Society Debate : Are beauty treatments worth it your time and money?

It’s waste of resources Think about all the useful items a person can buy from a supermarket with a budget of Rwf100,000. With that in mind, it is hard for me to comprehend how someone can instead channel all that money and more to a day of artificial beauty, beauty mind you, that may not even last longer than a day or two. The desire to always look young and beautiful, despite an imminent and fierce attack of wrinkles as the years go by has distorted the value chain for money, making unimportant things seem significant. Visiting beauty spas or purchasing beauty products may seem a bit normal but when it becomes routine, it can engulf an individual, turning him or her into an addicted victim who believes that life without cosmetics is impossible. In the event that they are no longer effective, maybe after getting a little older, beauty addicts replace beauty shops and products with plastic surgery, which in simple terms is the replacement of skin or flesh with the help of chemicals and scalpls. Plastic surgery may not have gripped Rwanda yet, but scientists say that despite tremendous strides in technology, plastic surgery is a health risk, so whoever wants to do it voluntarily must think twice before they lift their faces, chisel their noses or pump up their breasts in order to look a little sexier.This all comes at an extremely high cost. Look at, Jocelyn Wildenstein, Gary Busey or even country music star Kenny Rogers, they all gave up their natural looks for silicon implants and weird chemical injections which in the end made them look like sideshow freaks. People should put limits on how much to spend to become beautiful. It is one thing to be really healthy and another to look healthy. If you want to appreciate yourself without the help of beauty products, strip off all your clothes, go in front of a full length mirror and smile. You will see some body parts which you wish to change, and that is normal, but if they are natural, simply love yourself for who you are and be proud. Besides, using a bulk of beautify products, there are cheaper and natural ways that can help you to look better; regularly exercising, avoiding junk foods, quitting smoking and alcohol can be of more value than you thought. Another easy way to look nice and beautiful is by taking at least a shower everyday, brushing your teeth, having a nice haircut and using a nice lotion. For women, buying a makeup kit is fine, just so that they don’t spend much by visiting beauty spas and paying people for something they can do themselves. Otherwise, it’s very important for people to start appreciating who they are inside out and when they do, they start to understand that spending a fortune to look different, is as useless as shaving a chimpanzee in order to make it look human. ivan.mugisha@newtimes.co.rw , @RushAfrican on Twitter