I’VE WRITTEN THIS BOOK primarily because:
So why should one take care of one’s skin at all when half of us believe that it is genetically pre-determined and the other half believes that ‘ageing gracefully’ is just letting yourself age without any active intervention? Here’s why.
We need to understand that 50 percent of what we are is what we are born with. The other 50 percent depends on how we take care of what we have. In today’s times, with all the processed food, pollution, stress, multitasking, all sorts of electronic signals, extreme diets to keep up with new social norms of wanting the body of a 20-year-old at 50 etc., personal care becomes all the more challenging. Our parents were exposed to none of this, so naturally they had better skin and aged more gracefully with very less or no effort at all. But today, you can’t afford to go by what they did or didn’t. Our urban and sedentary lifestyles demand that we workout and eat right if we want to stay healthy and beautiful.
Now analyse this—the pretty and the not-so-pretty, the handsome and the not-so-handsome, the bold and the beautiful—all will inevitably age. It is a process that begins with our birth and will stay with us like an unwanted but devoted companion. Our philosophy in accepting its presence and dealing with its effects will most likely be erratic.
Small children want to hurry the process of growing up so they can be ‘big and strong like daddy’ and ‘wear mamma’s lipstick and blush-on’; teenagers can’t wait to get out of school and join college and get their driving licenses. Boys can’t wait to be shaving like papa and girls rush to get their first facial and eyebrows threaded. But then comes the first pimple that scares you and from there on, your worries begin. Yet the heady elixir of sheer youth usually makes up for it and worries often cease, despite the pimple!
Then life takes over, and soon you are in the middle of a whirlwind of romance, jobs, marriage, parenthood, finances, stress, strain, and before you know it, you look into the mirror and see that you have aged. It could be a single grey hair or an almost cute wrinkle or even the fact that the neighbour’s kid called you ‘uncle’ or ‘aunt’. And unintentionally, you soon wistfully wish for the time when you were younger, had more time to correct the wrong, and you want to now turn back the clock.
Ageing we are and age we will. What we can do however, is try to walk the journey gracefully and beautifully. Women come to see me purely for beauty and nobody can convince me otherwise. They may say I don’t like a fold or a hollow, I don’t like a blemish, I don’t like a dark spot, but what they are trying to tell or wanting is to be more beautiful. Mind you, a lot of my patients are models and movie stars who are already beautiful! As Dr Arthur Swift, an expert plastic surgeon from Montreal, Canada, mentioned in one of his talks, ‘American studies looked at women between the age of 20 and 60 and asked them that what is the No. 1 reason for you to go and see a plastic surgeon and the No. 1 answer was to be more beautiful. That didn’t make sense because there were women amongst that group who were already absolutely stunning and models but they still wanted to be more beautiful. So women are beauty seekers. Men on the other hand want to be more virile or youthful.’ Or ‘youthful contenders’ as Dr Swift calls them.
Ageing can mean different things to different people and at different stages. Growing from an awkward teen to a pretty 20 something to a beautiful 30-year-old and then a serene, confident 40-year-old might be termed as pleasant. Then, as time battles age, the not so pleasant changes begin to manifest more apparently. But not anymore. With scientific innovation in skincare, you have all the information at your disposal to look and feel your best—whether it’s regular skincare, or advanced medical procedures.
What you see in your mirror not only makes an impression on the world but also on you, your mood, efficiency, and your attitude. So read on to know the whats, whys, and hows of ageing, where and why the changes occur, how simple and basic dos and don’ts can make a difference, and what chances the anti-ageing products and treatments offer.
Age Erase is a culmination of all of my 13 years of speciality practice and what I learnt before that, compressed into an easy-to-read informative format for you to know at your own pace and place. So read on and see how you can put your best face forward.