COVER: Beating back the clock;Looking eternally young is every woman's Holy Grail

She was as famous for her plastic surgeries as she was for her comedy. 739 was the number of plastic surgeries she was reported to have had up until 2012, and many others followed.

Joan Rivers was the first lady of stand-up comedy. She passed away earlier this month aged 81 but she left a mark in the world of beauty. As old as she was, her addiction to the needle and the knife had allowed Rivers to look much younger than women of her age.

She believed in plastic surgery and had her motto ‘Better a new face coming out of an old car than an old face coming out of a new car’. Spend your money on you.”

She was one among many women who would do anything today and everything tomorrow to look and stay young and beautiful.

African view

Not so long ago any thoughts of anti-wrinkle cream and hair colour were far-fetched in the minds of many women from this side of the globe. But as time moved on, the world of beauty ascended with it. Women, young and old are regularly embracing the world of beauty, trying to stop the hands of time. As a result, sales of medications and products that target symptoms of normal aging are increasing.

Today it’s not surprising to find it hard to see women with gray hair or a wrinkled face, and it’s also not surprising to find a 40 plus year-old woman with a chest of a 20 year-old woman.

Great lengths that women are going in order to achieve a youthful ideal are not limited to surgical procedures and magic creams; they also at times include unhealthy self-starvation to maintain an attractive body.

 A study from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, which found that in their sample of 1,900 women, 50 and older, more than 60 percent of women said their body weight or shape negatively affected their lives and 13 percent admitted to having an eating disorder.

But while the study focused on a country where people are more afraid of aging than how it is in our country, it does reflect the struggles some women have to attain that eternal youth and beauty even here in Tanzania.

The need to look young

Beautician, Anna Kazaura, has seen it all. For the last 8 years she has been in the industry a lot has happened.

She said years back women wouldn’t mind living their grey hair for the world to see because in our culture it was a symbol of wisdom. But such beliefs have since dissipated ushering in modern perceptions.

“Today women are more conscious when it comes to aging, they care about how they look and appear that’s why nowadays the number of beauty products continues to surge,” states the beautician.

In a rather ironic context, Anna states that there is an increasing number of pressure among women who believe that getting old is synonymous to sinning and should be avoided at all cost. 

“The Westerns are luring us to believe that getting old is wrong. It’s therefore not surprising finding an old woman on Television  having a wrinkle-free and a lifted face that appears young  but we are forgetting that they are doing business,” she further states, “I have never been among those women who spend lots of money on makeup and all the other products women use to improve physical appearance. I have always favoured the natural look as nature intended and always try to help out my customers to rely on natural stuff though it’s hard to change their mind-set, but gradually they understand.”

Anna believes that any woman who will be able to accept their own beauty and let others see that then that would make them feel good about getting old.

“Media will continue to exclude women who don’t fit their money making beauty business, but we don’t   have to destroy our own faces and bodies to fit into such world of beauty,” argues the beautician.

 A very telling example of obsession with looking young is of Zuhura Saleh, a 50 year-old Kawe resident who spends a huge sum of money to keep herself looking younger. Her goal is unquestionable as the trend of elderly women trying all efforts to look young has been rising consistently.

“I have come to notice that in recent years there has emerged subtle discrimination that affects older women. As we become less attractive to men, particularly our husbands, they start to ignore us if we don’t care for ourselves and how we look. We become invisible compared to other beautiful young women,” Zuhura speaks. This inevitably makes older women desperate for attention and affection.

“So, to make myself look more visible I decided to act by treating myself well. I don’t let my age stop me from looking  a few years younger and this includes  buying myself  good  cosmetics,” says  Zuhura – who looked  relaxed  as  she was getting a pedicure  treatment at Mwenge, Dar es Salaam.

The idea of community judging her from her looks seems to be the least of her worries.

“Who says if you get old you can’t look beautiful or sexy?” she questions, adding “you can’t see me without a makeup on, or missing out on good cosmetics that are advertised everyday that I know are not harmful to my skin, and as you can see right now I’m surrounded by young women, every week I come here in Mwenge to make sure my hands and feet are taken care of. I also beautify my hair with latest styles,” (showing her Noble hair weaving). “Just because I am getting old doesn’t mean I have to stop to exist, the older I get, the more visible I feel,” she says.  

Modern surgical methods?

When asked what would happen if she is given an opportunity to undergo an expensive anti-aging procedure or breast augmentation to make her look younger and beautiful, she states; “I love beauty and what it has to offer but I wouldn’t go that far, as a Christian woman I respect and appreciate how God has created me and I wouldn’t go as far as correcting my looks in a dire bid to look younger, it’s a sin I wouldn’t want to commit.”

Evelyne Kisoki, a mother of 3 is already showing the wrinkles of aging. But that hasn’t stopped her from looking her best as she ages.

“I can’t deny stresses of life sometimes get the better of most of us women, but personally I have never let that stop me from looking beautiful. My hair has started turning grey, but I pamper it easily with hair colour which has become an important item on my shopping list these days, but that is as far as I can go to do a quick fix to my looks.

She says she always looks forward to continue growing older, but in reality she cannot fight getting old but rather be grateful that she has her health.

“I’m 62, and I have noticed all these small changes that I think are associated with aging, I am  getting more and more grey hair. I didn’t concern myself with healthy diets before, but I have now started to choose what I eat. My memory isn’t as good as it used to be. This is who I am today, I have accepted it because I know at the end of the day the ageing process has to continue and so we have to get over the idea that women have to look young forever.”

So what can be done to solve the obsession some women have of staying and looking young forever?

 Rosemary Kiaga, a beauty therapist based in Dar es Salaam said the main solution is to help women stop focusing much on their appearances.

 “Our mothers, sisters, aunts need to focus on something positive, something that will last long after their looks fade away. We need to learn to compliment each other because at times we have been the source of raising negativity on our looks, learning not to take at heart negative thoughts too.”

She further advised that it’s high time women started to change the way they perceive their own appearances. “This is not a one person fight because the way we feel about ourselves and treat our bodies has real influence on those around us even when we don’t realise that,” concludes the therapist.