Looking good is a real source of strength for women, ranking just below work and family life. This was the conclusion of an unprecedented and in-depth study conducted on behalf of Allure Magazine. The magazine reported that 78% of women say they make an effort to enhance their looks. 84% responded that they feel that men have no idea how hard they work to look good. But all that effort pays off apparently because an astounding 91 percent say they are satisfied with how they look-and this, in spite of the fact that only five percent describe themselves as looking beautiful.

Perhaps these women instinctively know what I have found in my thirty years' experience as an image consultant, and that is the fact that "Hollywood glamour" will not help you achieve popularity or success in life as much as looking polished, classy, and radiant will. Hollywood glamour is a superficial flash in the pan that seems fleeting. Classy looks go on forever. Classy people have hair and skin that always looks radiant, no matter what the age. They take care of their bodies and their health, so they wear their clothes well and have a confident stride

When it comes to confidence, Allure's survey concluded that the most confident women aren't the fresh-faced ingenues in their 20's; they're women in their 50's and 60's. And an impressive 50% aren't concerned that "I'll look less beautiful as I age." And for good reason. Our mothers and grandmothers aged less gracefully because at most they had cold cream, moisturizers, and night cream. Today we have access to more sophisticated and efficient cosmetics and beauty treatments, so it isn't necessary to lose our skin's luminosity and elasticity. Women also exercise more today, so their bodies stay in better shape much longer.

Speaking of bodies: women who were polled said they thought a woman's greatest physical attributes were her eyes; however, they thought men would notice a woman's breasts first. The women polled actually misjudged men because men say the eyes are a woman's greatest physical attribute. Nevertheless, 50% of the men polled say they would rather go out with a woman who is beautiful than one who is nice.

Nancy Etcoff may provide the reason for this result. In her groundbreaking book Survival of the Prettiest, the author concluded that modern man uses the same techniques his caveman ancestors used to pick mates: thick shiny hair, beautiful healthy skin, sparkling eyes, curved waists, and symmetrical bodies. Cavemen noticed that women who possessed the preceding traits, signs of robust health, were likely to have more reproductive success.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander apparently because our female ancestors chose men who were tall and strong because they could better protect the children they produced. We are their descendants and have the same subconscious urges, whether we know it or not. The Allure study confirms that beauty is important, but it is no longer synonymous with an unattainable ideal. A key finding from the survey was that the more confident a woman is, the more she'll spend on beauty. And it is a beautiful (not vicious) circle, because 94% of the respondents agree that the more beautiful they feel, the more confident they are.

Nancy Etcoff interviewed many experts in the field of beauty and found it noteworthy that they all agreed that they could only describe the experience of seeing beauty-and not what beauty looks like. "Someone you literally can't walk past in the street and who takes your breath away" was all that one modeling agency could declare.

Perhaps beauty is indefinable, and TV producer Aaron Spelling had the right assessment of it when he said, "I can't define it, but I know it when it walks into the room." In a sense, it is like the Mona Lisa EffectT-when you cannot recall any details about Mona Lisa, but are left only with a captivating and evocative overall impression.

As my computer expert noted recently, "Why did you choose Mona Lisa for your company icon? She isn't even pretty." No, she isn't. But she certainly must have made quite an impression when she walked into the room all those centuries ago. We still can't get her out our minds. And that's even better than "being beautiful."

Sandy Dumont, THE Image Architect is an image consultant and professional speaker based in Virginia Beach, with 30 years of international and national experience helping individuals and Fortune 500 companies improve their image. She conducts customized Branding for People™workshops on a regular basis.
For more information, visit www.theimagearchitect.com or call 757/627-6669.

To view the original article in Tidewater Women, please visit here

by Sandy Dumont, THE Image Architect © 2005
Originally published in Tidewater Women, October 2005