The Quest for Beauty

The other night it really hit me. It hit me how far women will go for their own vanity.

It all started with extensions. A few months ago my mom cut her hair to her shoulders. Her hair was really damaged and her split ends looked like candy floss so i helped her cut it off.

But of course when you have long hair and you cut it so short you seem to grow some sort of sentimentalism toward your lost hair. Most women can't wait months and months on end for your hair to grow back so one day i thought of extensions. I told my mom and the next day we went shopping. Came back home and Evelyn sewed them to my mom's hair. Naturally you try and go for 100% human hair else the extensions only last a few weeks. Human hair lasts a lot longer.

The other night my mom and i were talking about how natural the extensions look and then we both had a thought. Where on earth do these extensions come from? It's human hair so it came from somebody else. That was a freaky yet simple thought to have. It's 100% human hair, it's pretty obvious it came from some one else.

So that sparked an interest in my mom and she started Googling. Later that night she came to my room all wide eyed and shocked. She told me that most hair extensions come from India after the Indian women shave their heads as a thanksgiving offering to their 'god'. I was shocked. But after reading a few articles it really hit me how far women go to look beautiful.

Plastic surgery, cosmetics, fashion, hair, face creams, the list can go on.

Even Lipo suction and all these studies to try and see how to lose weight the fastest way in the shortest amount of time.

Why? For what reason? In the long run is it really that important? Will you one day stand before God and all you can say is that you've maintained your weight and were able to fit into a size 6 (UK)? You were able to look 30 at 60 years old?

Really?

Of course the culture distracts us. The enemy tries to pull our attention away from God and since it's our desire as women to want to look beautiful, we're easy prey. But who are we trying to look pretty for? So many women spend their day fretting over how they look and their husbands keep saying they look gorgeous. If their husbands think they're beautiful then why are so many women still fretting, thinking they're not pretty?

I fret. I admit it. I don't know how many times in a day i ask my mom if i look fat or if my face is ugly. But when i read articles like the one on hair extensions i realize how petty and stupid this quest for perfection and beauty really is. I don't want to spend my days worrying about how i look or if i look fat in this pair of jeans. When you walk in the mall do you notice the women who don't look like super models? No. Do you look at disgust at the ones who don't have perfectly toned bodies? No. So do you think people honestly look at you like that? Chances are they seriously don't care. It's this media and pop culture that puts this pressure on women.

But it's not even women, it affects men too. In advertisements you only see men with perfect 6 packs. Honestly ... how many men on this planet have a 6 pack? About as many as women have perfectly flat stomachs and not a flab anywhere.

We need to focus on things that are truly important. Live a healthy lifestyle but healthy doesn't always mean skinny. You get skinny people who can eat whatever they want all day long and they don't pick up weight. And then you can get ones that are a bit heavier but they eat their fruits and veggies and exercise everyday.

Try not to fret over the little things. Spend time with God and set your eyes on what's truly important in the grand scheme of things.