen to yourself, take a break from the standards dictated by the beauty industry, remember that any industry is nothing more than a business project. In the words of the famous English photographer Cecil Beaton, “fashion is a mass project, but it feeds on individuality.” Being in harmony with themselves, having found their true “I”, their image, our patients, on the one hand, will always be fashionable, and on the other hand, they will retain their individuality, in which we, specialists in aesthetic medicine, will be happy to help them!

First published: Les Nouvelles Esthetiques Ukraine, No. 6 (88), 2014