Do you quite agree that women look more beautiful after marriage? While no studies have been able to statistically establish that women or girls become more beautiful after marriage, it is an observation that has been made by several people including myself. Women generally glow after marriage, especially the first few years of marriage, and we might need to answer why.
Under the right circumstances, there will be visible changes in a woman’s hair, skin, nails, lips, breasts, and every part of her body that will suddenly make her look more attractive. Men may also become more attractive after marriage too but this is a topic for another discussion. To be able to understand why these changes occur in women after marriage, it will be important to understand some of the following proposed reasons.
Reasons Why Women Look More Beautiful After Marriage
There is no doubt a girl’s body experiences some changes after marriage that makes her more beautiful. Several scientific and psychological reasons/explanations can be proposed as to why girls or women glow more beautifully after marriage. Some of these explanations include;
1. Regular sex
Regular sex after marriage has been found to enhance a woman’s beauty. Sex keeps the skin younger, healthier, and more supple. Regular sex makes the face glow and spotless because it has been shown to balance the hormone responsible for reducing acne, or zits.
The hormone estrogen has been scientifically proven to be responsible for the irresistible glow and attractiveness a woman has after before and after marriage. Oestrogen produces modulatory effects on the skin and its appendages like hair follicles, sebaceous glands, and apocrine sweat glands. These modulatory effects help in keeping the skin shinier, more oily, and supple.[1]Oestrogen functions in skin and skin appendages – PubMed (nih.gov)
The levels of estrogen can be correlated with the sexual activity of a woman. Body levels of estrogen and luteal phase progesterone are elevated in sexually active women compared to sexually inactive women. [2]Sexual activity, endogenous reproductive hormones and ovulation in premenopausal women – PMC (nih.gov) Together with the effects of estrogen described above, progesterone helps to keep a woman’s skin supple and hair hard, and is responsible for the glow noticed in pregnancy.
We can reasonably assume that married women and women living as married have sex more regularly. This can explain why levels of estrogen and luteal progesterone have been shown to be higher in married women and those living as married[3]Women Who are Married or Living as Married have Higher Salivary Estradiol and Progesterone than Unmarried Women – PMC (nih.gov), and hence make them look more beautiful and attractive.
2. Companionship and peace of mind
Inner peace is important for your overall look and beauty. True beauty comes from within, they say, and for you to maintain your inner beauty, you need to be happy with yourself. Being satisfied with your life gives you genuine joy and happiness irrespective of the circumstances of the moment.
Fortunately, marriage, especially a good marriage with someone who is fully committed to you, comes as a complete package for all these good things that give you inner peace. It gives you satisfaction and happiness with your life and achievements, it gives you companionship to help you diffuse your worries when you need to, and children that make you happy as you watch them grow.
Regular sex, which is assumed to be a cardinal component of marriage, enhances how a woman feels because, in addition to estrogen, sex has been shown to cause the release of oxytocin and dopamine, which are described as the “love hormone” and “feel good hormone” respectively.
3. Smiles are a sign of happiness
When you are happy, smiles naturally follows. Even though smiles can be faked, real smiles are difficult to distinguish. A happy marriage gives a woman true inner happiness and peace that she just can’t hide. This shines out through her smile and radiance, making her look more beautiful.
It is no doubt that smiling makes a woman more beautiful and attractive. A research study done by Orbit Complete DC showed that 69% of people find women more attractive when they smile than when they are wearing makeup. Interesting, isn’t it?
4. Behavioural changes that enhance her beauty
One important reason why a woman looks more beautiful after marriage is the attitude of self-care and maintenance a woman develops a few years before marriage. She is more conscious of her looks, her carriage, and her self-image. This makes her behave in ways that make her more attractive and beautiful, including good dressing.
During the years just before a girl gets married, she is deliberate about her looks. This roughly corresponds to ages between 19 and 23 for 40.6 percent of girls.[4]Indonesia: beauty clinic treatment age at first visit females 2019 | Statista At this time, girls find a deeper meaning for looking attractive other than being like their peers (that is, looking attractive to find a mate). And coincidentally, men find women who are deliberate about their looks more ready for marriage.
These changes in a woman’s behavior to one where she is more serious about her looks persist into the early period after marriage, but many women end up losing interest in their looks after some years into the marriage and start looking less attractive.
Below, we will see why some women stop being serious about beauty years after marriage, and how to get back your beauty drive if you are one of such.
Reasons why a woman stops looking after herself and beauty after marriage
It is not uncommon to find women give up on their beauty after marriage, and probably after giving birth to one or two children. This may affect her good she looks during this time.
Outlined below are some of the reasons why a woman might pay less attention to her beauty after marriage, and as a result look less beautiful.
- Need to adapt to a new environment.
- The burden of children and family.
- Lack of motivation as marriage was the only reason she was maintaining beauty.
- Low self-esteem.
- Discouragement with the new body changes after birth.
Need to adapt to a new environment
Marriage comes with a lot of changes for women. She needs to learn to be in charge of the entire home by herself, and the change happens suddenly, just immediately after the wedding day. This change in environment and responsibilities can make a woman not take the best care of herself as she tries to understand the new environment and phase she is currently in.
The burden of children and family
Asides from the environment totally being a new one she is not so familiar with, the burden of childbearing might soon add to it very soon. Childbearing is a specialized task that requires full attention to the child(ren) while still focusing on other aspects of the home. This can make a woman lose interest in looking after her own beauty after marriage.
Lack of motivation as marriage was the only reason she was maintaining her beauty
44 percent of American women do not like to leave their homes without makeup on. A study published by the International Journal of Cosmetic Science showed that camouflage and seduction are the two principal reasons why women wear makeup, and this was shown to be associated with her psychological trait at the time.[5]Why women use makeup: implication of psychological traits in makeup functions – PubMed (nih.gov)
A woman would camouflage if she doesn’t want to be noticed. While a woman would dress seductively if she needs all the attention she can get. While these may be related to some other inner psyche, they can also be associated with a woman’s search for a mate/suitor. Some women give their beauty the best attention when they want to get married but suddenly lose interest after they have settled down.
Low self-esteem
Again, a woman experiences a lot of changes after marriage. When a woman is single, she builds her self-worth and respect so much because she does not want anyone else to take her for granted. When she is in a committed relationship, she realizes that there are still other people who would still do anything to get her if anything happens to the relationship. However, when a woman is married, she suddenly realizes that over 80 percent of men just respect her marital status and stay clear.
Normally, that should make her value herself more, especially when the husband is doing his usual best to make her feel respected always. But sometimes, things can change and she’d begin to lose her self-esteem simply because she is not being chased (or getting all the attention) like it used to be.
Other things that may cause low self-esteem after marriage include not meeting her expectations for marriage, especially when she sees grandiose expectations from marriage but later finds out it’s not as rosy as she thought.
Discouragement with the new body changes after birth
A woman gets more beautiful after marriage for the reasons I have talked about earlier, but certain other changes accompany it. Pregnancy and delivery accelerate changes in a woman’s body, such that if not well-managed, could be quite confounding.
It’s discouraging to work so much to maintain your beauty and then realize that all your efforts are being ruined by natural changes. And few years after marriage and giving birth to one or a few children, a woman’s body changes so much that she would be required to work even more to stay just close to how she used to look.
Also, as a promoting factor, childbearing generally gives women the leverage to care less about their looks. Not as if you shouldn’t but who cares if you bring out your breasts to breastfeed your child in public? This is something you couldn’t do before marriage and childbirth.
Maintaining your glow after marriage
In order for a woman to maintain her glow and still keep looking beautiful after marriage, she needs to adopt the following mindsets.
1. Caring for yourself is still an important way to keep your husband continually attracted to you
This happens in three important ways:
- It makes you look good to your husband physically.
- It motivates him when he realizes that you are still happy and have not lost your self of being.
- It shows that he is making you happy. Men get more attracted to women who make them feel powerful and useful.
2. Taking care of yourself after marriage is related to excellence in your career
Being able to handle self-care and family well-being is a skill not many people could sustain. It shows one’s determination to maintain balance in one’s life. When a woman is able to keep this ability in her family and personal life, it could also extend to her professional life.
Having a sense of being in control is by itself associated with a higher level of achievement and motivation to succeed, a study stated.[6]Relationship between self-esteem and achievement motivation of women in colleges of education, Kwara State | Nigerian Journal of Guidance and Counselling (ajol.info) This is largely because having a sense of being in control and actually being in control can boost self-esteem and self-motivation to great extents.
3. Staying conscious of your beauty and environment helps you coordinate the family better
Your home environment and your self-beauty is the most important way you can teach your family to be better. Everyone learns by observing what the mothers do and emulating it. If a woman is seen to be careless and reckless about her life and the home, it will reflect in the entire home and her children, more especially her female children. To better coordinate the home, a woman should demonstrate that she is not overwhelmed or broken by the enormous pressure of the home.
4. It promotes good social and physical development of your children
I already gave you a sneak peek of this in the previous point about coordinating the family better. In addition, staying in charge of your beauty and well-being extends into a better social and physical relationship with your children and the rest of the family. On the other hand, staying unkempt, and appearing depressed and hopeless about life can negatively impact the social and physical development of the children.
5. Taking care of oneself promotes one’s own health
Finally, being deliberate about your beauty and well-being also translates to taking your own health seriously. You are more open to making good health decisions for yourself and your entire family. Also, health is defined as a state of complete physical, social, and mental well-being, and not merely in the absence of diseases.[7]WHO Definition of Health Taking care of your beauty, environment, and those around you cover the “social well-being” aspect of the definition of health while being in control of your mind, beauty, and surrounding could speak to the component of “mental wellbeing”.
Last words
Women look more beautiful after marriage due to a combination of factors. Some of these discussed in this post include the effect of sex and estrogen, peace of mind, and companionship, amongst others.
It is important to also note that marriage also brings some unwanted changes to a woman, her body, and her general behavior. This article xrays the need to focus on those things that keep a woman more beautiful after marriage, and avoid the other things that may make her look less attractive to her husband and her family.
References
Take home: Women need to continue caring for their body. Thanks for this.
Thanks for the feedback, Lisa