Expert Spotlight

Dr Darryl Hodgkinson
Cosmetic Plastic Surgeon

What is beauty?

If we had a magic wand, few of us would pass up the chance of changing something about the way we look. The desire to look beautiful is common, hence the availability of cosmetic clinics.

“Most clinicians would be horrified if you were to call them ‘beauty doctors’ – but it is the desire to be beautiful that drives demand for our services,” said Dr Darryl Hodgkinson.

Naturally, cosmetic clinicians need to appreciate beauty. They need to understand society’s beauty trends and what is regarded as beautiful. To this end, they need exposure to the visual arts.

Still, defining beauty is no easy task.

“To suggest that there is universality to beauty is naïve, and that a mathematical formula exists is trite,” said Dr Hodgkinson.

However, studying depictions of beauty throughout the ages could shed some light on what is considered beautiful, he suggested. For instance, paintings and sculptures even from Greco-Roman times show the classic facial proportions that are considered beautiful to this day. Other examples include Nefertiti and Venus de Milo; Botticelli’s Venus in the Renaissance period; Bernini’s baroque David; pre-Raphaelite Rossetti; and John Singer Sargent’s Madam X just prior to the 20th century.

 Nefertiti

Venus De Milo

Photographic records of beauties in the 1930s–50s include those of actresses or models such as Lily Langtry, Rita Hayworth, Brigitte Bardot, Grace Kelly and Marilyn Monroe.

More contemporary images are those of supermodels, such as Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista and Giselle Bundchen, and screen stars, such as Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman. 

These icons are only a small representation of visual records of beauty. But Dr Hodgkinson suggested it was important to study these because people visit cosmetic clinics with a complex mix of conscious and subconscious imagery of what they regard as beautiful.

“Patients ask for their looks to be changed to comply with their specific aesthetic desires. This is a daunting task for clinicians. Therefore, clinicians need to be aware of what real beauty is versus what is ‘trendy’ and likely to last only a decade,” he concluded.