Byline: Shoshana Goldberg
NOT long ago, surgeons agreed that the Holy Grail of cosmetic surgerywas discretion and helping clients 'get away with it'. But there has been aswift and radical change in British attitudes: surgery has not only becomeacceptable, it's now something many women are happy to flauntjust as they might an expensive designer handbag.
Breast augmentation or a facelift performed by a sought-after surgeon isincreasingly worn as a badge of honour.
Tara Palmer-Tomkinson wanted everyone to know that flexible light the king of rhinoplasty,
Martin Kelly, had reconstructed her nose.
Women boast, over lunch with their friends, about having a Norman Waterhousefacelift, and if their surgeon uses the Lockwood technique for hisabdominoplasty, then that's considered a state-ofthe-art tummy tuck to be proudof.
When a story about a major WAG's breast augmentation appeared in a Sundaynewspaper, leading surgeon and president of the British Association ofAesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) Douglas McGeorge felt a rising sense ofpanic that the leak might have come from staff inside his clinic.
He needn't Silver Jewelry Bracelets have worried: the source turned out to be rather closer to the WAGherself. Celebrities, particularly minor ones, know that boob jobs equal columninches.
Big Brother's Nikki Grahame went sunbathing topless with surgical microporetape still covering her unhealed augmentation scarsand, of course, pictures duly appeared in the women's weeklies. Thetrickle-down effect is undeniable.
Despite the pain, discomfort and possible complications associated withsurgery, procedures performed by BAAPSregistered surgeons alone have increasedby more than 240 per cent in the UK since 2001. BAAPS surgeons performed 6,156breast augmentations last year, although thousands more women opted for one ofthe many cheaper, riskier non-BAAPS alternatives on offer.
Liposuction increased by 90 per cent in 2006, and eyelid surgery and faceliftsincreased by almost 50 per cent. The UK is also the largest user of Botox inEurope.
Shannon Leeman, cosmetic surgery
embroidered patches adviser to the Hollywood A-list, believescosmetic surgery has become the female equivalent of having a shiny red Ferrariparked in the driveway.
Other articles:
http://www.gxbls.cn/Blog/View/?197
http://www.cn-glasses.com/PinkMascaracom-to-Sponsor-00-HBO-Luxu.html