Permanently Beautiful

Billed as “fantastic plastic,” women showed off their breast implants, nose jobs and face lifts at Miss Plastic Hungary 2009 in Budapest earlier this month. “It’s time for Hungarian women to care more about their appearance,” judge Marton Szipal, a professional photographer, told the Associated Press. As you might expect, big boobs and strippers appeared to dominate the contestant field. But the contest wasn’t just about augmented breasts and cute little nose jobs, plastic surgery to her toes allowed one contestant to walk normally. Espousing the humanitarian view, plastic surgeon Dr. Tamas Rozsos said, “This is about restoring harmony … eliminating asymmetries and giving women the opportunity to have normal features.”

Like other readers, I laughed at the ridiculousness of human vanity; then I got to thinking. We may pooh-pooh the idea, but appearance does count. How we see ourselves and think others see us — inside and out — forms the core of our self-esteem. Even little things like a bad hair day can send our self-esteem plummeting. When we look good, our spirits and confidence soar. We can take on the world!

Everyone has what they consider little ”flaws” in their appearance. These “imperfections” can chip away at self-esteem and become a stumbling block in our quest for a successful and satisfying life. Sometimes plastic surgery is the answer, but it entails significant risks and the outcome doesn’t always meet expectations. In many instances, permanent makeup or paramedical tattooing can camouflage the self-defined “imperfections” that hold us back without the risk. Click here to find out more.

Still struggling to come up with a costume idea for Halloween? Time is running out, but we’re here to help. The Twilight series has put sexy, brooding vampires center stage this year. But the King of Pop’s death and release of the Michael Jackson homage film This Is It! have also made 1980s culture a popular Halloween theme.

Guys have it easy this year. They can thicken their eyebrows, wear black and don fangs to quicken hearts. For a challenge, they can copy Michael’s moves, John McCain’s bluster or show off Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize. Gals are sexing up the vampire look with blood-red lips, black bustiers and high black boots. Gals who want to go pop political can spoof rifle-toting ex-Gov. Sarah Palin, pop wreck Lindsay Lohan or have fun with Britney’s Circus tour. Sexy is always in and Brit wore some great costumes. Don’t forget the whip! If your heart belongs to Michael, show your moves as hot sis Janet. Or give ’80s a nod with Farrah Fawcett’s signature locks or Kelly Bundy’s raunchy hilarity.

Need a Halloween party theme? Vampires rock but dare to be different. Invite guests to personify a Jackson song lyric, spoof their fav Breakfast Club rebel or come as a Star Trek hero. Whatever fantasy you wear on Halloween, makeup will create the illusion that hides the real you. When the charade ends, permanent cosmetics can reveal your personal beauty.

Longer, darker, fuller lashes croon the commercials for lash-extending mascaras. Their siren song seems to promise that if you swipe their product on your eyelashes, men will fall at your feet! What the commercials don’t tell you is that fibers, chemicals and dyes in mascaras can cause serious eye problems in some people, particularly those who suffer skin or chemical allergies. Bits of mascara or extension fibers can flake off eyelashes and fall into the eye, creating a serious abrasion hazard for contact wearers that can damage the cornea. And mascara wands result in numerous eye injuries every year. I mean, who hasn’t poked themselves in the eye on occasion trying to apply mascara? Consider yourself lucky if you didn’t do some permanent damage. Despite the fact that Johnny Depp has signed on for Pirates of the Caribbean IV, the eye-patch look is only in at Halloween!

There is a better, safer way to call attention to your eyes. Permanent eyelash enhancement, particularly when paired with permanent eye liner, calls attention to your eyes without putting them at risk. Permanent makeup can make lashes appear thicker, lusher and fuller without eye makeup. Permanent eye makeup means your eyes look fabulous day — and night. No running eyeliner when you’re sweating at the gym, no mascara dotted cheeks when you wake up in the morning, no more embarrassing dark smudges and no need to “freshen up” as you move from office to night life — just 100% beautiful eyes 24/7!

I love the cool tat-designed Warriors in Pink t-shirt worn by NCIS star Pauley Perrette in the new Ford Cares fight against breast cancer public service announcement. Pauley plays the fabulously funky, tat-loving, sweet and huggable Princess of Darkness Abby Sciuto on the hit CBS crime show. The fight against breast cancer is close to Pauley’s heart. She lost her mom to breast cancer in 2002. When you purchase Pauley’s cool Midnight Warrior T-Shirt or other Warriors in Pink gear, Ford donates 100% of net profits to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation.

Warriors in Pink is just one of several new breast cancer awareness efforts aimed at younger women. At the forefront of this edgier, humorously self-aware approach is Canadian-based charity Rethink Breast Cancer. Their tongue-in-cheek, jiggly, giggly Save the Boobs psa recently rocked YouTube. Sponsors of Toronto’s annual Boobyball breast cancer benefit gala, the group is trying to connect with MTV-raised women who don’t see breast cancer as a personal risk, despite the fact that 5% of U.S. women battling breast cancer are under 40.

Pink t-shirts proclaiming “Save the ta-tas” and other cheeky slogans have catapulted Julia Fikse’s same-named Southern Cal t-shirt business to popularity among 20- and 30-somethings. The fashion designer donates 5% of every sale to breast cancer research and awareness in support of family members who are battling the disease.

That same personal involvement with women battling breast cancer led renowned paramedical tattoo artist Melany Whitney to develop her unique 3-D nipple and areola breast restoration technique.

My friend is distraught. She isn’t even 30 and she’s starting to lose her hair. We expect men to have thinning hair and bald spots, but women? Sure you see the occasional older woman with wispy hair. I had an aunt with hair so thin you could see her pink scalp through her wispy bouffant, but she was in her 80s. Thinning hair just isn’t something most women think about. Unfortunately, Alopecia Areata Universalis (AAU) is more common than you’d expect.

The second most common hair loss disease, AAU more often affects women, although it can affect men and children. AAU occurs in apparently healthy people like my friend and generally develops in the late teens or young adulthood. Sometimes called “spot baldness,” in its early stages the disease creates small thinning patches that can become bald. The disease can spread over the entire scalp and even affect other body hair, including eyebrows, eyelashes and pubic hair.

Researchers suspect a genetic factor as the non-communicable disease appears to be hereditary. Research also indicates that AAU may be an autoimmune disease exacerbated by stress. Whatever its cause, my friend finds it highly embarrassing. Fortunately, permanent makeup can help restore to eyebrows, eyelashes and scalp the natural appearance of hair lost from Alopecia Areata Universalis. Combining expert cosmetic tattooing with practiced artistry, Melany Whitney can restore a woman’s confidence by recreating naturally sensuous eyebrows and eyelashes and using permanent paramedical repigmentation to help hide scalp hair loss.

It’s not a silly little love song on You Tube, it’s the latest in date rape protection. A sexy new lip gloss from the UK, 2Love My Lips comes in a bewitching range of tantalizing colors from Sophisticated Coffee and Passionate Pink to Posh Gloss. The colors are fun and fabulous, but what makes this new lip gloss unique is its promise to help you stay in control on a date.

A tube of 2Love My Lips lip gloss doesn’t pack a too obvious shot of pepper spray, it really does contain fabulous, lip-plumping, breath-freshening lip gloss. But it also cleverly conceals a sneakily packaged drink spike detector testing kit worthy of some cool secret gadget from Daniel Craig’s next James Bond movie. When you’re clubbing or doing the bar scene with your crew, don’t take a chance on date rape. Use the test strips included in each 2Love My Lips lip gloss tube to unobtrusively test your drink right at the bar or when you return to your table after dancing. It’s one more smart way to stay in control and keep yourself safe.

You can wear 2Love My Lips lip gloss right on top of your permanent lip color. In fact, you can wear any lipstick or lip gloss on top of permanent lip color when you want a change. But you’ll always know that underneath your lips are always perfectly lined and beautifully colored. No worries when lipstick wears off or you want to go au natural.

As women we reject the chauvinistic notion that we are defined by our most protruding feature. We are not our breasts. Yet, the undeniable reality is that our breasts do differentiate us as wholly female and are inextricably intertwined with our sense of femininity. When a woman loses a breast to cancer, she grieves. Part of what makes her feel female is gone forever. The emotional struggle to adjust to the loss of a breast from mastectomy is one more hurdle toward recovery.

Breast reconstruction surgery has helped many breast cancer survivors regain confidence in their femininity. But breast reconstruction provides only the shape of the lost breast. For many women, the scarring and lack of areola and nipple definition can be as horrible as the initial loss and a jarring daily reminder of that loss. A breast is more than a mound of tissue. The deeper colored areola and protruding nipple define a woman’s breast. Without that essential definition it is difficult for many women to embrace a reconstructed breast as their own.

Many plastic surgeons do not understand the emotional need to create an aesthetically realistic breast. Through her work with mastectomy patients, paramedical tattoo expert Melany Whitney came to realize the deep emotional need breast cancer survivors had for reconstructed breasts that looked real. Combining her artistic ability and professional expertise, Melany developed a unique micropigmentation tattoo technique that recreates the natural, three-dimensional look of a real breast. Click here to see actual results. Paramedical breast restoration can be the final step in successful breast cancer recovery.

Most of us have a family member or close friend who has had or who is now struggling against breast cancer. For women, the fight against breast cancer is a universal experience, the struggle that binds us to each other, the cause that brings us together. Breast cancer doesn’t distinguish rich from poor, CEO from sales clerk, professional woman from hotel maid, Hollywood celebrity from small town soccer mom. For women, breast cancer is the great equalizer and the fight against it, a common bond.

If you are close to someone who has fought against breast cancer, you understand the difficulty and intensity of the struggle. You’ve held her hand and cried with her. You’ve kept her company in cold, drafty hospital rooms. You’ve watched her children when the nausea from chemotherapy made her ill. You’ve delivered endless casseroles when she was too exhausted to cook. You may have shaved your head in solidarity or grown your locks for donation to Locks of Love. You’ve walked and cycled countless miles to raise funds for cancer research. Most of all, you’ve been there when your friend needed you most. If you are fortunate, you’ve helped your friend survive for we are slowly, at long last, winning the fight against breast cancer.

But even after the fight is won, the struggle to adjust to the loss of a breast from mastectomy can be a difficult hurdle, one more agonizing battle in the fight against breast cancer.

Thursday: How Permanent Makeup can help your loved one fight the final battle in breast cancer recovery.

Time to wear pink! October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and we’re happy to report that progress is being made. According to the American Cancer Society, since 1990 breast cancer deaths in the U.S. have been declining by about 2% a year. Even so, 192,370 U.S. women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year and 40,170 will die from the disease. The good news is that survival rates are improving: 89% at five years after diagnosis, 82% after 10 years and 75% after 15 years. But survival often carries a high price tag. Women lose their hair, eyebrows and eyelashes to chemotherapy. They may lose a breast if they have to undergo a mastectomy. Cancer surgery can leave unsightly scars. Certainly, it seems a small price to pay for life; but the physical aftermath of battling cancer can continue to reopen emotional wounds as survivors try to move on with their lives.

If you are a cancer survivor, we want you to know that you are not alone. The caring staff at the Whitney Center for Permanent Cosmetics offers our support. Specialized paramedical tattooing techniques perfected by nationally-recognized technician Melany Whitney can help cancer survivors regain their beauty and self-confidence. Permanent makeup can recreate natural eyebrows and eyelashes lost during chemotherapy. Artistic paramedical tattooing can camouflage scars from tumor surgery. Melany’s unique three-dimensional nipple and areola restoration can make surgically reconstructed breasts look natural again. There is life after cancer. Permanent makeup can help a beautiful new you enjoy each new day.