When influencers encourage you to have a procedure

So many ladies undergo procedures, some of which are prety drastic, to make themselves look beter than they think they look. It could be a nose job, hair style change, hairline change, make up tatoos and some even bigger than these. Whilst some ladies are happy with the results of their procedures there are far too many who wish they hadn’t undergone it either because it went terribly wrong or because it didn’t suit them.

A Polish nurse decided to have her hairline reduced because she felt she had an unusually large forehead. So she went abroad to have the procedure done but the resulting scars were so bad that she now needs another surgical procedure to rid herself of those scars which would, otherwise, be permanent. She got the idea about hairline reduction surgery ater watching a Tiktok video!

There is something very sad about some of the ladies who undergo these procedures because not all of them are taken because they themselves want it. A lot of the time their decision to undergo the change is spurred on by other people. Those people could be a spouse, an employer or just an influencer they are following on social media.

What these ladies do not realise is that an influencer is named as such simply because they are influencers. They influence people to do or buy something that they otherwise might not have thought of doing or buying. Moreover, influencers are not restricted to encouraging you to buy a certain brand of makeup or go to a specific restaurant. They do a lot more than that. They can influence people to have a tatoo because they have one or they can influence people to try new face creams and even to have a nose job by a specific cosmetic surgeon because this surgeon worked on their nose. Now, whether or not said surgeon did work on his or her nose, is something we, as followers of these influencers, will never know. Many people, desperate to have the same look as their favourite influencer, go for it without even doing their own homework. They think that watching an influencer talk up their favourite surgeon is enough verification because look how great they look. But that influencer may not eat that supplement, or use that cream or even have had a procedure. They are on camera so it could all be makeup.

But I wonder how much responsibility these influencers take for the decisions other people make. I wonder if they might argue that they spread the information based on their own experiences and, at the end of the day, the decision to do something is those watching them. They might further argue that influencing is not forcing. That may be so, but surely influencing is encouraging, which is enough to make people want to look like you.

I know someone who has consistently taken supplements to enhance collagen and improve hair and nail growth as well as a whole spate of other improvements she thinks she needs. She got most of these ideas from the internet and watching influencers on social media. Because she took over 30 supplements a week, when her tests came back from a routine blood test, there were so many abnormal results including those related to liver enzymes. The doctors advised her to stop taking supplements ASAP and told her that most of these supplements are pure gimmick. My friend stopped taking those supplements and ater about a month everything went back to normal.

I have another friend who was constantly having her hair bleached. But one time she had a horrible incident in a hair salon when they burnt her scalp. I recall how she was in excruciating pain for days. She was a natural black and her hair was generally in terrible condition from the constant bleaching she was undergoing; its texture was like straw. When I asked her to stop she said she did it because her husband wanted her to be blond! So spouses can be influencers too.

The last influencer is an employer. Some professions demand that their employees, whether male or female, but most female, look a certain way and be at a certain weight. I have come across posts from young ladies asking how to look 10kg in a week because it’s weighing time at work and her boss had been telling her she looked a bit plump. Modelling jobs are similar in that each model must look like death is close to her. Many models have ditched their modelling careers because they want to eat and not be hooked to a glucose drip ater collapsing from being under-nourished.

Show me a lady who does not care what others say about her appearance and she may be the healthy one.

Birjees Hussain