In case you’ve been off the Internet today, a video of the latest and greatest beauty trick has been going viral on Facebook, and it’s leaving people with very different … feelings. The “trick” is basically this: taping the back of your neck together in order to remove the appearance of wrinkles and sagging skin, thereby making you look younger and thinner.
Women have apparently flocked in droves to purchase this “magic tape” product — so much so that the company (called Nexsey) is sold out. But don’t worry, they are offering a discount once it’s back in stock!
My first reaction when I saw this video? I thought it had to be a joke. I mean, it’s tape that pulls your skin together. This can’t be a real product that women purchase. Yet, upon further investigation, I learned that this is, in fact, a real SOLD OUT product.
Sigh.
Ladies: WHAT ARE WE DOING? Why are we torturing our bodies? Listen, I get the struggle — I am 36 and a mother of 3. I look back at pictures of myself from 20 years ago, and I see what I used to be. I see the smooth skin, the absence of crows’ feet around my eyes, the lack of laugh lines. I see the fit pre-kid body that was once toned at the gym for hours per day. I see her, and I do miss her. I understand the desire to hold on to our youth.
However …
Aging is a part of life. And in the 20 years since those photos of teenage me were taken, I’ve lived a life of joy. I’ve laughed enough to add a few more lines on to my face. Unlike Kim Kardashian, I haven’t limited my smiles for fear of wrinkles. This video claims taping your neck will “turn your frown upside down.” But do you know what turns my frown upside down? Seeing the world. Enjoying my friends and family. Playing with my kids. And I probably need to be able to turn my neck to be able to do those things.
Furthermore, I have a daughter. She watches herself in the mirror every day. And she watches me. What am I teaching her if I don’t love myself? If I’m willing to do things like this to my body in order to look “thinner and younger”? How will she see herself as naturally beautiful if I don’t show her?
So it’s your call, girlfriends. For $19.99, you can purchase a 10-foot roll of tape to make your neck look younger and smaller. And who knows, you can probably tape other parts of your body too. Just stick that stuff everywhere and take 20 years off! It sounds like quite the product as it’s apparently “putting cosmetic surgeons out of business.”
Or you can love your body and all that it has experienced. Accept that you’ll wrinkle. That your skin will loosen. And that sometimes, the most beautiful women simply age gracefully.