Unusual Beauty Standards Around the World: Unique Ideals and Traditions
Tattooing Your Gums – Senegal
Tattoos are no doubt trendy in many parts of the world. Some like to have them in New Zealand on the lips and chin; others like henna tattoos in India on the hands and feet; and others like to tattoo the gums in Senegal. Tattooed, decorated gums are associated with a more individual and prettier smile in Senegal, making this a widespread practice among women.
Tattooing your gums sounds like it would hurt a lot and we can only assume you’re not able to eat or drink for a little while. We can only surmise the women doing it are pretty special.
Facial Tattoos – New Zealand
Tattooing has become very popular lately everywhere in the world but in many countries tattoos can be seen only from the neck down. Which is not the case for the Māori tribe of New Zealand, where tattooed faces are quite common and a symbol of beauty. However, each tattoo carries significance and denotes a woman’s place in the tribe and the tribe to which she belongs.
It might as well be stuck on your forehead like a permanent name tag, 24/7, wherever you go. Must be nice for everyone to know everything about you at a glance, yet tedious sometimes right?
Stained Teeth – China
Did you assume that all over the world, the most attractive set of teeth are the whitest? Think again! In certain other parts of China, particularly in rural areas, however, the reverse is the case. Instead of helping you brush them to stay white, they encourage you to have dark and blackened teeth. Some tribes then smear it in a blackish-dyed teeth and it is believed that this makes them look beautiful.
In some tribeshaving dyed teeth also signifies marriage to a woman. At least they never have to worry about dental hygiene again!
Red Skin – Namibia
The specifics of skincare and what is considered beautiful skin for people also varies from place to place. There you can behold, what is sometimes viewed as a beauty in regions within Africa. In Namibia, members of the Himba tribe actually desire even redder skin. Their skin is not often red, so they prepare a paste that is used on the skin every day.
It is actually a paste that they mix with clay and oil or fat in order to protect their skin from the harsh sun. Essentially, they turned sunscreen (and skin stains) into trendy fashion.
Eyeball Implants – Netherlands
What do you know about an extraocular implant? That is not really a common word and if you don’t live in the Netherlands you probably have no idea what this is without googling it. Now don’t freak out on us: an extraocular implant is surgical procedure that embeds a small coupling of molden platinum into the person’s eye. You can even select any form and style you wish.
You may have not seen such a thing ever in your life but never be surprised of the little shapes in the people eye if you come on the way to Netherland.
Extra Long Locks – India
Across the world, many cultures esteem long hair. A true definition of beauty and feminism in most of the cases. In India especially, long hair is highly appreciated. This has caused women to wear their hair to extreme lengths because the trend is based in the Hindi religion and spirituality Many times, the hair is grown out only to be offered to a temple as a spiritual donation.
Looks like this lady has got some healthy hair to give Rapunzel a run for her money!
Stretched Out Earlobes – Masai African Tribes
Earrings are a love language widely spoken! Few cultures have missed out on an ear ornamentation trend. But in several African tribes, they just go further than that. Rather than simply making use of the trendy earrings, they in fact extend out the ear lobes with these earrings. One of the preeminent examples of stretched lobes — the Masai tribe of Eastern Africa also sport extremely, and I mean extremely, long earlobes.
For many women in the Masai tribe, the elongated earlobe is an actual status symbol. More the size of earlobe, more you achieve social status.
Large Nose Plugs – India
Coming to India, we are exploring about Apatani tribe and what is considered, good looking in there culture. Just check out what a nose plug is worth in this photo shot of this foxy lady (this is not your nose to plug)((model)). Then almost like a piercer or a gauge put into the nostrils. It can be single-sided (that shit better be double-sided) or double-sided, and it can be any size (but bigger is usually better).
This is kind of analogous to the earlobe stretching in Africa. So, assuming you took out the nose plug, there would likely also be a large gaping feedback hole — like, earlobes of African tribes.
Stick Piercings – Brazil
Still, it gives you the newest from piercings across the world. In some ways, it resembles that long cheek piercing you witnessed in Thailand, but it actually is a world apart from it. The Yanomami clans live in the rainforest of South America and the women there show beauty in a heavily eye-covering fashion. Through the middle of them go several sticks which protrude —for want of a better phrase— from their mouths.
Same goes for these sticks that look pretty cumbersome protruding all the time as you’re just going about your daily business, but that wouldn’t be the most uncomfortable beauty feat on this list.
Larger Booties – USA
You can find them short sighted, snobish or just defining a trend that is very common in the current society. Just one second, the beauty ideal is flat behinds are the new it (the 90s, the flatter the better) and then boom, a couple of years after, it’s the complete opposite. Now everybody in the USA is trying to go bigger on the bottom half taking cues from Kim Kardashian and the rest of the Kardashian bunch.
Not only a big butt, but also a small waist. The pencil shape that dominated the 90s and 00s has given way to a classic hourglass.
Stretched Necks – Burma
Take in a neck like that of a giraffe? While you may have never entertained the very thought of this owning the number one spot, it is a woman’s greatest beauty asset (in most foreign lands, at least). In the event that you were not born fortunate enough to have a neck like a giraffe, and you live in a place like Burma, there’s neck stretching apparatuses (like the adornments in the picture) that will give you a hand.
And this is also quite common among some tribes in Africa. In 19th century Japan, long necks were considered beautiful and very attractive as women have a lovely long neck.
Larger, Shapely Noses – Afghanistan
While much of the world is moving toward a very specific kind of nose as the beauty at large, Afghanistan is keeping with the local look and promoting that people find their larger, more feathered forky noses irresistible. Not everybody desires the small button nose that many cultures are now adorning at this time. The women in Afghani are very much the opposite and occasionally do even undergo surgeries to have their nostrils much bigger.
Isn’t it hilarious to think of the concept of beauty, so distinct in certain areas of the world? Well done Afghanistan for keeping the natural beauty look for all but their people!
Intentional Scars – West Africa
Everyone here, as in most places, wears their scars like secrets. And if they have an accident that leaves a mark, they will almost to a person do whatever it takes to make sure no one sees any sign of anything ever having happened. But elsewhere in the world, it’s a very different story. Scar self — common even in many tribes of Africa and New Guinea. These scars are known as beauty marks.
This type of scars are common in men and symbolizes strength and in the evidence of a warrior. They most certainly are never out of anyone’s sight.
Hair Everywhere – France
In the last few decades the standard for beauty in the Western world has become the belief that hairlessness is your best bet to qualify as beautiful. But, there are some of the countries that are still following this clause free practice and still embrace their own beauty. In certain European states, most notoriously France, women are generally keep their natural body hairs undamaged (as performs men). Women do not need to get rid of their body hair — underarm and legs — to be beautiful.
It’s a particularly nice one that makes us want to up sticks and head to France. Not having to touch a razor ever, ever again sounds like heaven to us.
Keeping on Extra Weight – Mauritania
Even within the US (and likely elsewhere as well) dieting culture has been an industry staple pressure for ages. While the ‘need’ to be stick thin has decreased over the last few years, most cultures are still not exactly clamouring for weight gain. Except for Mauritania, that is to say. Being a little heavier is actually considered a good thing in Mauritania. More is good, in fact, the more, the better. Kind of a status symbol over there.
In Mauritania, being very thin is often seen as a sign of extreme poverty and lack of food availabilityg. Heavy is well-to-do, and at that point, folks need you to flaunt.
Sharpened, Pointy Teeth – Indonesia
Certain standards of beauty have stated that teeth will make or break a smile. The best example we can guess of the teeth beauty standard more widely known is begleyipunda, straight and clean teeth. But not everywhere in the world is on that standard. They have a different kind of tooth beauty in Indonesia. They believe that the more serrated a tooth, the prettier the appearance. Since that is not a natural occurrence, most w
Filing your teeth to a point and painful to use your teeth pointy every day is quite a norm here in Indonesia.
Fake Tans – USA
In the West, people are very much into bronzed/tanned skin. Get that summer glow, they say, and people lay out for hours. But perhaps they went a little far in the 2000s when fake tans were all the rage. Everyone required a supply of spray tans, tanning beds, or as a lot bronzer as they might carry.
What is most telling about this fad is that most of the time, the tans were clearly not real.
Untouched Unibrows – Tajikistan
As far as Western beauty ideals go, the less hair, the better. Removal of hair is common and can be done on all over the body. Waxing brows and making sure no stray hair is apparent is also a time-consuming practice for some. That certainly is not the case in Tajikistan. They place a high value on the facial hair on the face, and especially the eyebrows. If you have a unibrow, you may be one of the hot-set Sensational Town.
Men and women both go for the full unibrow with this beauty standard. Some kids will even draw in a unibrow if they don’t already have one!
Plastic Surgery Bandages – Iran
However, the majority of people in the world do not wish to notify anyone when they undergo plastic surgery. They certainly prefer a VERY low-profile, quiet approach. But on the other hand in Iran for example they like displaying their cosmetic surgical bandages. Rather than stay cooped up in their rooms for weeks after a procedure, they wear the bandages around proudly in public. You would have never guessed that, right?
Such is the case in the country for nose jobs as they are very usual for both men and women. Others with naturally straight noses wish for a different nose shape, but get surgery to fix their noses only to have them fixed by not even feeling sick.
Pierced Cheeks – Thailand
From genital to body piercings, these are relatively normal everywhere around the globe. Hence, the ear piercing is very common but there are also many bellybutton, nose, piercings and so on. Cheek piercings, a popular type of piercing for both men and women in Thailand are quite unique. While this is definitely a huge stretch and relatively painful if you consider the size of the piercing (and what you see in this illustration), it is not an uncommon practice.
Cheek piercing is another manner that highlight religious devotion. While not exclusive to religious types, it is certainly a giveaway of many of them.
The Pear Shape – Brazil
The thought of being deemed a pear shaped body is the stuff of any individual’s nightmare. They get vilified in Western media and are not considered beautiful people. That is not the case in Brazil though. Or the pear shape (guitar shape there) is a must have, and everyone is aiming for that. Everybody wants a bigger bum and smaller boobs.
Like in many countries, being too skinny does not make you beautiful, it makes you poor. Apparently, they think if you are skinny, you are starving and most likely homeless.
Crooked Teeth – Japan
In fact, even though straight teeth are in many places around the world a symbol of beauty, when we talk about Japan, you will need to get used to the fact that all japanese people tend to have crooked teeth. People rarely wear braces there, and many people will just leave some crooked teeth as-is and live with it. In Japan, the chicest thing is having crooked teeth — which are cute and sweet, and straightening requires money and effort — so a million people would give anything to ruin the perfect smile that others pride themselves on. Perhaps they should invent the company for reverse braces.
It really may be just the perfect business opportunity to get people re-teeth-ed, or at the very least, remove retainers. If you had braces, just let those teeth revert to their gnarled habits.
Unnaturally Wide Eyes – Parts of Asia
It seems, perhaps from the sheer weight of pressure the West placed on the wider world (let’s thank Hollywood for that), a lot of Asian countries want more “Western” eyes — bigger, more Western-looking ones. Like so many other countries in Asia, South Korea and Japan have turned the ideal of bigger eyes into almost an obsession. Born with this quality or not, this is also not an easy trait to change.
Certain surgeries to reshape the eyes to make them more bulging exist but they are costly and not widely performed.
Larger Foreheads – Parts of Africa
Normally, the cultural beauty values make individuals reluctant for a retreating hairline which will lead to a large or high forehead. However, for most Africans tribes, that does not exist at all. And if you begin to lose hair on your hair line then all the better. This is in fact arguably one of the top most beautiful features a human can possess. In fact, some will even to the extreme of actually forcing the higher forehead.
Several tribal women shave out parts of their hair to give it a perception of a broader or higher forehead. It is well known how they will deliberately remove strips from their hairline.
Body Paint Made of Chalk – Ethiopia
We probably all have thoughts like: What if would have drawn boring images and painted my body white chalk? There are some tribes in Ethiopia that do it commonly, so the answer is probably no. In the Caro tribe in Ethiopia for example, white chalk body paint is common. Spider web like motifs, both men and women adorn their bodies with such designs to flaunt their beauty as the best in the village.
Being the local village artist to paint these designs on everyone seems like a pretty fun job. Mess up their character, and you will end up with the ugliest design.
“Glass Skin” – South Korea
Every culture pretty much rises or falls with skincare and wrinkle-free face. Millions of women (and men) globally invest in cream after cream and spend hours in front of the mirror to maintain a youthful and vibrant complexion. Korea up the ante in the pursuit of ‘glass skin.’ You might well wonder what glass skin actually is. The best glowing and transparent skin?
To preserve and reach this level of flawless skin, the women are said to follow a ten-step skincare routine. Whoa, sounds like a time-consuming process— and expensive!
Uber Pale Skin – China
If you have ever wondered why you see people in China out and about with a sunshine umbrella on a hot summer day, this beauty standard may be the reason why! Different story in China: Pale skin, the trend we think of as way so last season in so many Western countries. The paler, the better. Sun tans are called undesirable and even avoided by all means. They literally take it one step further and sell beauty products that have a light bleaching agent mixed in to maintain a light skin tone.
While a few may perhaps resort to bleaching skin products, most Chinese individuals would find alternative means to avoid tanning, with options such as avoiding the sun, employing sun umbrellas, or wearing a mask to maintain that luminous milky skin.
Turmeric-Stained Skin – India
When you visited India for the first time, very likely you could not have missed the huge quantities of turmeric that seemed to be present everywhere. Either in your food or on your skin (which is popular) but anyhow comes in plenty. If you noticed that it also stains all the surfaces, and quite seriously, you are probably right. If you dropped a bit of your turmeric rice boom there was no getting it out, your top was yellow for life.
Now, imagine that same idea on your body. Like, for example, face masks with turmeric, which is super common in India, obviously, because your skin always ends up stained with a little yellow! But donno worry tho, because this is what they call exquisite!
Shaved and Bald Heads – Parts of Africa
Hair can be beautiful and in fashion in all lengths depending on the place and time period. The most gorgeous women in Africa have a shaved head in some regions of Africa. A bald head is beautiful and many times considered more beautiful than long hair or braids or garish hairstyles. This definitely makes for a more low-maintenance hairstyle on the everyday front.
If this is also true for men, it must be nice. Do keep in mind that those with, Spencer says, hair loss do not need to bother reporting to look for prevention and fixes for their bald heads.
Rosy Under Eyes – Japan
Having dark eyes used to be regarded, until Gen Z came along, as one of the top ten most wretched things you could possess about you. It meant you were tired or not well, and people would spend forever trying to make sure there was not a chalk mark showing. But in Japan you see reddish or rosy under eyes are regarded as being beautiful. Even women apply blush there for the coveted Dot.
In Japan, this makeup style is actually called the “sickly” look That is lucky for all the sick folks not needing to farm makeup to be fashionable!
Super Thick Lips – USA
Over the last few years (thanks in part to the Kardashians), fuller lips have become the norm. Here, the bigger, the better is undoubtedly the case. Since most of us aren’t born with Kylie Jenner lips, botox, lip fillers, and plastic surgery have quickly become a popular trend among people who are eager to achieve an overfilled pout. It is this look that so many celebrities have which creates the beauty standard for the rest of society.
Some even go as far as taping their upper lip to the space under their nose to achieve plump, full, puffy lips.
Henna Tattoos – India
Keeping to the subject of bodies, let’s move to a tradition that India has found itself quite famous internationally for in recent years. Henne tattoos are very common among women, being one means of beautifying oneself with the temporary tattoos using the dye of the henna plant. Albeit being more common on the hands and also feet, these tattoos are detailed and well-designed and can cover any body part.
I think this is a very nice beauty standard because it is non-harmful, artistic, and temporary. It gives those who may want a tattoo but cannot pin down a design suitable for eternity, the opportunity to have the decorative art, but no commitment.
Perfect Teeth – USA
The line of work for orthodontists in the US is said to be rather endless. Since perfect, straight, white teeth are so important in American culture, there are no shortage of children that need their teeth straightened, so it’s pretty good bet as a job. The US is different from some of the other countries on the list as the epitome of beauty is a perfect (not crooked) white even smile, with some referring to “perfect teeth” as a status symbol.
In the US, teeth whitening and straightening are super hot. Hippies with great teeth find a dentist to straighten them and spend thousands on that for almost perfect teeth.
Heart Shaped Face – South Korea
Really, most cultures don’t really do, like, pixel-perfect Nakey Shots face shapes. Yes, they will be general beauty standards, but nothing close to specifying a facial contour is going to be in the Top 10. But the narrative is slightly different in South Korea. You want this heart-shaped face so much that you will see a lot of offers for surgeries that make this face, even if you come to the country for a few days.
Completing this much longed-for appearance on women is nude plastic surgery on their chins to the level they appear more pointed, constituting the excellent heart form.
The Natural Look – France
This is a standard of beauty that pretty much everyone will gladly get on board with. While the use of heavy makeup is almost a default in many parts of the world, and there are far too many women who cannot leave their homes without a full face of makeup, that is not the case in France. In France, a natural, no make up look is what everyone seems to aspire to, and is even encouraged as the option most women should go for.
This emerges from the French cultural affection for accepting the imperfection of people and for their natural beauty. I also hope that the rest of the world soon adopts these beauty standards as well.
Thin Noses – South Korea
This is the most recent of a few South Korean-based peculiar beauty standards on this list. The thinner your nose is, the better in South Korea. Besides the double eyelid and the big eyes, many of these features tend to opt towards more Western appearance. As for the craze over heart-shaped faces, that may be exclusive to only South Korea and not the world at large.
As an alternative, there are obviously the people who pinch their noses, hoping for some of that nose to be removed so that it has a thinner profile. The effectiveness of this squeezing is highly controversial.
General Piercing – USA
Piercings are a natural thing to many different countries across the globe. They are often also beautiful as nose piercings and cheek piercings (like Thailand) or the (nose). Facial piercings are definitely very common and popular across all regions, but in the USA there seems to be a wider acceptance of piercings. Speaking of which, ear piercing and eyebrow piercings and whatnot, come some here! Others also feel that there is strength in numbers.
This is far from a requirement to be beautiful in the US, but it is extremely ubiquitous, and definitely can make a person cooler. With piercings, young adults tend to get them simply because they want to look cool or edgy.
Double Eyelids for Wider Eyes – South Korea
GLAMOUR: If you’re moving to Korea, be prepared for the fact that they have some damn high beauty standards. Also appreciated in addition to the heart-shaped face is the double eyelid. This might not feel very natural, but some of us may do it spontaneously. What is the use of double eyelid? Having double eyelids is considered to make the eyes appear larger and prettier, at least amongst South Koreans.
For those looking to artificially achieve this, there is even a surgery. Most people, however, would use a bit of tape, as this is a method far more commonly employed.
Squiggle Brows – USA
And as if Tajikstan’s unibrow wasn’t a beautiful enough standard of beauty, here comes the squiggle brow. Whether they simply got bored of the eyebrow trends or if they genuinely believe this looks great, we aren’t sure, but it did show up in the US alongside beauty and fashion bloggers and influencers. In addition to appearing like a tremendous amount of work, it looks a little like a worm on the eye.
Definitely one of those things that others are going to look back on and cringe about when they think about all that was done to look good or pretty.
Chiseled Teeth – Parts of Africa
The tooth-shaping of its prettiest people, is not unique to Indonesia. In Latina America is very common that women keep chiseling their teeth in various tribes in Africa. Every year the process takes place and ensures the woman has beautiful yet fierce-looking teeth, which is incredibly painful. You can really look quite fierce once your teeth are ground to a point!
Extremely painful, the tooth-chiseling process signifies a woman’s status and enhances her beauty. But, who said that beauty should always come with pain?
