The pictures on the wall of the Spakes beauty clinic in eastern Beijing are like any others seen around the world, advertising treatments to transform your looks.
The Numbers: How China's wealthy are splashing out on themselves.
19% Health and beauty market share of Procter & Gamble in China.
$269.9m The amount spent on male grooming products a year in China.
30bn The amount in yuan of annual sales of haircare products in China.
880 The amount in yuan of the cost of Botox treatment in Beijing.
There is a photo of a middle-aged woman looking slightly downcast and next to it, the same person after she has undergone a non-surgical facelift. There is now the hint of a smile to go with the improved appearance.
Another poster shows half a face before treatment, with the wrinkles around the mouth and eyes. Next to it is a picture of the same visage, but the newly Botoxed skin is now as smooth as a baby's.
The women's faces are unmistakably east Asian, a reflection of the growing prominence of high-cost beauty treatments in a country where disposable incomes are growing fast with double-digit economic growth.
At this small clinic, a session of Botox can be yours for 880 yuan (Dh497), while a more involved non-surgical facelift, entailing weekly sessions over months, can cost more than 10,000 yuan.
Most customers are aged between their late 20s and about 40.
"A lot of people can afford more money on beauty care," says Yang Zi, the clinic manager. "This kind of industry is becoming more and more popular."
The Chinese capital has hundreds of clinics such as Spakes and, despite concerns over a lack of regulation that has allowed some to carry out procedures for which they are not authorised, the cash registers keep ringing.
"Most of the customers want to look young and beautiful," says Ms Yang. "More and more people focus on a high quality of life."
Many others are paying for plastic surgery, with about 3 million operations on the mainland last year. Total spending, according to figures reported by state media, reached 15 billion yuan.
Changes to the line of the jaw and the removal of a fold of skin above the eye to make the eye appear larger are among the popular procedures.
Surgeons from other parts of Asia, including South Korea, have set up clinics on the mainland. But the rapid growth of the industry has left the authorities struggling to ensure it is properly regulated.
It is not just Chinese women who are willing to spend on preserving or improving their looks. According to research by Euromonitor, almost 40 per cent of men living in China's cities use cosmetic or skincare products.
So it is no wonder the market in China for such male grooming products is said to be worth as much as US$270 million (Dh991.6m) a year, making it the biggest in the world and nearly one fifth larger than in the US.
If China's residents are not spending on improving their skin, they can often be found opening their wallets for the latest hairstyles.
Sun Baisong, 24, a hair stylist at a small salon in eastern Beijing, has a price list that reaches as high as 1,000 yuan for procedures such as hair steaming.
Regular customers can save money by buying a gold card that gives 60 per cent off everything. This card costs 26,800 yuan.
"It's getting stronger with the economy," says Mr Sun, whose salon has dragons on its wallpaper, a nod to Chinese traditions in this otherwise thoroughly modern venue. "It's getting better and better."
Yet while there is plenty of evidence to suggest China's haircare market is growing rapidly, statistics show that in terms of high street sales it remains in its infancy.
In developed markets, shampoo can account for less than half of haircare sales because consumers with increasingly sophisticated tastes spend their money on less essential products.
But in China, according to Datamonitor research reported in state media, shampoo has almost four fifths of the haircare market by sales value. The figure for conditioner is only 11.6 per cent and other products combined do not even achieve double figures.
This indicates the haircare market in the country, although already worth 30bn yuan a year, has plenty of scope to grow, boosted by hair repair lotions, colourants and other high-value products.
The market research company RNCOS has predicted annual growth of more than 15 per cent over the next two years, according to reports.
International companies have been present in the Chinese market for two decades or longer, and major global brands such as Pantene, owned by Procter & Gamble - generally described as the market leader in China - can commonly be found on the shelves. Procter & Gamble recently put tens of millions of dollars into an "innovation centre" in Beijing.
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Chinese companies have tended to dominate the lower end of the market, although some have been reaching into the premium segment by using ingredients from traditional Chinese medicine, to the extent there have been successful initial public offerings.
Other major players have come from Japan and like their western peers have been targeting the lucrative salon market as well as standard supermarket sales.
But the Chinese haircare industry has been blighted by counterfeits, and the shine has been taken off the success of some Chinese makers by scandals involving the use of banned ingredients.
Mr Sun remains optimistic and even the recent opening of a vast salon up the road cannot dampen his enthusiasm.
"We have high-quality service and our customers trust us," he says. "Some of the customers spend 1,000 yuan on colouring their hair and there are more customers coming."
