English Version | She doesn't walk, she parades

Going to the beach in Brazil is a social experience. I lived there for about a year and a half, between the state of Rio de Janeiro and the Bay. I visited many beaches and saw a bit of everything. We were in the middle of a pandemic, so most of the time the beaches weren't crowded, but since I always lived in more isolated areas, without the control of the confinement of the time, there were always a considerable number of people. While I spent most of my days barefoot, literally, with the wild hair of someone who hasn't seen fresh water for days (I loved that result); they, the Brazilians, arrived at the beach as if they were arriving at a nightclub. In Brazil, they don't walk, they parade. On the beach or in the gym, no look doesn't seem to have been studied down to the smallest detail: very taut hair, kilos of make-up, false eyelashes, huge nails, and a butt that needs no introduction. There, I was the skinny one, the insignificant one. Of course, you can't generalize, because Brazil is one thing and the city of São Paulo, for example, is another, where other stereotypes of women abound. But, as a general rule, that's the way it is. Brazilian women represent the so-called "recauchutagem" better than any other women in the world - Porto Editora's dictionary has already included "plastic surgery" in the definitions of this term. According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), the beauty market is one of the largest in the country, surpassing the food market. In many cases, Brazilians spend more on beauty products and services than they do on food. Data from the Brazilian Association of the Personal Hygiene, Perfumery, and Cosmetics Industry shows that over the last decade, more than 100 billion reais have been spent on beauty products and services every year. Brazil ranks third in the world for beauty, only behind the United States and China. Recently, Larissa Manoela, a 23-year-old Brazilian actress and singer, created controversy around her fortune: the actress had undergone a cosmetic eyebrow procedure (called micro pigmentation) that had cost her a modest eight thousand reais (around one thousand five hundred euros).

Margarida Cortez, a dentist with a postgraduate degree in Aesthetic Oral Rehabilitation and Orofacial Harmonization, corroborates this idea: "I've lived in Brazil, I did a lot of training there and I know the aesthetic mentality of Brazilian women very well. It's very different from Portuguese women. Although there are many Brazilian women in Portugal, they're not the kind of women who have come to me, perhaps because they're looking for more extravagant results than the ones I give my patients. The concept of aesthetics in the United States and Brazil is quite different from the European concept - which favors naturalness over perfection - and the dissemination of my work follows in this direction." Margarida has several foreign patients living in London, Luxembourg, New York, or South Africa, who come to her whenever they come to Portugal because they refuse to have aesthetic treatments in the country where they live. More and more women around the world, including in Portugal, are concerned about looking well groomed - although not always with a new makeover. In general, the pandemic has increased demand for plastic surgery and aesthetic procedures. In Portugal, there has been a greater concern to invest in image, according to data provided by Up Clinic, a plastic surgery clinic based in Lisbon. The Portuguese sought out aesthetic procedures and plastic surgeries to a much greater extent, such as rhinoplasty (demand increased by 144%), eyelid and eyebrow rejuvenation (55%), breast augmentation (40%), buttock augmentation (40%) and prosthesis replacement (60%). The reasons are varied and include both women and men, with an increase of around 15% in men. Another change can be seen in the growth of minimally invasive procedures in the 30-40 age group, which is younger than before the pandemic. "More and more Portuguese women are losing their fear of seeking treatments that can improve the appearance of their face and smile. I believe that we attract what we transmit and perhaps that's why I'm mostly sought out by women looking for natural, gradual treatments that aren't noticeable. These are mostly women over 30 who want to restore some of the youthfulness in their faces. Women who are very afraid of looking artificial often mention someone they don't want to look like," says the aesthetics specialist. This is perhaps where the cultural issue comes in, and perhaps some of the prejudice that persists in the face of an overly retouched appearance. Sadia Khan is a psychologist of Pakistani origin who I follow on some digital platforms and whose ideas interest me a lot. The first time I heard her speak I was surprised. I realized that her somewhat produced (another word for "retreaded") appearance was not in keeping with her almost "conservative" ideas. I also understood my unconscious prejudice against her appearance. The fact is that women who are too "tweaked" (another term) can carry around a lot of ideas that don't always correspond to the reality of their image. It's not surprising either: we've become accustomed to seeing women who are too "scruffy" as being "less serious". Platforms like OnlyFans only confirm this. Watching the Whatever podcast, which is dedicated to exclusively interviewing sex workers on that platform, we see that 99% of the time their appearance corresponds ipsis verbis to the absolute synthetic superlative of retread. In any case, appearance does matter. The way we treat and take care of ourselves is a clear sign of self-respect. Why do women cut or dye their hair after ending a relationship? For most, hair is an integral part of personal image, and the way it looks determines how women see themselves and present themselves to the world. There is a sense of empowerment and renewal. In some cases, which are unfortunately quite common, the reason for the break-up can be linked to a lack of personal freedom, in which the woman loses her identity by giving in to a very controlling partner. When they break up, many feel the need to cut their hair very short or dye it bold shades as a form of protest and declaration of empowerment; others see the transformation as a symbolic "rebirth", a starting point for changing old patterns and starting again in the best possible way. "I have many patients who come to me essentially after some traumatic episode that has somehow interfered with their self-esteem: motherhood in which they were left in the background, divorces, separations, betrayals, the death of a loved one, something that somehow makes them think that it finally makes sense to start looking at them and taking care of them," explains Margarida Cortez. And she goes on to explain: "As women, we tend to turn our care and love much more outwards (family, love relationships and even work), leaving our self-care in the background. Feeling beautiful is an essential component of female self-esteem and therefore, in my opinion, a first step towards personal empowerment. A woman who doesn't like or identify with the image she sees reflected in the mirror is a woman who feels disempowered in several other areas of her life, also limiting the quality of her dedication to work, personal relationships, and family".

And the truth is that there is always a very strong line that separates a retouched look from "facial harmonization". For the aesthetic specialist, a fresh-faced appearance is even synonymous with facial disharmony: "Facial harmonization is all about restoring what we've lost over the years, naturally. Bio-stimulating our cells that have become lazy over the years in the production of hyaluronic acid, collagen, and elastin. Moisturize the skin and give the face a rejuvenated, natural look. The volumization of tissues at key points creates a harmonious balance between light and shadow on our face, which works like a permanent make-up effect. The tendency for those who are balancing these details is to wear less and less make-up because the lighting on the face naturally highlights the right points. To bring out what is most beautiful in each of us. Each woman is unique and the results are individualized. Margarida Cortez says that many patients come to her fleeing from other doctors, who themselves look "artificial" and report not wanting to look like the doctors themselves. This means that although we're increasingly focused on perfecting our image, we're still running away from that over-produced look: Botox on every square centimeter of the face, lips full of hyaluronic acid, hair, poor thing, with dozens of straightening processes on it and nails of a size that, for people who spend their day typing, like me, for God's sake... Not so much sea as land. Sometimes it takes us years to make individual decisions because we are overly dependent on other people's opinions. The beauty expert points out: "Those who love us the most will always say: 'You don't need that; you look great the way you are, don't get involved! I like you anyway; it's normal to notice the weight of age, etc'. And that's just as well! Our outward appearance isn't supposed to dictate how much they like us. The issue here is different, there is a magic that I see every day in my consultations, of women who, with small treatments, make great strides in their self-esteem, in their empowerment." To quote Vinicius de Moraes, beauty is fundamental. For everything else, there are French women, for whom natural aging is considered a sign of maturity and elegance. For those who believe that beauty comes from within and that the true potion of youth lies in attitude, in feeling at ease with ourselves, with our skin, with our age. At 42, I think I lean more towards the attitude of the French woman than the Brazilian. But I'd be a hypocrite if I said I wasn't considering one or two cosmetic procedures of the kind that you don't notice, but that are there. "Just look at how sad we feel when we don't think we're pretty when we have a bad hair day," recalls Margarida Cortez. "If we look bad, we don't even feel like leaving the house... Imagine what happens when you feel beautiful and confident? We're unstoppable!".

Translated from the original in The Kitsch Issue, published February 2024. Full stories and credits in the print version.