Do I distinguish makeup from plastic surgery? Yes.

My position is a little difficult to describe.

I start out with biblical principles. These are diverse and include (1) Beauty is vain, (2) Men should have short hair & women should have long hair, (3) women should adorn themselves modestly rather than with fancy, expensive clothes and jewelry.

I’m sure there are many more principles, but those are the three that come to mind which are relevant to the subject.

I won’t say “Women must only do this” or “People cannot dye their hair” or “Tattoos are evil” or anything like that. Whenever a person starts making absolute statements like that which are not found in the Bible, they are treading dangerous ground.

Instead, I believe that the principles are there to guide us to make right decisions. As people grow in spiritual maturity, their understanding of and obedience to these principles will grow.

But for the most part, it comes back to the attitude of the heart. Dying hair to cover up gray contrasts with God calling gray hair a glory. Therefore, I think the principle is that gray hair shouldn’t be hidden. Does that mean a blond cannot dye their hair red? I don’t think so, but that bumps into other principles: What is the motive behind dying the hair? Is it one of beauty? God said beauty is worthless, but if that’s how you want to live your life, go for it.

Ultimately it all comes down to two principles:

(1) Everything we do should be done for the glory of God. If I’m doing what I can to draw attention to myself without ensuring that I’m redirecting people’s attention to God, then I am in the wrong.

(2) Where our hearts are, there our treasure is also. If “the beauty bandwagon” — or video games or movies or music or novels or whatever — is where our hearts are, then that is where our reward is. It will be all we have in this life, and it will not benefit us at all in the next.

I’m convinced each person will respond to these principles differently — God did, after all, make us unique. I know dedicated Christians who have and are happy with tattoos. I know dedicated Christians who think they look ridiculous. Both groups can fall into the wrong (either by glorying too much in the tattoo or in judging others by whether or not they have them), and the same can be said about many other things: makeup or not? hair dye or no? red shirt or blue? and so on.