It’s a full-time job trying to be hot.
"Veneer teeth without veneers on them remind me of Christopher Walken in Sleepy Hollow."
A few weeks ago, I sent out a survey to all of my readers to learn more about how they invest in beauty and wellness treatments — what they regret, what was worth it, and what they’d spend money on with an unlimited budget. I published Part One earlier this week:
In Part Two, I took a closer look at some of the characters who contributed:
a divorced millionaire in Toronto with an unlimited treatment budget
a Chicago man in his 20’s who thinks being cost-sensitive on an elective surgery widens the room for error
a Gen Z woman in Lagos who learned to love her hair this year
a recently single woman in her 30’s in London who thinks freezing her eggs affected her hair
and a millennial man in New York who thinks his life is easy because he is “naturally attractive”
There is also a special section dedicated to
who multiple respondents credit to being the catalyst of their self-acceptant journey.A woman who lives in Toronto, is in her 50’s, is a C-Suite executive, makes over $1 million a year, and is divorced.
I wanted to spotlight her answers because I think they tell a beautiful and fascinating (somewhat painful) story.
She works out most days of the week
She estimates that she spends about $10k on massages, facials, nails, and hair color each year
Her pain tolerance is high — “Injections and surgeries can be very painful.” The treatments she’s gotten that have actually changed her appearance are Clear and Brilliant (laser), Botox. and small cosmetic surgery procedures.
She’s taken Ozempic.
She doesn’t regret any treatments. “Each time I have had a procedure I go through a period of regret but then once the results have normalized and I have forgotten the pain, I am grateful that I could complete it… I do have an unlimited budget. I don’t have any treatments that I believe would work and that I want to try that I have not tried.”
I really appreciated her honesty when it came to her feelings about aging. “It’s hard. Hard to see your loved ones age, hard to feel your sexual attractiveness fade and sag away, and hard to know just how much is good with respect to treatments or not worth it. I have started to wonder if the treatments can really help enough to keep me comfortable in my appearance. But when I balance it against the things and people who I really care about, I think I have to be grateful for what good fortune I have in my life. Also I have gone through and continue to go through things that are much harder and sadder. So I keep that in mind as well.”
“The worst part of this is the reverse-psychology everyone who gets plastic surgery has to adopt just to accept the losses and the gains of doing it. They have to believe they did what was best for them.”
A man in his 20s, based in Chicago, who makes between $51,000-$100,000 and says he works out most days of the week.
He had a lot of strong opinions on appearances from a male perspective, and also seems to come from a privileged background based on what he mentioned about his parents investing heavily in his teeth.
He said he’s opening to going to go through as much pain as requisite, generally more if it has medical benefits, when it comes to how far he’d go to look good. “Teeth-wise I’ve had braces and an expander. I’ve done Acutane twice despite a few bouts of serious sun sensitivity. I regularly get my eyebrows threaded. I’ve also had a septoplasty, which is essentially a functional nose job. There’s also all the soreness associated with fitness (but that’s soreness not pain, shoutout HS Football).”
He really loves his teeth. “I love my teeth, I work hard to take care of my teeth. I was fortunate enough to have my parents be able to spent a lot of money. Gotta protect the investment. I would not consider veneers simply because your teeth done grow back when they get shaved down. If I chipped or broke a tooth then I’d consider capping that one. Veneer teeth without veneers on them remind me of Christopher Walken in Sleepy Hollow.”