About Nude Not Naked

The week started late, on a Wednesday, when PY and I were at the start of our girlfriend holiday. It started in Sunway at noon, when PY had an appointment to zap her freckles away.

“But your freckles are so cute,” I told PY, as the nurse prepped for the laser treatment session.

The skin beauty centre was housed a three-storey corner shop lot. It was newly renovated and really pretty, befitting its concept of beauty. The staff was friendly and the doctor was good looking. PY was shuttled from one room to another, for prepping up, observation and actual laser treatment upstairs as I sat, admiring the plush black leather sofas with chrome legs.

“Would you like to see how the treatment is conducted?” the doctor asked. He was taller than the average Chinese man, neat hair and glasses that made him look smart. Definitely a good shiny testament to the services he was offering in his skin centre.

We chatted a little as we walked to the room upstairs. He was friendly and observant, ever willing to answer any of my questions. I was not cheeky that morning or I would have asked if he had a girlfriend.

He was like a fairy god mother with magical powers to grant all your desires but in PY’s case, the fairy god mother was a man, is not too hairy, looked good and with a laser instead of a wand in his hand. The results were the same though. The freckles will fry and drop off in the next ten days or so.

PY was nervous. I knew she was when she began rolling the edge of a little blanket placed on her to keep her warm. She jolted every third or fourth zap, probably from shock as the red laser light was emitted. She crossed her legs as the doctor continued to search her face for freckles to treat. I was leaning against a wall and saw the whole process, professionally conducted.

Everything was over in less than 10 minutes. Good thing too, because one will not feel any pain while undergoing the treatment. The sensation only sets in much later. The nurse came in with a cold mask, to cool PY’s face and it soothed whatever warm sensation across her face. It is laser treatment afterall!

“Did you ask the doctor to come in?” PY asked.

“No, he asked me if I wanted to see how it was done,” I replied, “perhaps he saw my face needs doing soon and decided to give me a educational tour.”

Half hour. That was all it took. Half hour in the walk-in clinic and you will walk out the clinic, a much prettier person. Not instantaneous results in PY’s case but it promises results in less than two weeks. We will see.

Being a person who is naturally found in the company of men, ogling women and describing the finer qualities of a woman’s round bottom, the whole experience at the skin beauty centre was thrilling. There were many clients walking through the door. A young teenage girl with severe form of acne, a 50ish woman in aunty night market clothes chewing on sunflower seeds and a 40ish mother with the most perfect looking skin were just a few women I saw.

The whole experience was very educational. The doctor did well by inviting me to witness the whole treatment. It gave more credibility to his work and confidence to lesser people like me.

Personally I am one who is afraid of pain and suffering and although I would love to be beautiful, I am not one who would undergo pain for beauty. Okay, I do torture my body for beauty on a daily basis by working in 3.5 inch heels but undergoing cosmetic surgery for make most of my facial features is a totally different ballgame.

When it comes to enhancing my features through laser treatment, chemical peels or invasive surgery, I am worried for the long-term viability of such treatments. How long will one be able to maintain the new altered look? When will one need to go for another surgery to correct the fading beauty? In much cruder terms, will one’s face just plop to the floor one day?

Take Botox, for instance. Promising its client that every wrinkle will disappear. It does this by paralysing the muscles where it is injected. Done professionally in the hands of a trained doctor, I guess the liquid is a miracle for the tired looking housewife. But what if it was a botch job? You might end up with a paralysed face, with half of your features sagging because your muscles cannot hold your face up!

Will I risk my health and current feature (with non-symmetrical eyes) for a promise of a better looking and younger version of me? My answer is “not at this moment in time”. I might consider the procedures if I suffered from skin disorders such as acne. But fact is, I am not suffering from anything. Perhaps there are things that can be done to maximize my features (can do with a softer jawline, slimmer face and symmetrical eyes) but all those things are so unnecessary, if I can learn to accept myself for how I look.

My beauty technician remarked that I am quite blessed with good skin. “You look like a university student and you are 30,” she said, apologizing for the previous fiasco when some of her staff thought that I was a university student, who responded to their promotional leaflet.

Maybe that is why I feel so lax in the whole beauty department. I am not the most beautiful creature in the world but I must admit that I am damn lucky through my teenage years right till this very second as I am typing this to you. I never really had to worry about my physical body, having good skin, reasonably shaped body and a good height.

My take in this whole beauty myth is, to each their very own. Do not judge people who walk into these clinics for they have their own battles – either in their minds (where they think they are not beautiful), in their surrounding (working in environments where beauty is prized - the Dawn Yang controversy) or in their physical self (really suffering from various skin conditions or suffered from an accident etc). Health is wealth, so be careful and take good care of your body.

Where possible, learn to love yourself and how you look. It is not easy in this time and age when beauty seems to be so achievable on a lunch break. Do not emphasize on your one and only oil seed (in my case) or broken capillary. Look at yourself for more than just your face and body. Look at how pretty your button nose is or how adorable your smaller eyes are. It is far more realistic to appreciate your strong features than to dwell on your imperfections.

There is a limit to how many enhancements you can do in your lifetime. I am rationing mine to a later age, maybe in my forties. I believe in saving for my future – haha! So one day, when I am old and gray, I will walk into a beauty clinic and get my face zapped. I will be hottest hoochie grandma on the block!

Till then, I will look at my reflection in the mirror and try not look at the one oil seed or a broken capillary on my right cheek or an eye bag under my left eye. Smile and just feel fine, even as the nasal line starts to develop. And if ever anyone tells me, “eir, you are beginning to get wrinkles” I will tell him/her that everyone has them and I am no longer as young as a 20 year old giggling college girl.

As a matter of fact, I am just beginning to like myself, just the way I am. And that, my friends, is beautiful.





Tags beauty therapy skin cosmetic surgery plastic beautiful pretty acne youth young wrinkles laser+treatment beauty+centre fairy fairy+god+mother botox health wealth Dawn Dawn+Yang Dawn+Yeo controversy enhancement mature age