Beauty is only skin deep
Adira stepped through the department store with wide eyes. She had always avoided the superficiality and advertising, but she finally had to go to them for help.
Her cheeks flushed as the clerks stared straight at her. She felt so embarrassed and ugly.
“Can I help you madam?”
Adira jumped at the voice from behind her.
“Sorry,” the clerk apologized. I didn’t mean to scare you.
“I just have never been here before.”
“I can tell. You are here about that scar I presume?”
Adira touched her forehead, her finger rubbing against the slight mark.
“I went hiking last weekend,” she explained. “While they managed to stop the bleeding quickly, they couldn’t do anything about the scar.”
“You’re in luck, we offer all kinds of dermal regeneration techniques. Step over to my counter.”
Adira followed nervously.
“You already have excellent skin. We can take a graft and regrow enough to cover the scar…”
Adira frowned. It was clear that the woman was alluding to something more.
“Or?” she prompted.
“Well, we can offer you so much more. You already look a bit like Chloe. You have her eyes. We could give you a full makeover and you’ll look a lot closer.”
“The pop star?”
“Or if you would rather a more sophisticated look, we could use a graft of Diana. A British look would suit you well.”
“I don’t have a British accent though.”
“But you’d look so beautiful. And beauty is only skin deep.”
“No thanks. I’d prefer to just fix the scar.”
“We can do dermal regeneration of anyone you want. Who do you want to look like?”
“Just myself.”
This short story was inspired by the Spectech sci-fi prompt. I mulled a few ideas before settling on a more cosmetic one. I’ve done a few stories around growing limbs and lab-grown meat but what other cultural impacts could happen if cellular cultures became mainstream? Beauty companies could easily upsell people on looking better, perhaps even to the extent of full facial replications.