Tarrahi M-J; Delpisheh A; Bahmani M; Mohadesi H; Hajigholizadeh GH; Nazari E

Research Article

Austin J Neurol Disord Epilepsy. 2016; 3(2): 1021.

Studying the Status of Cosmetics Consumption among Women and Girls in Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Northwest of Iran

Tarrahi M-J¹, Delpisheh A², Bahmani M³, Mohadesi H⁴, Hajigholizadeh G^H* and Nazari E³

¹Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Nutrition, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran

²Prevention of Psychosocial Injuries Research Center, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran

³Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran

⁴Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran

*Corresponding author: Ghader Hajigholizadeh, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran

Received: June 27, 2016; Accepted: July 19, 2016; Published: July 21, 2016

Abstract

The need to show off is one of the addressed twenty most important needs. The aim of this study was to investigate the use of cosmetics among women and girls in Urmia University of Medical Sciences. In the present study, questionnaires were collected and prepared based on the psychological factors and social and cultural factors of different textures. Questionnaires were distributed among 120 female students of the Urmia University of Medical Sciences by simple random sampling. Based on the obtained results, the girl students of University of Medical Sciences selected mostly home as the places for making up and they also selected unofficial public places as the place for least making-up. Based on these results, home with 64.16% is as the most important and the public and the unofficial with 2.5% were the less important place for making up among female students in Urmia University of Medical Sciences. The most important criterion for choosing cosmetics among female students was brands of product with 34.16% and the less important reason was the words of the seller choose with 0.83%. The most frequent make up style among female students in University of Medical Sciences was traditional makeup with 41.66% and the less frequent type of makeup was feminist style. 48.33% of the studied women said that their families prevent them from grooming. Noteworthy making up at home has the highest frequency and the most frequent make up style is also traditional and religious and about half of the studied subjectswere also prevented from makeup by their families that its reason was religious beliefs.

Keywords: Cosmetics; Psychological factors; Social factors; Cultural factors; Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Iran

Introduction

From the psychological perspective, self-make up is an innate human need that must be respected. Today, people of various social classes show increasing attention to their bodies and appearances; so that everyone, especially women consistent their limbs, faces, and appearances with the promoted and accepted patterns of beauty by society. With the increasing importance of appearance and body as the consequence of modern society and a cultural product, body has found a special place as the clearest and most visible carrier. Renewed attention to the body and its prevalence in sociology texts during the last two decades has raised extensive discussions around issues of identification, consumption, life style, and beauty in social theorizing and has dominated the patterns involved in the body’s management as well as other areas of human life that it can be called as body society or body age [1]. By definition, manipulation of the body means manipulation of the body appearance which has been very important for the general population with the advent of the new era of the consumer society and facial appearance. Nowadays, the body has become a part of today’s world reflectance and particular body building regimes and also considering neatness and cleanliness of the in the recent period has influenced body modernization against ongoing feedback trends especially in situations where there is abundance of choice. Both planning and setting and also the emergence of options for selecting lifestyle with diets have been combined [2-4].

Academic people are one of the most knowledgeable people in a society and play fundamental role in the representation of a society’s culture. In fact, the importance of body management given the high acceptance of cultural motifs among peers in the scientific environments can play an important part in this issue. Using mass media, especially Internet which is propaganda for the consumption of cultural productions, among the young people who are most consumers of the community and having thin limbs and at the same time, being decent and beautiful and cosmetic surgeries of the face and nose and even other body parts in recent years there has been significantly extended that being accepted by the opposite sex is also one of the main reasons for the further management body [5,6].

Studies show that women are more psychological required to maintain their beauty and increase the attractiveness. It has been found that women are more sensitive to body image compared to men. The picture is same among different races and cultures of different nations [7]. The results show that facial attractiveness has created predictable differences in general and specific communications as well as the attractiveness of the face in combination with other prestige properties can change and lose [8]. The need to show off is one of the twenty defined cases of important needs and defines it as:”The need to show off means putting yourself under consideration, affecting others, stimulating them, arising their curiosity, and entertain them” [9]. Psychological studies show an important principle that women show interest in presenting their beauty with others, more than beauty itself, therefore, when they attribute in public events and circles, they deny more attention to their beauty and symmetry [10]. In today’s society, due to the overemphasis on beauty and images presented in fashion, cinema, and media magazines, attention to appearance and body shape among women is extreme, so that almost all women at least a time in his life have been experiencing feelings of shame and dissatisfaction with appearance and it is not reserved for specific cortical, social class, and certain level of education [11,12]. In explaining the factors influencing women’s makeup, the role of advertising and mass media, especially satellite cannot be ignored. Media affect attitudes and mindsets of people deeply. They transmit different types of information that people cannot acquire in other ways. Newspapers, books, radio, TV, films or magazine take us close with the trade that we could not otherwise have adequate knowledge about it [13]. Iran is in the third place in the Middle East after India and Pakistan in terms of the consumption of cosmetics products and is also in seventh place in the world. Studies have shown that one of the strong motivations for the use of cosmetic products is effort to have the ideal body or improve the appearance [14]. Due to the foregoing, the aim of this study was to evaluate psychological, cultural, religious and social factors influencing consumption of cosmetics among women and girls Urmia University of Medical Sciences.

Procedure

This survey is collected and prepared using a questionnaire based on psychological factors and social and cultural factors, different texts. Questionnaires were distributed during the 2013 among a random sample of 120 female students of the University of Medical Sciences. The questionnaires contained 25 questions related to psychological, cultural, religious and social factors.

Results

Based on the results, student girls of Urmia Medical Sciences selected home as the place that they mostly make-up and also stated informal public places as the least frequent places for make- up. Accordingly, home with 64.16% was the most important place for up among female students of Urmia University of Medical Sciences. Additional information is provided in Table 1.

Table 1: Frequency of makeup place among female students in University.




  
    Home
    Number
    Percentage
  
  
    77
    64.16%
  
  
    Public informal
    13
    10.83%
  
  
    Public Formal place
    21
    17.5%
  
  
    Events and ceremonies
    52
    43.33%



Table 1:  Frequency of makeup place among female students in University.

Results of the study revealed that the frequency of the reasons for selecting cosmetics among female students is product brands and least reason for selecting was the words of seller. Additional information is specified in Table 2.

Table 2: Frequency of reasons for selecting makeup items among female students in Urmia University of Medical Sciences.




  
    Reason for    selecting the cosmetics
    Number
    Percentage
  
  
    Product    brand
    41
    34.16%
  
  
    Health    confirmation of products
    33
    27.5%
  
  
    Media    advertising
    3
    2.5%
  
  
    Introduction    by friends and acquaintances
    37
    30.83%
  
  
    Reliability    of store
    6
    5%
  
  
    Words of    seller
    1
    0.83%
  
  
    Other
    10
    8.38%



Table 2:  Frequency of reasons for selecting makeup items among female
students in Urmia University of Medical Sciences.

According to the results of Table2, brand of cosmetic products with the highest prevalence of 34.16% among female students of Urmia University of Medical Sciences was the strongest reason for selection of cosmetics (Table 2).

The most frequency of make- up style among female students in Urmia University of Medical Sciences, was traditional makeup (41.66%) and the lowest frequent type of makeup was feminist, respectively (Table3). Additional information about the frequency arrangement is shown in Table 3.

Table 3: Frequency of make- up type among female students in Urmia University of Medical Sciences.




  
    Traditional    make- up
    Number
    Percentage
  
  
    50
    41.66%
  
  
    Religious    make- up
    32
    26.66%
  
  
    Protesting    make- up
    5
    4.16%
  
  
    Artistic    make- up
    23
    19.16%
  
  
    Feministic    make- up
    3
    2.5%



Table 3:  Frequency of make- up type among female students in Urmia University
of Medical Sciences.

Frequency of qualitative range of cosmetics usage among female students in Urmia University of Medical Sciences is specified in Table

Qualitative range of cosmetic products usage among female students at the Urmia University of Medical Sciences with 32.5% has a high range (Table 4).

Table 4: Frequency of cosmetic usage times among female students in Urmia University of Medical Sciences.




  
    Low
    Number
    Percentage
  
  
    4
    3.33%
  
  
    Moderate
    38
    31.66%
  
  
    High
    39
    32.5%



Table 4: Frequency of cosmetic usage times among female students in Urmia
University of Medical Sciences.

48.33% of the subjects said that their parents recommend and forbid them from the use of cosmetic products (Table 5). Frequency of families recommendations of Urmia University of Medical Sciences for the use of cosmetic products are listed in Table 5.

Table 5: Frequency of families’ recommendations of students of Urmia University of Medical Sciences for the use of cosmetic products.




  
     
    Number
    Percentage
  
  
    Yes
    58
    48.33%
  
  
    No
    50
    4.16%
  
  
    Without answer
    10
    8.33%



Table 5:  Frequency of families’ recommendations of students of Urmia University
of Medical Sciences for the use of cosmetic products.

The study results of Tanhayi et al. who studied the cosmetics consumption pattern among female students of Islamic Azad

University of Talesh revealed that increase in the economic, social, and cultural rights of Iranian women leads to increase in the character show off and also causes differ and distinguish them from the past by acquisition of reliability [15]. The results of Babamiri and colleagues in which the psychological and sociological factors influencing cosmetics use in girls of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, showed a significant relationship between variables of body management, media consumption, religiousness, socio-economic status, and social acceptance with usage level of cosmetics. Additionally, the results of regression analysis showed that predictive variables explain 41% of variance of cosmetics use and body management is the best predictive variable [16]. Moradi and colleagues found that in female students of Islamabad Gharb religious orientation, desire to attract attention, seeking recognition, the modernization strict, parenting styles, authoritarian parenting style, forceful style of parenting education, parent and social and psychological factors are important in the consumption of individual income items [17].

Results found by Jalilian and colleagues demonstrated that the strongest reason for usage of cosmetics in female students of Hamedan universities, the sense of beauty and acquiring confidence was reported [18]. In our study and other studies, the psychological factors and a sense of beauty, and friendliness are the main reasons for the use of cosmetics. External pressures for adapting to the desired appearance have a direct relationship with the development of advertisement and women’s magazines, which targets women consumed them. In these journals, by promoting mass consumption, women have been encouraged to endeavor to acquire specific faces [19].

The findings of this study demonstrate the relationship between socio-economic status and cosmetics usage that confirms Bourdieu’s theories about the relationship between these two variables. In fact, it can be said that individuals from higher classes with more use of cosmetics establishes a better balance between social class and status of their body image. Given that home and ceremonies are places that highest makeup are used and the most frequent type of make- up is also traditional and religious makeup and also about half of studied individuals receive recommendation from families to prohibit the use of make-up that its reason is that the religious beliefs, therefore psychological factors are the main factors for the use of cosmetic products.

References

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Citation: Tarrahi M-J, Delpisheh A, Bahmani M, Mohadesi H, Hajigholizadeh G and Nazari E. Studying the Status of Cosmetics Consumption among Women and Girls in Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Northwest of Iran. Austin J Neurol Disord Epilepsy. 2016; 3(2): 1021.

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Low	Number	Percentage
Low	4	3.33%
Moderate	38	31.66%
High	39	32.5%

Home	Number	Percentage
Home	77	64.16%
Public informal	13	10.83%
Public Formal place	21	17.5%
Events and ceremonies	52	43.33%

Reason for selecting the cosmetics	Number	Percentage
Product brand	41	34.16%
Health confirmation of products	33	27.5%
Media advertising	3	2.5%
Introduction by friends and acquaintances	37	30.83%
Reliability of store	6	5%
Words of seller	1	0.83%
Other	10	8.38%