Make-under gets past all the glam

Jenny Frost

Jenny Frost

Published Jul 7, 2014

Share

AS A SHOW Snog Marry Avoid? is not really something we should be talking about. It’s one of those make-over shows, make-under if you will, which sees random people given tips on what to let go of to improve your look. These come from Atomic Kitten’s Jenny Frost (pictured).

What the show advocates is as natural a look as possible and after the participant has been made over, a close relative or partner is called in to judge the new look and their initial reaction is recorded, unbeknown to them.

Anyway, nothing Emmy- worthy here, but what makes Snog Marry Avoid? different is that it’s against too much make-up. It shows the simpler and more natural side to life.

There is a war raging: producers of beauty accessories are telling our girls what the new definition of beauty is. Of course, they start by corrupting the likes of Beyonce, who was voted Forbes’ most powerful person, and when she wears that weave the rest of the world follows.

But when Chris Rock does a Michael Moore-styled film and traces the source of the hair that our black sisters wear, you realise that it comes from the heads of Indian girls during some sort ceremony. It is then processed and packaged and sold ready to be worn by others. Forget the health implications that come with this, let’s just look at the psychological implications such a transaction could have. What message is this sending – that other types of hair are not “good hair?”

But that’s just the beginning There is also the issue of skin lightening that seems to be “in” these days. Google “Nicky Minaj skin bleach” and see what you find. Again, another influential person altering their looks because they are not happy with their natural- born beauty.

Nicky did not stop there, she allegedly had her derriere surgically enhanced to look much bigger. The before and after pictures will shock you.

Perhaps this is what money brings. Look at Denzel Washington who had a gap between his front teeth in his youth. I bet he wouldn’t have got the sexiest man alive titles with the wind whizzing through his smile, now would he?

Then there is the issue of Jian Feng, the man who sued his wife after she gave birth to ugly babies. If you don’t know the story already then, briefly, this is how it went: Feng married a hot girl who neglected to tell him she had had some cosmetic work done. The secret only came out when they had kids.

What’s this obsession with looks anyway? After Michael Jackson you would think that people would learn.

Rapper 50 Cent is no hunk, but he gets whatever or whomever he wants. At the end of the day you are as fly as you think you are, altered or not.

• Snog Marry Avoid?, Tuesdays, 7.49pm, MTV (DStv channel 130).

Related Topics: