Shifting Beauty Standards In India: The Impact Of Aesthetic Clinics

Redefining Beauty Standards in India: How Modern Aesthetic Clinics Are Changing Perceptions

It's no secret that the cosmetic sector and aesthetic clinics in India have undergone a dramatic transformation over the past decade. New technologies are constantly being developed and offered to patients. We're also witnessing a shift in public perception where patients are slowly breaking free from convention, opting for non-surgical and non-invasive procedures.

Patient Awareness

There's also a growing sense of awareness that when it comes to beauty treatments, people would rather consult a skilled medical professional for a more holistic approach as opposed to a conventional beauty salon.

• Over time, patient awareness is slowly evolving due to multiple factors. They're heavily invested in educating themselves about how aesthetic treatments work, harnessing in depth knowledge about each treatment. However, with respect to the Indian consumer's changing perception of beauty, we don't think aesthetic clinics can claim all the credit. They've had their fair share of help from "social media" which in my opinion has been the biggest catalyst that's propelled the growth of the beauty industry as a whole.
• We live in an era where consumers are constantly bombarded with content and information on social media, not just from aesthetic clinics but also from doctors, trusted influencers and celebrities. They've played a great part in normalizing aesthetic procedures, creating a significant impact on the minds of consumers, influencing their perception and making them habitual customers and patrons of the industry. Doctors and cosmetic clinics now consider content creation a vital part of the business to educate customers and spread awareness.
• With widespread access to information regarding the latest treatments and technologies, patients become more aware and begin to trust the process, thereby creating a paradigm shift that has played a huge role in changing the landscape of the cosmetic industry. Moreover, back in the day, access to aesthetic treatments was restricted only to Tier 1 cities in India.
• Even in those cities, top-quality, high-end procedures were offered only by a select few clinics, to a selective group of people. At that time, there also existed a widespread belief in India that aesthetic treatments were only for the rich and famous and only a niche category or celebrities could access these treatments. This has also changed rapidly over the past decade and clinics offering quality treatments are now widely available not just in Tier 1 cities but also Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities across the country.
• The public perception and definition of beauty is also constantly evolving. Earlier, having a fair skin tone was massively associated with the notion of beauty in our country. This is slowly changing. While we may still have a long way to go in India, people are becoming more aware and comfortable in their own skin. We're witnessing more people embracing their skin type and who want to have healthy skin as opposed to fairer skin.
• This has been the biggest paradigm shift in the Indian public's perception of beauty and one cannot downplay the tremendous impact that social media has played alongside aesthetic clinics in bringing about this change. The future of beauty in India is extremely bright and we're only going to see more consumers with an increased state of awareness and greater acceptance regarding the constantly evolving beauty standards in the country.

Conclusion

We can also expect a dramatic transformation in public perception on body-wellness over the next five years, similar to the rapid evolution of Indian beauty standards over the past decade. Doctors, clinics and all stakeholders in the aesthetic industry have a collective responsibility to ensure that body wellness goes hand-in-hand with skincare and selfcare. A truly exciting era for the Indian beauty consumer has begun with great certainty that the next decade will belong to them.