Growing up isn’t easy. If you’re in India and have a darker-than-average skin tone, it’s even more difficult. But it’s the most difficult if you’re the only dark person in an entire family tree. That last little detail was pointed out to me, when I was an already-awkward 14, by a ‘concerned’ relative. Then, somebody paid me a compliment: ‘Oh, you have such clear skin.’ And just like that, all was suddenly well with the world again. But it was only another year, before I was struggling with zits.
My grandmother, a doctor, had the fix. “You need to get rid of the bacteria,” she explained, very clinically. Her prescription was neem soap, calamine lotion, lots of fruits and vegetables and water. “You need to cleanse, from the inside, as also from the outside, and then watch your skin glow.” Sound advice, even 20 years later. Except that now, we call it functional beauty.
What is it?
Functional beauty is everyday skin and hair wellness that feeds into long-term beauty goals — it’s not about highlighter or eyeshadow; it’s about using products that nourish and reveal the best that you can look. “Functional beauty is the specific area of the beauty business that focusses on better ageing of the skin, body and hair, unlike the areas of fragrance, colour and lifestyle products,” explains Brandon Truaxe, Founder of DECIEM — The Abnormal Beauty Company, based out of Toronto. DECIEM is the umbrella for 10 brands, such as The Ordinary, which are all functional beauty brands. While older brands, such as SkinCeuticals and Peter Thomas Roth, have been producing products that work similarly, for a while now, DECIEM can definitely be considered a pioneer in articulating the concept of functional beauty products well.
Like functional foods, that “have a potentially positive effect on health beyond basic nutrition,” as the Mayo Clinic, US, describes it, functional beauty has far-reaching effects. It goes beyond just looking good for the day — you look and feel good for years to come. Take the functional food yoghurt. It isn’t just eaten for its calcium; it also contributes to good gut health, which, in turn, helps keep your skin healthy. So, a number of foods that feed into our long-term health goals also have an impact on our long-term beauty goals. Just as vitamin D may be added to an existing food to fortify it to make it functional, skin and haircare products too may have an added element to boost their purpose, such as vitamin C.
Functional beauty has another perspective: the ability to accept ourselves and work on bringing out our best physical version. We embrace our natural skin colour, and we make it glow. We love our hair, and we make it shine. We don’t fight the ageing process, but we delay it. Look at it as a three-step process: acknowledging the way we look, eating to maximise this, using products mindfully so that they feed into looking great sans the concealer.
The implications
“Our aim is radiant, blemish-free skin,” says Dr Jaishree Sharad, dermatologist and CEO, Skinfiniti Aesthetic Skin & Laser Clinic, Mumbai, and author, Skin Talks . “You have to be confident in your skin, and that comes when you look after yourself. Cleanse, tone, moisturise, use a sunscreen, eat healthy, pack in at least 7 hours of sleep a night, exercise regularly… that’s all you need. And of course, don’t smoke and avoid alcohol,” she says.
But is it really as simple as that? “To my mind, the most important question is: where do you draw the line?” says Dr Kiran Lohia, dermatologist and founder, Lumiere Dermatology, Delhi. “And the answer to that is really determined by how you feel, because I believe that so-called imperfections really give character. They define who you are. So no, you don’t have to live with acne, but a scar or a crooked nose, or your corkscrew curls would totally be your defining feature. You don’t have to look like everybody!” But you take good care of what you have.
Turns out, the job of a dermatologist isn’t just about ‘fixing’ woes, but involves a lot of counselling, too. “A lot of patients come to me with a dark complexion, a flat or round nose, thin lips, sunken eyes or frizzy hair,” Dr Sharad tells us. “In some cases, like frizzy hair, of course, I tell them how to take care of it, so they can control the frizz, but in most others, I counsel them on what they need: clear skin, and not a major change in appearance.”
