Joint yoga sessions are passe. These days, urban Indian couples across age groups aren't shying away from signing up or gifting each other varied treatments, routines and mood enhancers. From Botox boosters, butt jobs and neckline shots to similar tattoos and adrenaline-charged Zumba routines, they are ready to push the envelope, to express their love. As V-Day draws near, The GUIDE looks at skin-deep truths of beauty and fitness, for the sake of love
For all the heart-warming tear-jerkers that Lokhandwala-based freelance script writer Rewa Sharma (55) pens every week, she also spends enough time in the real world to recognise that everlasting happiness is a product of personal effort not providence. With a married daughter, aged 29 and a single son who is 24, Rewa refuses to slip into middle-age apathy or to allow time to corrode her joie de vivre. The trick, to feeling young, she believes, “...is to look young.”
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It was a decade ago that Rewa first sought the expertise of dermatologist Dr Jamuna Pai, to work towards this goal, and telling us about the effect of those preliminary Botox shots to tackle laughter lines and the crow’s feet that marked the corners of her eyes, Rewa says she may as well have been injected with a magical youth potion.
“I looked amazing,” she tells us, “...so I felt amazing.” Confident her husband Ravi would benefit similarly, Rewa who wouldn’t miss those biannual Botox boosters for the world, has been trying to coax the 61-year-old to get these treatments ever since but she finally made a breakthrough only a few days ago. Rewa was thrilled.
Chin up
“Ravi has lost nearly 10 kilos recently and he looks super fit, but the weight-loss made the lines on his face more prominent,” Rewa explains. Consequently, she says, “I couldn't think of a better present for him for Valentine’s Day, and our 33rd wedding anniversary, which follows just three days later.”
Celeb and the botox trip
Cindy Crawford
Jenny McCarthy
Kim Kardashian
Rewa’s own present was a Botox booster for the crow’s feet and a non-surgical Botox fix for the loose skin on her neck, what she says is called, “neckband treatment.” Her self-employed husband on the other hand, received upper-face and neck Botox treatments, both of which effectively deleted wrinkles, lines and loose skin.
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Simon Cowell
Whatever happened to growing old with someone you love, to the whole idea of, “love and cherish, for better, for worse...you may wonder. After all, isn’t beauty just skin deep? Rewa takes a different view. “Everyone wants to look good. That’s the plain truth,” she asserts, “Unfortunately, the hypocrisy that prevails in Indian society tempts people to be secretive about the efforts they make to achieve this, especially if their efforts include cosmetic treatments.”
Jennifer Aniston
Rewa, who lives in a modest two-bedroom apartment, boldly admits to being addicted to such non-surgical cosmetic treatments and having previously perfected her pout and filled in the depressions under her eyes, she actually goes a step further and dubs the procedures, “an investment,” as she points out that the confidence they instill in her, “...drives me to work harder, and to achieve more.”
Good looks come at a price
Dr Pai shares that upper face treatments cost between Rs 15,000 and Rs 17,000 and require topping up every four to six months, the neckband treatment costs about Rs 20,000 and again, needs bi-annual boosters and the fillers for cheeks, which may endure for a year depending on the material used, may cost between Rs 30,000 to Rs 60,000.
Men are also often gifted Thermage skin tightening treatments
When asked about the expense, Rewa happily responds, “People spend so much on clothes, fashion accessories, and handbags, these days. Those things don’t do anything for my morale. This does!”
In fact, Rewa is not alone. Dr Pai confirms that it's very common for couples to seek such treatments together these days. “We even see engaged youngsters gifting these treatments to each other on special occasions,” she says. Apart from gifting the sort of treatments Rewa has opted for, men often buy the women in their lives anti-ageing hand and feet treatments. And what are the women buying their men?
Butt, really?
Upper face treatments that cure men of frown lines are especially favoured, Pai tells us, surprising us when she reveals that men are also often gifted Thermage skin tightening treatments such as the one use to treat Rewa’s neckbands, not just for the jowls or neck though, but for their buttocks. “There’s no down time here,” Pai points out - no pun intended. What she means is that the procedure requires no serious aftercare, so it’s literally, bottoms up, and you’re good to go.
(Case study names changed on request)
Fitness>> Let’s work it out
Don’t get complacent this Valentine’s Day; instead, do something that will help keep you fit with your partner. Fitness studio Frequencee is offering an intimacy workout to help you get sweaty and healthier with your partner.
The FQ partner workout is a combination of trampolines, steppers, weights, Swiss balls, skipping ropes/ exert tubes/ dyna bands and more. They also incorporate Masala Bhangra and Zumba in this class and they feel that routine helps build intimacy and trust between couples and facilitates communication.
Explains Hetall Madhiwalla, fitness expert and founder of Frequencee, “The workout uses Resistance Bands which gets the couple interacting, having fun together and accomplishing a fabulous workout. These exercises can be done with anyone - spouses, best friends, co-workers or relatives.
Couples like it when trainers get involved in the session - it makes the workouts more fun and dynamic. With partner workouts you can still reach your fitness goals and not have to compromise your one-on-one time with your partner.”
At: Frequencee,The Plaza, Hughes Road.
Call: 9920131637 / 9820142519
Cost : Rs 4,100 for eight sessions (per couple)
Soma Das
Tattoos >>Inked together
The effects of Botox done together might not last long, but a tattoo, will stay forever and setting an example of getting ‘couple’ tattoos are several Indian and international celebrities.
Hrithik and Sussanne Roshan have similar tattoos
Sameer Patange of Kraayonz Tattoo Studio, Bandra, says, “We get at least two enquiries for couple tattoos, everyday. People often get two halves of the same tattoo inked on themselves.
Apart from names, some of the other requests includes where the guy gets a tattoo based on the choice of his girfriend and vice versa. We don’t encourage couple tattoos as we have had several people coming back to get them wanting it to be erased or covered up later.”
Patange says one of the first Indian celebrities to get couple tattoos were Hrithik and Sussanne Roshan (who were tattooed by Patange). The duo got tattoos of stars, initially, and followed it later, with their partner’s names.
The list of international stars who sport couple tattoos include Miley Cyrus and her fiancee Liam Hemsworth, Rihanna and Chris Brown and Beyonce and Jay Z among others.
Dhara Vora
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