Is the Price of Beauty Worth the Fortune We Pay?

What does Scripture say about physical beauty?

Scripture tells us we should not place undue emphasis on our outward beauty. 1 Pet: 3:3-4 says, Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.

I am also aware through the Word and general observation of life that youth and beauty don’t last. In Isaiah 40:8, we read, The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.

Proverbs 31:30 says, Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Can I be honest about my feelings about getting old and wrinkled?

Let’s just say theologically, I get it. However, when my mirror reveals I have more wrinkles and sags than a Shar-Pei, I tend to get a little discouraged.

My grass has truly withered. Is it too much to hope that there might be some miracle treatment that will revive my fallen flowers? According to all the advertisements and promises “out there,” apparently there is hope for us ladies of a mature age, short of Botox and face-lifts. I know that as a Christian my beauty is to come from the inside, rather than the outside, but am I to be begrudged a smidgeon of vanity?

A chance for the fountain of youth!

On our recent vacation, my husband, younger son, and I went into the nearest town to browse through the obligatory tourist gift (junk) shops. I had pretty much exhausted my husband’s good nature to peruse gift shops after about thirty minutes, and as we walked quickly past each additional shop with him asking, “Do you want to go in this one?”—the obvious answer being, “no,” of course—a clerk accosted us on the sidewalk with a “free sample” of a skin care product. We each accepted one, as it would be rude to refuse, and before we knew it, she had managed to kidnap us into entering the salon.

Now let me just say that I can count on one hand (probably one finger or less) the number of times I have ever stepped foot into a beauty salon other than for a haircut (and I don’t need anyone to point out that they can tell I don’t patronize these establishments). Before I knew it, she had applied an innovative, miracle “stem cell” treatment (developed by a real doctor) to the bags under my eyes. Within minutes, the bags had magically disappeared! Okay, she had me. I hate my under-eye bags. Granted, it felt like someone had sucked all the feeling out of my skin, but who cared?

She kept up a running dialogue with Hubby and Younger Son about how much younger and beautiful I looked. Then she applied it to Hubby’s eyes (even as he rolled his eyes, which was quite an accomplishment on her part), and I must say, he looked great. She promised this treatment would last for a week. AND, if I purchased this product for a mere $399, the salon would perform a free non-surgical facelift on us. Okay, by this time, I was ready to get out of there, even if I had to fork over $399 to do so, as her over-the-top salesmanship was wearing me out. She took my money (what I chump I am) and set up an appointment for the face-lift, which I never intended to keep.

But WAIT! By a sheer stroke of luck, they just “happened” to have a cancellation for RIGHT THEN, and we could have the treatment NOW! There was no backing out. Hubby and I were ushered into the back, where another high-pitch salesman-technician demonstrated another new technology using red light and blue light, along with stem cells, designed to tighten our skin and produce new collagen, blah, blah, blah. We even had to watch two videos touting the science and rationale behind the development of these products by an actual MD. Then the technician applied the cream to half our faces and used the lights, which actually felt pretty nice. And yes, we could see a difference between the two sides of our faces. Poor Hubby was mortified, as he has no vanity whatsoever, and is more than content to live with gray hair and wrinkles rather than submit to “foo-foo” treatments. By this time, we’d been there for about an hour and a half. I kept mouthing to Hubby, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” I know this was NOT the way he wanted to spend his vacation. Me either, for that matter. While we were undergoing our beauty transformation, the salon sat Younger Son in another area and gave him a complimentary face mask. (I’m not talking Halloween, although he did look rather scary.)

The cost of beauty

After demonstrating the remarkable products, the technician then dropped the bombshell. The lights were only $5000 apiece, which came with free stem cell cream. Okay, parting with an unintended $399 was one thing. Ten thousand dollars was quite another. When we politely said we would have to think about it, he lost interest in us, stuffed some literature into our hands, and began to escort us out.

“Wait!” I cried. “Aren’t you going to do the other half of our faces?”

“No, the effects will wear off in about eight hours,” he informed us.

“So we have to walk around looking like we had a stroke for the next eight hours?” I began to panic, but he clearly wasn’t concerned, as he left the room, leaving us no choice but to exit.

We collected poor Younger Son and made our escape. I put on my sunglasses and pulled my visor low over my face. Then we hightailed it back to the car and back to our condo, not daring to be lured into any more businesses.

You can’t fool Mother Nature

I needn’t have been concerned. In the hour since we left the salon, my face was back to its normal saggy, wrinkly state, including my puffy eyes that were supposed to be unpuffy for a week. Who has time to go through an hour-and-a-half beauty routine that just lasts for an hour? Being beautiful is too much work. And it’s more than skin-deep. It’s also financially deep.

I prefer to consider my appearance as the words from the Song of Solomon 4:7:  You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you.