Umazon Blog

Although my dad had a receding hairline, I never believed hair loss would happen to me. Shortly before my 30th birthday, I noticed that my hairline was receding. I was scared and in denial that I was losing my hair. I even started losing hair on the back of my head.

It was the first time in my life I felt old. I felt like the best years of my life were behind me. I even ceased seeing girls. My love life was almost non-existent. There was one girl I had been dating nonchalantly and even though I liked her, I just stopped returning her calls. I realised that I hadn’t found the woman of my dreams with a full head of hair so there was no way I was going to find someone with my growing bald spot. I was too discouraged to even try having a romantic kinship.

Hair loss taken a toll on me enormously, it transformed me from a confident person to a depressed loner. I was assured to get the problem solved and started looking for a remedy. I tried plenty of hair loss treatments that are obtainable in the counter. I have tried every single treatment and solution accessible from the drug store, none of it worked. After that, I just stopped trying for a while. It was a real low point in my life. I even stopped going out with my friends, I was so deflated.

Fortuitously, one night a good friend of mine took me out for a few drinks. Throughout the night, he noticed was I appeared a little down. It took him a little while to figure out why. He told me about the hair loss studio in the city. My friend had gone there for hair loss treatments and had been impressed with the results. I was even more impressed. He had no sign of hair loss, he had a full head of hair. He made me promise to give them a shot and I agreed.

I could not have been happier with the hair loss studio recommended to me. After just a few hair loss treatments, I had a full head of hair again. The results were excellent, they did not just give me my hair back but also my self-assurance.

Breast implants for cosmetic augmentation first became available in the 1960’s and rapidly gained popularity in the 1970’s. By the 1980’s breast augmentation was the second most popular plastic surgery (after liposuction), and the motto seemed to be “the bigger the better”. The oversized implants seen everywhere in the popular media in the 80’s and 90’s clearly served to alter the public’s perception of what breasts are supposed to look like: large, taut and high. The kind of breasts that formerly appeared only in cartoons.

Today, breast augmentation is more popular than ever. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (www.plasticsurgery.org), 254,140 breast augmentation surgeries were performed in 2003. This is a 7 percent increase from 2002 and a 20 percent increase from 2000. But reason is beginning to prevail again, and patients and the public are ‘rediscovering’ the fact that the aesthetic ideal for the female breast is soft, supple, much fuller in the lower than the upper pole, and in proportion to the rest of a woman’s figure.

Patient demographics are changing, too. Women in their 30’s and 40’s (especially moms) are the fastest growing group of patients seeking breast augmentation today. These are women who have lost breast volume following pregnancy and lactation, and who simply seek to restore a natural, more youthful breast contour. They don’t want to look like they’ve had surgery; they instead wish to ‘fill out’ clothing better and feel more comfortable out of clothing. Even women who have not had children are opting for smaller, more realistic appearing breast augmentation. Professional women (including physicians!) want to look their best, but they don’t want to look “done”.

“It is very common in my practice to perform an enhancement that changes the breast profile from and ‘A’ cup to a ‘B’ cup,” says Dr. Michael Law, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Raleigh, NC, formerly of Beverly Hills. “I rarely have patients requesting large implants anymore, although there are still a few who express a desire for that busty, ‘done’ look. I counsel those patients that it is certainly possible to achieve that look, if it is truly what they want, but that I simply won’t perform any aesthetic surgery that doesn’t look natural. A woman with very large breast implants that doesn’t match her frame looks like a cartoon character, and that is not my aesthetic ideal. And these patients never have any problem finding someone who will give them the look that they want.

“Potential breast augmentation patients should also give serious thought to the following consideration: one great advantage of a conservative breast enhancement is that small implants are much more likely to feel natural. It is possible to provide an enhancement that is soft, supple and even undetectable (by touching) with a small implant, something that is never achieved with very large breast implants.

“One of my most recent breast enhancement patients (another doctor) had the following to say at her three-week follow-up appointment: ‘If I hadn’t written a check to pay for them, Dr. Law, I wouldn’t know they’re not really mine.’

Kile Law owns Blue Water Spa, a plastic surgery medical spa with her husband Dr. Michael Law. Dr. Law is a board-certified plastic surgeon. he practiced aesthetic plastic surgery in Beverly Hills before moving to his hometown of Raleigh, NC and starting a solo practice there. Dr. Law’s philosophy is that great plastic surgery doesn’t look like surgery, it just makes people look great.

Ritual

What rituals do you have in your life? We all have them. Do you
always add cream and sugar to your cup before you pour in the
coffee? Do you never leave the house without making your bed? Do
you have a cup of tea before retiring? Do you always comb your
hair and freshen your lipstick before going into a meeting? Do
you brush after every meal? Rituals. Of course trimming the tree
as a family; turkey on Thanksgiving, red flowers on Valentine’s
Day are more noticeable rituals. We all have them - big and
small. Rituals. Rituals are important in our lives. They give us
unity, consistency, harmony, connectedness. As the world becomes
a more stressful, chaotic, disconnected place ritual can bring
us back to ourselves and our families. We can create less
stress, more communion, more harmony in our lives by creating
our own rituals. Big or small. Rituals. I have a “writing
ritual”. When I get up and am ready to write I make a cup of tea
(Equal goes in the cup first), I go into my office and turn on
my little desk fountain, light candles, turn on some quiet
music, sit in my big chair, pick two Angel and one Goddess
cards, and select my colored pen for the day. I then write five
items in my gratitude journal, read a daily meditation and begin
my journal. I usually begin by writing down my Angel and Goddess
cards and what those words mean to me today. Then I’m usually
off and running. Other writers have other rituals. But this
ritual relaxes me, it reassures me, and it gets me started. I
feel grounded and nurtured by doing this. Ritual: a ceremonial
act or actions; a customarily repeated act or set of acts.
Rituals are soothing . . . something we can depend on. For women
with harried, hectic lives a few minutes of a daily ritual can
be a few minutes that unravels and unwinds. A ritual can be
anything you desire . . . from meditation to washing and
creaming your face. You already do rituals . . . notice them . .
. slow them down . . . breathe while you do them . . . enjoy!
And create new ones. You don’t meditate? Get up fifteen minutes
earlier and start. You don’t wash and cream your face at night?
Buy some wonderful soap and moisturizer, get a pretty towel, and
start. You’ll not only feel better, you’ll look better. In the
movie Soul Food they had a ritual of Sunday Family Dinner. Lots
of families used to have that, but busy schedules have all but
eliminated it. In Soul Food, after the mother died, so did the
ritual, and the family fell apart. To reunite the family they
recreated the ritual - and it worked. Personal rituals, family
rituals, public rituals . . . we need them for stability and
relatedness. Church is a ritual . . . so is Super Bowl. We like
rituals! And it is a place we can be creative. Create what feels
good for you and yours. Rituals can change. For years I threw a
“Chili Bowl” party on Super Bowl Sunday. I made a ton of chili
and had “the gang” over and we watched the game. It was fun. But
as my friends began having kids and my first marriage ended it
wasn’t a ritual I wanted to continue. After I remarried I began
a different ritual. My honey and I have super sex - then we
watch the Super Bowl - just the two of us. It works! And its fun
too! Rituals will change as people and families change. Easter
egg hunts go by the way-side as children grow (although my adult
daughter still expects a chocolate bunny each year! Rituals!)
Most recently we’ve decided to “re-ritual” Christmas. We are a
small family: my husband, daughter, bonus son, my mother, and
myself. In the past we have had Christmas Eve dinner, sat around
and talked, gotten up early on Christmas morning, opened gifts,
had breakfast, cooked a turkey, had dinner . . . the whole day
was kind of anti-climatic . . .and long . . . and way too food
oriented. This year my daughter suggested we do it differently
next year. Have turkey on Christmas Eve, open the gifts, sleep
late the next morning, have breakfast, and then just hang out -
go to a movie, rent a movie, visit friends, what ever - NO
EXPECTATIONS - so next year we will try something new. How about
you . . . what ritual can you re-define, revise, rediscover, or
re-create to give meaning and harmony to your day or week? Try
it. Ritual. Ritual, however, is not the same as RUT! Notice if
you are actually performing a ritual (it’s soothing, creative,
meaningful) . . . or are you in a rut? (Non-thinking, zoned-out,
meaningless.) If it is a rut - DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT! We get in
a rut when we always do things in the same way. Drive to work
the same route every day (who cares if it is the shortest or the
fastest?) You always use the same meatloaf recipe, you make love
because it is the day you always make love; you do Christmas a
certain way because you always have. That is a rut. If it
doesn’t cause delight, discovery or desirability - it is a rut -
not ritual - CHANGE IT!