I unearthed an old picture of me during the time I was sporting a “fob” with bright red ends.
That was such a terrible decision that I immediately regretted. I couldn’t stand all the negative attention; I immediately had it dyed black in a few days. 😅
I realized something else, though – oh yeah, I used to have eyebags! I hated them so much that when I eventually learned to use makeup, I tried to conceal them whenever I could. Then at some point in my thirties, they just suddenly disappeared.
When I told my friends about this observation, Chi mentioned that in Korea, eyebags are a sign of youth. Some even use makeup to draw attention to them and make them look puffy. She then sent this link.
I was so surprised to read this.
But then again, this isn’t the only Korean beauty standard that’s different from Filipinos.
Another example is the Korean “glass skin” or dewy look that they spend loads of products and effort to achieve, because once again, it’s a sign of youth.
Meanwhile in the Philippines, we have a saying which goes:
Oiliness is next to ugliness.
You know what, I like the Korean standard more. I wasted so much time and effort in concealing my eyebags and mattifying the hell out of my skin when I should just have enjoyed the signs of my youth before they were gone!
And one more Philippine beauty standard that I hate: fat-shaming!
During that time in the above pic, a lot of people were telling me: “You could be beautiful if you lost weight.”
What I heard was: “You’re ugly because you’re fat.” It damaged my self esteem. I don’t think it will ever be fully repaired.
I wish I hadn’t been surrounded by those people. Because now when I look at that pic, I think, man, I would kill to get that body back!
Why do we never know what we’ve got until it’s gone?
Leave a Reply