Seoul - the Price of Beauty

The China Doll Look
The ladies here are very pretty.  Apparently, it's very important to be pretty in Korea.  According to our tour guide by the time they reach their mid-20's, one quarter of all Korean women have had some form of plastic surgery.  As I tried to take a clear photo of this plastic surgery poster in the subway, women kept stopping to read it.  Not a quick glance, they stopped and soaked it in. 

Our tour guide said they waste no money on breasts.  It's all about the face here.  They get their eyes enlarged (meaning they cut out some of the eyelid) or their nose fixed.

They even get botox shot into their jaws.  This basically freezes the muscle so it cannot be used, thus slimming the jawline.  This poster showed before and after shots.

As sad as this all is, it gets even worse.  Apparently it's not limited to the ladies.  Check out these ads for mean's face cream:

This one advertises snail cream.  Yep, snail. 

There is a clear generation gap.  Every man above 50 looks like he's just gotten out of a fight in the back alley of a saloon.  I wonder what they make of the younger generation.