SUMMER IS DELIGHTFUL AT BASHIR AHMAD LAWN
Fresh Summer Prints
Exhibition on 29 March
At Dynasty - Faisalabad
Fresh Summer Prints
Exhibition on 29 March
At Dynasty - Faisalabad
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Showing posts with label Fashion News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fashion News. Show all posts
RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA -- When they leave their homes, the women of Saudi Arabia put on veils and shroud themselves from head to toe in shapeless black cloaks.
But even though their faces are invisible in most public places, the kingdom's female residents spend more on hair care and cosmetics per capita than almost any other women in the Middle East.
Saudi women trade beauty tips on Twitter, and teenagers gather for "makeup nights," showing off their command of the latest "smoky eye" look. Meanwhile, the country's clerics denounce them as "distorting God's creation" and succumbing to temptation.
Last year, Saudi women spent almost $2.4 billion on cosmetics, among the highest per capita in the world, and analysts predict that the market will grow by 11 percent this year.
Here, "women of all ages spend more on their appearance," said Jacqueline Clarke, research director of Diagonal Reports, which tracks trends in the beauty market worldwide.
Most women prefer professional salon products, but official rules restrict licenses for beauty parlors. Only by having a "dressmaker's license" -- with tailors on the premises -- or an owner with influential connections can a salon avoid raids by the religious police.
The strict gender segregation in the kingdom, along with bans on public entertainment such as movie theaters and nightclubs, make weddings, engagement parties, birthdays and even condolence visits critical for Saudi women: They dress to the nines to impress one another and the mothers and relatives of eligible bachelors.
Noura Saed, 25, spent nearly seven hours and $270 on her hair and makeup at a salon in the capital, Riyadh, for a friend's wedding. In a typical week, she spends about a third as much on beauty products.
"Weddings are the most important events and a good opportunity for us to dress up," Saed said. "Men often complain that we spend a lot on appearance. Well, if you live in Riyadh, what else can you do but shop?"
Salons also provide an opportunity to meet friends. "Saudi women spend a lot of time in the hair salon for socializing, and they buy higher-end products," Clarke said.
In the past, upper-class Saudis learned about beauty trends by traveling abroad. Today, satellite dishes and the Internet allow all Saudi women to discover the latest looks, with many admiring the appearance of Western movie stars and Arab pop divas.
But the country's beauty industry continues to face harsh criticism. Sheik Mohammad al-Habadan, a religious commentator, recently suggested that women should show nothing more than one eye in public. Revealing both, he said, could promote lascivious thoughts.
And some beauty salons cooperate with such social pressures, displaying materials pointing out the dangers of damnation that come with a woman plucking her eyebrows or showing a made-up face to anyone but her husband.washingtonpost.com/
Nose jobs, liposuction gain in popularity, even if few will ever see results
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Hidden beneath robes and veils, women's bodies in Saudi Arabia are undergoing a transformation.
Over the past few years, plastic surgeries and cosmetic procedures, hallmarks of the western world, have begun booming in this place where religion covers every facet of life — even those cloaked from head to toe.
Clerics are grappling for the first time with particularly delicate questions: Does Islam frown on nose jobs? Chemical peels? How about breast implants? Does it matter that the results will never see the light of day?
One of the clerics with the answers is Sheik Mohammed al-Nujaimi, and Saudi women flock to him for guidance about going under the knife.
Al-Nujaimi draws his guidelines from the consensus that was reached three years ago when clergymen and plastic surgeons met to determine whether cosmetic procedures violate the Islamic tenet against tampering God's creation.
The verdict was that it's halal (sanctioned) to augment unusually small breasts, fix features that are causing a person grief, or reverse damage from an accident. But undergoing an unsafe procedure or changing the shape of a "perfect nose" just to resemble a singer or actress is haram (forbidden).
"I get calls from many, many women asking about cosmetic procedures," said al-Nujaimi. "The presentations we got from the doctors made me better equipped to give them guidance."
In recent years, plastic surgery centers with gleaming facades have sprung up on streets in Riyadh, the capital. Their front-page newspaper ads promise laser treatments, hair implants and liposuction.
From rarities only 10 years ago, the centers now number 35 and are "saturating the Saudi market," Ahmed al-Otaibi, a Saudi skin specialist, was quoted as saying in the Al-Hayat newspaper.
Liposuction, nose and breast jobs most popular
Al-Otaibi cited a study according to which liposuction, breast augmentations and nose jobs are the most popular among women, while men go for hair implants and nose jobs.
Saudi women see nothing unusual about undergoing plastic surgery and then covering it up in robes and veils.
Sarah, an unmarried, 28-year-old professional woman, pointed out in an interview that underneath their robes, women go in for designer clothes and trendy haircuts to be flaunted at women's gatherings, shown to their husbands and exposed on trips abroad.
"We attend a lot of private occasions, and we also travel," said Sarah, who declined to give her full name to protect her privacy.
She said she is contemplating having 22 surgeries, including a breast lift, padding her rear and reversing her down-turned lips into a smile.
She also wants the lips of Lebanese singer Haifa Wehbe, and less flare to her nostrils, though so far her plastic surgeon has refused to do the nose because he doesn't think it needs altering.
Ayman al-Sheikh, a Saudi doctor who spent almost 14 years in the U.S., most of them at Harvard, said demand in Saudi Arabia is in line with increased global demand. But what he sees more of in the Arab world, including Saudi Arabia, is a customers for procedures that enhance the face to the point where it no longer looks natural.
The trend is being set by entertainers whose pouty lips, chiseled midriffs and enhanced breasts are seen on TV across the Arab world.
'Every face has its own features'
Not all customers seek religious sanction, and not all surgeons abide by the clerics' guidelines, so a woman is apt to pick a surgeon depending on how liberal he is.
"People are overdone by design or by mistake," al-Sheikh, 43, told the AP. "If something is done on a famous figure it becomes iconic in our world even if it doesn't look esthetically appealing."
He said when he returned to the kingdom four years ago, patients initially came with requests for one performer's nose or another's cheeks, but that stopped after word spread he was a conservative who believes "every face has its own features."
The boom in surgery prompted Saudi columnist Abdoo Khal to write a piece titled, "We don't want you to be Cinderella."
"Women's rush to undergo plastic surgery is an obsession resulting from a woman's insecurity," he wrote, "and it consolidates the idea that women are for bed only."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32205966/ns/health-skin_and_beauty/
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Hidden beneath robes and veils, women's bodies in Saudi Arabia are undergoing a transformation.
Over the past few years, plastic surgeries and cosmetic procedures, hallmarks of the western world, have begun booming in this place where religion covers every facet of life — even those cloaked from head to toe.
Clerics are grappling for the first time with particularly delicate questions: Does Islam frown on nose jobs? Chemical peels? How about breast implants? Does it matter that the results will never see the light of day?
One of the clerics with the answers is Sheik Mohammed al-Nujaimi, and Saudi women flock to him for guidance about going under the knife.
Al-Nujaimi draws his guidelines from the consensus that was reached three years ago when clergymen and plastic surgeons met to determine whether cosmetic procedures violate the Islamic tenet against tampering God's creation.
The verdict was that it's halal (sanctioned) to augment unusually small breasts, fix features that are causing a person grief, or reverse damage from an accident. But undergoing an unsafe procedure or changing the shape of a "perfect nose" just to resemble a singer or actress is haram (forbidden).
"I get calls from many, many women asking about cosmetic procedures," said al-Nujaimi. "The presentations we got from the doctors made me better equipped to give them guidance."
In recent years, plastic surgery centers with gleaming facades have sprung up on streets in Riyadh, the capital. Their front-page newspaper ads promise laser treatments, hair implants and liposuction.
From rarities only 10 years ago, the centers now number 35 and are "saturating the Saudi market," Ahmed al-Otaibi, a Saudi skin specialist, was quoted as saying in the Al-Hayat newspaper.
Liposuction, nose and breast jobs most popular
Al-Otaibi cited a study according to which liposuction, breast augmentations and nose jobs are the most popular among women, while men go for hair implants and nose jobs.
Saudi women see nothing unusual about undergoing plastic surgery and then covering it up in robes and veils.
Sarah, an unmarried, 28-year-old professional woman, pointed out in an interview that underneath their robes, women go in for designer clothes and trendy haircuts to be flaunted at women's gatherings, shown to their husbands and exposed on trips abroad.
"We attend a lot of private occasions, and we also travel," said Sarah, who declined to give her full name to protect her privacy.
She said she is contemplating having 22 surgeries, including a breast lift, padding her rear and reversing her down-turned lips into a smile.
She also wants the lips of Lebanese singer Haifa Wehbe, and less flare to her nostrils, though so far her plastic surgeon has refused to do the nose because he doesn't think it needs altering.
Ayman al-Sheikh, a Saudi doctor who spent almost 14 years in the U.S., most of them at Harvard, said demand in Saudi Arabia is in line with increased global demand. But what he sees more of in the Arab world, including Saudi Arabia, is a customers for procedures that enhance the face to the point where it no longer looks natural.
The trend is being set by entertainers whose pouty lips, chiseled midriffs and enhanced breasts are seen on TV across the Arab world.
'Every face has its own features'
Not all customers seek religious sanction, and not all surgeons abide by the clerics' guidelines, so a woman is apt to pick a surgeon depending on how liberal he is.
"People are overdone by design or by mistake," al-Sheikh, 43, told the AP. "If something is done on a famous figure it becomes iconic in our world even if it doesn't look esthetically appealing."
He said when he returned to the kingdom four years ago, patients initially came with requests for one performer's nose or another's cheeks, but that stopped after word spread he was a conservative who believes "every face has its own features."
The boom in surgery prompted Saudi columnist Abdoo Khal to write a piece titled, "We don't want you to be Cinderella."
"Women's rush to undergo plastic surgery is an obsession resulting from a woman's insecurity," he wrote, "and it consolidates the idea that women are for bed only."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32205966/ns/health-skin_and_beauty/
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