Quickie cosmetic procedures are becoming increasingly popular and clinics all over the country are actually advertising “lunch hour” procedures; boob and nose jobs carried out under local anaesthetic so you don’t even have to take time off work to take years off your appearance. Can you be sure these clinics are giving you a safe and effective treatment when their unique selling point seems to be that they will kick you back out on the street, albeit with firmer boobs or fuller lips, after just 60 minutes?
No clinic will be providing major treatments that require sedation or general anaesthetic without keeping you in for at least a few hours for observation. Any that claim to offer this should be well avoided; if they are willing to cut corners on this, what else are they cutting corners on? In America, the idea of a quick trip to the cosmetic surgeon on a Friday lunch time, to make sure you look your best for the weekend, has really taken off in cities like New York and Lose Angeles. Even teenage girls, who should be the perkiest of all women, are having injections in their lips prior to the prom. Fuller, collagen-pumped lips are the latest fashion accessory, with many celebrities sporting Posh Spice-style pouts, though not all of them are success stories. For everyone who comes out of the clinic looking like a million dollars, there is always a Jordan or a Leslie Ash; either someone who takes cosmetic surgery too far or someone who is unlucky enough to end up with the infamous “trout pout”.
In fact, it isn’t collagen which is being pumped into your lips when you have your lunch break surgery but a chemical called Restylane, a hyaluronic acid. This stops the natural collagen in your lips from thinning and fills the gaps, something which sounds to me like cosmetic Polyfiller. Some women may swear by these treatments, and if it makes them feel more confident and happy then all power to them, but we shouldn’t feel any pressure to undergo cosmetic surgery, especially if we are potentially putting ourselves at risk by using quick treatments and staff that show us the door as soon as we’ve handed over our credit card.