Eyebrow Transplants- Everything You need to Know About the Cosmetic Procedure

Wait, that’s a thing?

Well, yeah. They have the same mechanics as a hair transplant: Fine hairs from the back of the head are removed by either a small linear scar or through tiny little circles around the base of each individual hair follicle and then placed into small, very carefully designed sites in the eyebrow [area].

And the result? LIFE-CHANGING!

The big reason why we have waited is that it was expensive! *Insert medical tourism to Turkey* – and the savings are HUGE! Instead of around $8,000 it’s just over $2 395 at 2 locations in Turkey! Istanbul and Antayla including surgery and hotel stay for 3-4 days all inclusive!

The cost of an eyebrow transplant will vary widely based on a range of factors, including how much hair you want to transfer, but it typically runs between $3,000 and $8,000 in Australia and the US. While at NipTuck Holidays we can offer it at just $2,395!!!

For us personally, , having eyebrows is priceless and life-changing, but that’s a lot of money so lucky that NipTuck Holidays offer weekly payment plans that make it affordable!!!!  

 

What does it involve?

According to an article in the Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, eyebrow transplant surgery generally starts with a patient and their doctor agreeing on the size and density of eyebrows they’re hoping to achieve, with the doctor drawing a representation on the patient’s face using an eyebrow pencil. Then the doctor goes back in with a surgical marker to note the margins, midlines, and peak points of the eyebrows.

Next, hair follicles (little sacs from which hair sprouts) are harvested from the patient’s scalp using a special machine, and the hair on the follicles is trimmed down to 1 to 2 centimeters in length. A small amount of numbing agent is injected into the eyebrow area, along with tumescent, which is an anesthetic that also helps keep the area firm. Then the hair follicles are carefully inserted into the eyebrows, and any hair that still seems exceedingly long is trimmed to be eyebrow-length.

If all goes well, people will not only have thicker eyebrows after a transplant—the eyebrows will also grow on their own once they’ve healed. But some people might need touch-ups to add extra density or even the eyebrows out over time.

Celebrity Eyebrow Transplant

Chrissy Teigen  just underwent eyebrow transplant surgery to create a fuller, fluffier look — and of course she shared the “crazy” results with her social media followers.

 

Amazing!

 

What does it feel like?

To start with, the transplant is performed under a LA, which means you are awake awake for the whole 5 hour procedure. But you’re in a good state though let me tell you. You don’t feel a thing, watching Netflix, while they’re picking the follicles out of the piece of skin they took from my scalp near the nape of your neck, where the finest hair grows. They pulled some follicles, and you have have 400 on each brow. After they pull follicles, they’re sitting there, you’re ready!

Then, the doctor comes in and she starts basically putting holes in the brow area and then they place the follicle into that hole. Sounds a bit eekie but it’s not that bad, it’s a medical procedure and how hair transplants are performed without any pain or discomfort. It was not a bad process, honestly. 

Light bruising and swelling are common for up to five days after the procedure, and a doctor may prescribe painkillers, antibiotics, and/or steroids to help with the healing process. The eyebrows will then flake and peel for a while before they’re fully healed. The hair that was initially transplanted may fall out too—that’s a completely normal step, and most of the hair will grow back by around three months after surgery.


BUT. Here’s the thing, though: The hair’s in there, and you’re like, OH, MY GODDDDDD! I have my eyebrow hair! It has a bit of a scab and then falls out. You’re left with nothing again. Three months later, you see your actual results. For three months, you’re going, Did I just waste my money? My brows are This didn’t work. It feels almost devastating when you’re like, they’re still not, they’re still no eyebrows. But it really, because of where they put the follicle, it really does take time for the hair to become one, and then sprout out just like it does on your head. You just have to give them time, and then, all of a sudden, they grow, and they grow!

Do not fear, the hairs will slowly grow in naturally and give a natural result!

 

My experience with NipTuck Holidays

My experience with NipTuck Holidays began in 2013 when I travelled in a group tour for a breast lift and augmentation,  after being referred by a friend who had travelled the previous year. From the outset, Claire was so knowledgeable and made the process of booking everything so easy.

I had never been overseas so having surgery as well was a little nerve wracking, but my mind was at ease after having everything taken care of. Claire was available to answer any questions or concerns I had, which were few. The hospital and its facilities are world class and I had such a great experience the first time, I booked again in 2014, 1 year later for dental treatment.

Not only was I saving thousands of dollars each time, I was provided world class care and treatment by highly skilled doctors and nurses. Having been treated at many different hospitals in Brisbane, I can say that nothing compares to the facilities in Phuket. It’s now 9 years later, and I have decided to have revision surgery and more dental work. I’ve had absolutely no issues with my breasts, it’s merely a change in shape and size that I desire. I’ve unfortunately fractured the root of one of my teeth and also need fillings and crowns.

The cost in Australia is astronomical and I have chosen to have NipTuck Holidays plan this trip for me again. All I’ve had to do is provide images, travel availability and the rest has been organised for me. Claire is very down to earth and is a wealth of knowledge of the medical tourism industry as well as having long standing relationships with the hospital and their staff. I am leaving in 10 days and am so excited to be welcomed back to Phuket.

South Korea prepares for post-pandemic days with a facelift

Published in the Washington Post by Min Joo Kim and Simon Denyer

SEOUL — In the offices of Grand Plastic Surgery in Seoul’s glitzy Gangnam district, Rhee Se-whan has been busy nipping, tucking and keeping up with clients who see the coronavirus pandemic health rules as the ideal time to tweak their looks.

The doctor — and many others in South Korea’s plastic surgery empire — find themselves in one of the more improbable niches of the pandemic: a miniboom even as other looks-conscious businesses such as fashion and salons have taken big hits from lockdowns and the shift to working from home.

Cosmetic surgeon Dr Rhee Se-whan checks a patient’s recovery in Seoul. (Min Joo Kim/The Washington Post)

Cosmetic surgery and skin clinics in South Korea recorded a 10 percent jump in sales in the first 10 months of 2020 from the previous year, according to a survey by the Hana Institute of Finance in Seoul.

That boost came without the normal medical tourists from overseas who flock to South Korea, a center in Asia for cosmetic surgery and one of the world’s best-known locales for aesthetic procedures.

The demand these days is nearly all local. Rhee said many have taken advantage of the coverage offered by masks to get cosmetic work done.

“We have seen a jump in nose jobs and wrinkle treatment among older people,” he said.

What else is hot? Eyelift or eye bag removal, he said. Body contouring and liposuction, too.

Dr Rhee Se-whan

“Because,” he said, “people are not working out as much while staying at home.”

Some South Koreans — mainly women, but an increasing number of men as well — have become more self-conscious about lines or bags around their eyes because that’s the only part of their face visible in a masked world.

There is also the Zoom effect — noted by some clinics in the United States and elsewhere — in which the chats with co-workers double as digital mirrors for people to stress over perceived wrinkles and lines. The result: a spike in Botox treatments.

Rhee’s patients include people like Kim, a woman in her 30s, who spoke on the condition that she is identified only by her surname out of privacy concerns. She had extra time and money on her hands after her vacation abroad was canceled last year.

“I’ve been considering it for the past five years, and the pandemic year turned out to be perfect timing,” she said.

Kim had what’s known in South Korea as “aristocrat surgery,” the removal of laugh lines she believes made her look older.

“My doctor told me it usually takes a week for post-surgical recovery, but I could actually go to work the day after the operation, as I was wearing a mask at the office the whole day,” she said. “My laugh lines were recovering underneath the mask as I was working.”

South Korea has the fifth-highest number of plastic surgeons in the world, with more than 2,500 in 2019, according to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. That’s fewer than the 6,900 in the United States and the more than 6,000 in Brazil, but higher on a per capita basis.

Subway South Korea

Lee Eun-hee, a professor of consumer studies at Inha University in Incheon, said it reflects the country’s obsession with physical appearance.

“Girls these days grow up looking at K-pop stars who look like living dolls, and plastic surgery ads target women as young as teenagers,” she said.

In South Korea’s hyper-competitive society, she said, women face so much pressure to look good that it’s almost as though they are in a nationwide beauty contest.

“Korean women find good looks give them decisive leverage, not only in the dating and marriage market, but also in the job market,” she said.

Now, she said, people are making up for lost travel opportunities by splurging on things they can do at home — and plastic surgery is the “peak” item on the binge list.

Demand from South Koreans used to be bunched in the summer and winter holiday seasons, as well as just before the start of the college academic year. During the pandemic, it was spread throughout the year.

The number of people working from home is a big factor, said Rhee, the surgeon, whose office is adorned with photos of him posing with K-pop stars and actors.

“After a facelift, patients need to set aside time for recovery,” he said. “Since the pandemic, patients don’t need to take a week’s vacation anymore; they can spend that time working from home.”

Kim, the patient, says she and her colleagues increasingly share information about plastic surgery, including recommendations about good surgeons or clinics.

“Now that I have fully recovered from the aristocrat surgery, I am actually thinking of getting new facelifts before the pandemic is over,” she said.

At this rate the sky is the limit now the borders are open and patients from all over the world can travel again to South Korea- the plastic surgery capital of the world!

Coming soon to NipTuck Holidays!!!!!!

 

Article published in Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/korea-pandemic-plastic-surgery-boom/2021/04/23/117b0556-a0e4-11eb-b314-2e993bd83e31_story.html?fbclid=IwAR27_bwKzovrsiB3uAFdsUTUwVI_x-3IVzKsjTeOGatwHss-7x53Xa4xGk4

Confirmed: Australia’s international border will reopen from mid-November

These changes mean there will be no travel restrictions if you are a vaccinated Australian entering or leaving the nation’s shores.

Morrison also said the government is working towards completely quarantine-free travel for certain countries, such as New Zealand when it is safe to do so.

It will also become easier to enter Australia with the plan abolishing international arrival caps on returning vaccinated Australians.

Citizens and permanent residents fully immunised with a vaccine approved or recognised by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) will be required to undergo seven days’ home quarantine.

Others will be required to enter 14 days of managed isolation.

After more than 18 months of being shuttered, PM Scott Morrison has confirmed today that Australia’s border will officially reopen to inbound and outbound international travel from mid-November in states that have hit vaccination targets.


You heard it here. It’s finally happening.

Australia’s tough outbound border restrictions will be scrapped when states and territories are expected to hit 80 per cent double-dose vaccination coverage.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday revealed the path back to international travel with the new system expected to start in November.

“There are no surprises here, this is what we set out to do,” said Morrison.

“Australia will be ready for take-off very soon.”

Restrictions on people leaving the country will be scrapped at 80 per cent coverage – expected in early November in some jurisdictions.

Current overseas travel restrictions will be removed and Australians will be able to travel subject to any other travel advice and limits, as long as they are fully vaccinated and those countries’ border settings allow.

These changes mean there will be no travel restrictions if you are a vaccinated Australian entering or leaving the nation’s shores.

Morrison also said the government is working towards completely quarantine-free travel for certain countries, such as New Zealand when it is safe to do so.

It will also become easier to enter Australia with the plan abolishing international arrival caps on returning vaccinated Australians.

Citizens and permanent residents fully immunised with a vaccine approved or recognised by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) will be required to undergo seven days’ home quarantine.

Others will be required to enter 14 days of managed isolation.

Home quarantine face recognition

People who cannot be vaccinated including those under 12 or with a medical condition will be treated as vaccinated for the purposes of their travel.

States and territories will begin this program at different times given varying vaccination rates.

Australian travellers will be able to access an internationally recognised proof of vaccination document (Vaccine passport) in the coming weeks to prove their status.

The TGA will also recognise China’s Sinovac and Covishield produced in India as authorised vaccines to enter Australia, meaning Chinese and Indian students, tourists and business travellers can return.

More than 45,000 people are stuck overseas waiting to come home with the NSW government indicating it wants to welcome thousands into the country when borders reopen.

“It’s time to give Australians their lives back,” Mr Morrison said.

More to come.

Article published by https://karryon.com.au/.

TURKEY – THE RISING STAR OF MEDICAL TOURISM

Turkey is one of the top destinations for medical tourism. Home to ancient and scenic natural wonders and famous for its healthcare infrastructure. Being close to Western Europe, Turkey has been medical tourism hotspot for many Europeans seeking affordable cosmetic surgery. Hair transplaint’s have continuously gaining popularity. 

There are many reasons why Turkey has become the rising star of medical tourism. The travelling distances to Turkey from the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa, makes it possible for people to cut costs. But it isn’t just about that. Despite the lower costs, the quality of procedures offered is world-class. 

Famous Kaputaş beach,Antalya Turkey an hour from Istanbul.

Affordable Treatment Packages

The medical tourism industry recieved $1.5 billion from medical tourism in 2018, Turkey received around 700,000 medical tourists, according to the Turkish Health Minister. And it has been growing every year since, with the huge influx of medical tourists is that many people in their home countries are unable to afford the treatment. That is why they consider going to other countries to get the same procedure done.

The quality of the procedure offered isn’t sacrificed because of the lower cost. The cost is low because of the Turkish economy itself. The exchange rate and low cost of living make many things seem very cheap to foreigners. 

Moreover, the minimum wage is lower in Turkey, which results in cheaper labour costs. This means that surgery in Turkey will cost less than it will, say, in Western Europe. Moreover, having cosmetic surgery or a hair transplant is not available on National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. 

No Long Wait Lists

Once you book a treatment package in Turkey, you can get the procedure done in a matter of a day(s). However, in the UK, waitlists can be so long that you might have to wait for almost 2 years to get some procedures done. So, if you want to get treatment without further delays, you can get it in Turkey. 

Many people also find the aspect of including the procedure in their vacation time quite appealing. Turkey is a popular tourist destination, which is why many people can relax after or before getting their treatment. If you’re also avoiding unnecessary questions about the surgery by your colleagues, it’s a good idea to get the treatment and recover for a while in Turkey.

Aussies are heading to Turkey to access cheap cosmetic surgery

Danielle Gusmaroli in London writes this piece for the The Herald Sun as Aussies head over to Turkey to access cosmetic surgery for prices we haven’t seen for years! NipTuck Holidays is the only agency in Australia offering Turkey as a medical tourism destination with our Group Tour getting ready to officially announce for October 2023! Interested?

Australians craving a dramatic makeover are heading overseas to access cosmetic surgery for a fraction of the cost of procedures at home.

Turkey is fast establishing itself as the new medical tourism hub for Aussies craving bargain boobs, butts and bodies.

In a shift away from the one-time cosmetic surgery capital of Thailand, the southeastern European country has enjoyed a 400 per cent jump in bookings since international flights resumed in February 2022.

Much of the lure is price — procedures are up to 275 per cent cheaper than Australia — but there is also a belief among patients that the work is carried out in clean environments.

Venesa Sacco, 46, underwent her second cosmetic procedure in Istanbul in October — a breast lift and Brazilian butt lift (BBL).

“I feel and look totally different, I’m much more confident and like what I see in the mirror now – it’s like getting a haircut, you feel so much better afterwards,” Ms Sacco, from Caulfield, Melbourne, said.

Venesa Sacco underwent a breast lift and Brazilian butt lift, among other procedures, in Turkey.

She claims to have saved $74,450 on what she would have paid in Australia for her eight surgery procedures in two trips to Turkey over 15 months.

Her BBL cost $550 instead of $3000, her breast lift was $4000 versus $15,000, she paid $3000 for veneers that would have set her back $20,000 and her 360 liposuction was $6000 instead of $20,000.

“I’m addicted and I’m thinking of another round of liposuction … and maybe a facelift next year,” she said.

Ms Sacco says she saved $75,000 over her eight procedures by going to Turkey. 

Lisa Consolmagno, 47, from Craigieburn, Melbourne, is part of a WhatsApp group with thousands of Australian members sharing information about plastic surgery in Turkey.

She flew into Istanbul a day after the deadly magnitude 7.8 earthquake for a tummy tuck, removal of old breast implants, breast lift and new implants.

“I went to Turkey because a lot of the men at the gym I go to have had veneers and hair transplants and told me to go,” she said.

Venesa Sacco says she is “addicted” to cosmetic surgery. 

Medical tourism firm Estetica Istanbul said Australian bookings had exploded from one or two a month to 10.

According to another firm, Surgery Savior, at least 10 per cent of its 70 aesthetic procedures and hair transplants a month now went to Australians.

“I keep seeing +61 (the Australian country code) flash up on my phone,” Surgery Savior chief executive Sarah Kasule said.

“After Covid, we got flooded with calls.

“There are five Australians in hotel rooms recovering from rhinoplasty as we speak, three of them girls from Sydney.”

Estetica Istanbul chief executive Mert Karakuzu will next month launch a social media advertising campaign to meet the growing demand from Australia.

“You can’t ignore the numbers, Australia has caught on to Turkey and we are now in discussions to advertise on Facebook,” he said.

AMA President Professor Steve Robson advised exercising caution when opting for plastic surgery overseas.

“We are lucky enough to have one of the best health systems in the world with highly trained doctors, nurses and other health professionals working in world-class facilities,” he said.

“Our outcomes are second to none and when, on the rare occasion, something goes wrong, patients have the security of knowing that the health system will be there to support them.”

Chair of the Communications Committee for the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Fabian Cortiñas shared concerns about the integrity of the industry.

“Safety should be the first priority when deciding to travel to a different country for an aesthetic surgical or non-surgical procedure,” he said.

Turkey aims to lure 1.5 million health tourists in 2023.

The government has certain expectations of clinics, including having an International Health Tourism Authorisation Certificate, regulated prices and surgical standards.

The story inThe Sun Herald: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/lifestyle/aussies-are-heading-to-turkey-to-access-cheap-cosmetic-surgery/news-story/6f1b2817d684d0f864dd01220f08bca6

TOP TIPS FOR OVERSEAS SURGERY

■ Choose a procedure that suits your age and body type. Risk and results of surgery are affected by age and weight

■ Ensure the plastic or cosmetic surgeon is experienced and medically board certified

■ Complications can occur during and after your procedure – check the level of after-care service provided and country’s safety guidelines. Each country has different safety guidelines and the safety levels will vary

■ If the procedure is performed in a hospital, verify the hospital is accredited or certified. Ask your surgeon for certification information and the name of the certifying body.

■ Ensure the surgical setting is safe and authorised by the country’s regulatory system and with trained personnel and emergency procedures in place.

■ Flights make changes in the body’s physiology, always arrive one or two days before the surgery, during those days take time for a physical consultation with your Doctor for final adjustments

■ Never underestimate the post operative period. Take enough time — at least a week — for a full recovery before your flight back.

Sun, sea and stitches: Why Britons (AND NOW AUSSIES) are flying to Turkey for cosmetic surgery!

Medical tourists are flooding into Antalya for cut-price procedures. This story was written by journalist Tim Moore and published by The Telegraph in the UK on 10 April, 2023 as a piece of investigative journalism about the boom in medical tourism, where approx.150,000 British are travelling to Antalya and Istabul to have ‘work done’ just last year. last year.

He explains the rationale behind this phenomenon- is pretty basic: cosmetic work in Turkey comes cheap. Really cheap!!!! And investigates does it add up to a holiday bargain, or health-endangering hell?

I’ve only come to the CatchLife Aesthetic clinic in Antalya for a chat about Turkey’s medical-tourism boom, but the managing director can’t help blurting out a frank appraisal of my facial shortcomings….

‘We can resolve these things for you so easily…’

In a city with an estimated 1,500 cosmetic-treatment agencies, all squarely pitched at foreigners, you become swiftly hardened to plain-speaking, stigma-free assessments of your physical appearance, and the options for its clinical improvement.  As I checked in at my hotel two days earlier, the receptionist looked up with a smile and said: ‘So you are here for dentist?’

 

More than 1.2 million foreigners visited Turkey for medical procedures in 2022, the vast majority cosmetic. The proportion of Britons among them is growing faster than any other nationality, with an estimated 150,000 of us travelling there to have ‘work done’ last year.

Medical tourism now brings £2 billion into Turkey every year, a vital injection of foreign money into a struggling economy currently burdened with 55 per cent inflation. Each medical tourist spends more than three times as much here as a standard tourist,’ says Cagatay Tekguzel, manager and owner of the Formedi clinic, which last year treated almost 1,000 UK patients in Antalya. At his clinic, the numbers of Brits are up more than 20 per cent year-on-year.

Hair transplantation and cosmetic dentistry top the treatment list, followed by laser-eye correction, weight-loss surgery (typically the removal of half your stomach) and the classic surgical makeovers: nose jobs, boob jobs, facelifts, eye lifts. Istanbul is home to the most clinics, with Antalya number two and rising fast. It’s where Katie Price comes to get her teeth done, and redone, and done again.

 

The rationale behind this phenomenon is pretty basic: cosmetic work in Turkey comes cheap. Incredibly cheap, generally a third of what you’d pay at a UK clinic, sometimes even less. A new nose for £2,500, a new pair of breasts for £3,000, a new head of hair for £1,700. 

A full set of ‘Turkey teeth’, those dazzling, perfect pearly whites that are suddenly everywhere, starts at £3,200. And these prices are inclusive, typically covering four or five nights B&B in a decent hotel and all transfers as well as, often, a cheeky extra like facial filler or blemish removal at no extra cost. By comparison, rhinoplasty (a nose job) in the UK starts at around £6,200, breast implants about £7,000, a full 4,500-follicle hair transplant can cost up to £9,000 and a new set of teeth at least £12,000.

‘We’re now at a point where anyone can afford this stuff if they save up for a year or two,’ says Paul Adams, a 60-year-old from Manchester who’s in Antalya with his partner Joanne Murray. She is getting her teeth transformed; he had his own done here last September while she was getting a facelift, and got his eyes laser corrected the previous year. The pair have spent a shade over £20,000 in all for the three medical trips. Tens of thousands of Brits who could never have dreamt of cosmetic surgery are now having it done in Turkey. Some of them, in thrall to shape-shifting, twinkle-toothed social-media influencers and these irresistible prices, hardly know when to stop.

For better or worse, thanks to Turkish clinics cosmetic surgery has been democratised, normalised, stripped of taboo. Almost every patient I meet is happy to discuss the experience under their real names, often with gleeful gusto.

 

Antalya is located in the south of Turkey and backs onto the Mediterranean CREDIT: Uladzimir Zuyeu

‘I mean, look at the state of me here!’ cries Murray, brandishing the clinic’s pre-facelift ‘before’ shot on her phone. It’s difficult to know how to respond, but by any assessment she now looks a good 15 years younger.

Mediterranean resort city of two million, Antalya has long depended on the tourist dollar. Hotel complexes and holiday apartment blocks stretch along the coast for more than 20 miles, bookending the minarets and steepling alleys of the old town.

Off season, when flights are at their cheapest and the milder weather is better suited to the gentle healing of post-op wounds, the streets are thronged with black-glazed luxury minibuses that speed patients to and from clinics, bearing clunky, sometimes unsettling names and slogans: Time Travel, CosmetoCity, Corpus Renew, Aesthetic Travel – We Love to Change You.

There’s this holiday atmosphere that means you just don’t get nervous before your procedure,’ says Murray. ‘You’ve been shopping for leather goods at the bazaar, sitting in the sun, eating lovely mezes – and then suddenly you’re on the operating table.’

Two middle-aged men stroll past, conversing amiably in London accents. Both have shaved heads that are stippled with innumerable red pinpricks: the legacy of recent hair transplants, in which up to 5,000 individual follicles are excised from the bits of your scalp that still have hair, then grafted into the bits that haven’t.

In the days ahead, I complete my cosmetic-treatment-aftermath bingo card on the streets of Antalya: noses neatly tented with splints and gauze, bandaged jowls, skin-closure butterfly strips poking beyond the perimeter of oversized sunglasses.

Tekguzel, a quietly engaging 31-year-old with a degree in English, meets me by the well-appointed Konyaalti seafront hotel where guests at his Formedi clinic are accommodated. His anatomical vocabulary betrays the clinic’s target nationality: he talks of ‘bums’, ‘tummies’ and ‘super-huge boobies’.

‘As a business, ours is unusual in medical terms,’ he says, thoughtfully. ‘No one really needs a new nose or a rounder bum. This is elective surgery requested by people who are not sick. When they arrive, they are healthy, and we call them clients. Then we operate, and they become patients.’

 

This apartment is typical of the accommodation offered to travelling patients.

Just up the road, Tekguzel leads me through the Formedi’s glossy new expansion – a suite of five dental surgeries, furnished with expensive-looking equipment and executive leather. When it opens in a fortnight, he tells me, the clinic will be able to process 150 predominantly British ‘full-mouth’ patients a month, here for the signature Turkey-teeth set of 28 cubic zirconium crowns. It’s a £200,000 investment, he says. When I suggest that might take him a few years to recoup, he lets out a helpless giggle. ‘I think a few months!’

At the current Formedi clinic round the corner I’m introduced to a couple from West Yorkshire who’ve both just had the full-mouth treatment. Steven Rees, a Welsh-born tower crane operator, is 48 but has the smile of a much younger man.

I’m very, very happy,’ he says, flashing his new George Clooneys. ‘The procedure is pretty intense, 10 hours in the chair over two days, but they’ve been so gentle and professional.’

Intense indeed: the first stage involves filing all your teeth into slight points, allowing the crowns to fit over them. Whenever I look at those serrated, snowy mountains I’m reminded of a haunting photo posted by Katie Price midway through her most recent dental make-over, a crownless array of wide-set shark’s teeth.

Price, who has lost count of her boob jobs (she thinks it’s 12) and cheerfully admits to having injected so much Botox that it no longer works, might seem an improbable poster girl for Turkey’s aesthetic industry. Yet the Mono Clinic in Izmir, where she underwent full-body liposuction and a face and brow lift in 2021, devotes a whole proud page to her on its website.

‘Katie Price really knows no bounds when it comes to aesthetics,’ it gushes. ‘If you want to have an aesthetic body and face like Katie Price, you can contact us immediately.’

Dr Nilesh Parmar, a leading UK dental-implant surgeon, says that after so many veneers and crowns Price would now have ‘little or no tooth tissue remaining’, and it’s hard to imagine any reputable UK dentist taking her on as a patient.

But the Smile Team clinic in Antalya is more than happy to falteringly declare: ‘While the dentist had done Katie Price teeth she did her vacation in Turkey at the same time. So why wouldn’t you?’

 

Teeth must be filed down before veneers can be fitted CREDIT: Valeriia Mitriakova

For certain UK clients, it’s not just that Turkey is cheap. They come here because some Turkish clinics will push the boundaries that little bit further than their more conservative – or responsible – UK counterparts. Bigger implants, riskier procedures, trend-driven looks that might be tricky to undo once facial fashions move on. Get yourself a Meghan Markle ski-slope nose, and be prepared to live with it once the pixie look falls from favour, as major rhinoplasty is cosmetically irreversible.

Antalya, I discover, attracts three types of British patient. Some are here for a one-off, midlife makeover: a facelift, new teeth, hair implants. Others are returning to correct the collateral consequences of a previous procedure – most typically those who have shed a huge amount of weight following stomach-reduction surgery and need loose skin removed.

And a few are on a never-ending journey of reinvention, one made possible by Turkey’s low prices and its rather more libertarian approach to customer choice.

‘Germans, French, Swiss people want minimal procedures,’ says Dr Onur Ogan, the surgeon who performed Joanne Murray’s facelift. ‘They don’t want people to know they have had plastic surgery. It is the UK patients who ask for exaggerated results, the Love Island and Kardashian stuff, big lips, big boobs, big bums. They are happy to tell people they have had surgery, happy to show it on social media.’

For some of us, less is never more. This is conspicuous consumption distilled to its very essence.

At the MediFace clinic near Lara Beach I meet Amanda Lindsay, a 48-year-old north Londoner who’s been in for a slanted eye-lift that will – once the bandages are off – endow that on-trend, almond-shaped cat-eye look (yes, Katie Price has had it done).

Lindsay is an old hand: five years ago she underwent a full ‘mummy makeover’ (breast lift, buttock lift, tummy tuck) in the Dominican Republic. ‘If you’re not paying UK prices, plastic surgery is like going down the corner shop. I’m getting my teeth done next.’ I can see how it happens. You redecorate one room in your house, and suddenly the rest of it looks a bit shabby.

In fact, there’s a fourth type of UK patient.

Another British MediFace client, who requests anonymity, has come to Antalya for revision work – broadening her nasal airways after a botched Harley Street nose job left her struggling to breathe. ‘That cost me £5,000 and it’s been a nightmare. The consultation process here is so much more in-depth and open.’

A recently retired nurse, also endured expensive disappointments at private clinics in the UK. ‘We’ve both spent thousands having our teeth sorted back at home, and it never seemed to work out,’ says Rees. ‘I came here with a dead tooth and a composite that was falling out.’

The requisite remedial work almost doubled the cost of their Turkey teeth to £5,000 each – Joanna needed four implants and a bone graft into her jaw. But those implants alone, she says, would have cost more in the UK than ‘getting my whole mouth done here’.

Rees and Ludbrook have rationalised the expense as a blow-out holiday: ‘I mean we’re having a nice winter break in the sun here anyway, but £10,000 is what we might have dropped on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Cancún.

Dr Ebru Yuceer, who spent those 10 hours reinventing Rees’s smile, emits quiet sincerity and an evident passion for her work. ‘I have small, careful hands, good at piano and painting when I was at school. Detail is my obsession: I wanted a career in precision.’

She has been working on foreign mouths in Konyaalti for 12 years, and still gets a kick from the expressions of delighted disbelief that typically accompany the first post-treatment looks in her mirror. ‘I get well paid, sure, but happy patients are the best salary.’

As the petite 35-year-old earnestly holds forth, flanked by two beaming examples of this professional perk, I realise that bargain prices and a holiday environment aren’t quite the whole story. The Turkish medical-tourism boom is also founded on the close personal relationships that good clinics foster with their patients, and more fundamentally on the dependable quality of their work.

 

 

Dr Ebru Yuceer: ‘Detail is my obsession’ 

 

Turkey can draw on a long heritage of cosmetic surgery: one pioneering 15th-century medical textbook shows that Ottoman doctors were conducting eye lifts and even moob-reduction procedures 600 years ago.

Since the medical-tourism boom got going 20 years back, Antalya’s cosmetic dentists and surgeons have built on this tradition, and in great numbers. They’re craftsmen who have become extremely good at what they do, honing their very particular skills through years of specialised repetition on thousands of patients.

Practice has made perfect. It’s a conclusion reinforced when I meet a bariatric surgeon who makes 25 British stomachs smaller every month, and a rhinoplasty supremo who reshapes twice as many noses over the same period. There are hair doctors in this city with more than 4,000 transplants to their name, surely a profound reassurance to any patient waiting to have the same number of tiny holes cut in his head.

Their cosmetic counterparts in the UK, with nothing like this throughput of patients, can rarely accrue such a depth of experience.

Paul Adams had both his eyes laser-corrected at an Istanbul clinic in under an hour. ‘It was like pulling a pint for him [the surgeon] because he’s done it so many times.’ A year since he binned his bifocals, Adams is still merrily amazed. ‘It was under £2,500 for both eyes, and that included a five-star hotel. At home I’d been quoted £3,000 per eye.’

Cagatay Tekguzel maintains that his industry is rooted in the Turkish people’s inherent urge to care for those in need – though this seems better evidenced by the glossy, well-fed stray cats of Antalya than bald foreigners with tiny new scars all over their heads.

Yet there’s no doubt that patient/clinic communications are nurtured to a degree unimaginable in Britain, before and long after surgery. All the doctors I meet scroll happily through WhatsApp messages they’ve been responding to around the clock, fielding queries from prospective future clients, addressing concerns about wound care from those recently treated, exchanging jolly banter with patients they haven’t seen in the flesh for years.

Every clinic employs a roster of multilingual ‘patient co-ordinators’, who talk clients through their procedures and detail the aftercare, offering a supportive word here, holding a hand there. (Sometimes their English lets them down: one coordinator tells me of the time he misremembered the word ‘sedation’, and informed a wide-eyed female patient that the doctor would be treating her ‘under seduction’.)

The personal touch is evident from the very start. ‘At the airport there was a driver with my name on a card,’ says Borce Drapic, a Macedonian-born German who’s just had a hair transplant at the MediFace clinic. ‘He came over and gave me a big hug!’

CatchLife patient coordinator Tunahan Özelçi tells me that when clients fly home, tears are commonplace. ‘They cry, we cry – we’ve built such a strong relationship.’

In truth, this overflow of TLC is run through with a stream of hard commercialism.

As the patients I speak to confirm, these clinics now source their clientele almost entirely via social media: reviews, video clips and the ubiquitous before-and-after shots that previous customers post on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok gather traction, abetted by the clinic’s own carefully curated accounts (CatchLife employs a three-man ‘digital team’). It’s a business where word of mouth has given way to photo of face.

In the scramble for positive online feedback, clinics can’t afford to have patients grumbling about poor stitching or infected wounds, let alone grumpy doctors and uninterested staff. Formedi, CatchLife and MediFace all offer ‘free revision’ guarantees: a pledge to put things right if they go wrong after your return, with the patient only liable for the cost of a return flight to Antalya.

‘It can take a year to fully recover from surgery,’ says Tekguzel, ‘and because our patients live abroad they need extra reassurance in case stitches tear or implants sink down or things like that.’

These concerns may also help explain why most of the clinics I visit are now edging further towards low-risk, high-gain procedures: hair transplants and Turkey teeth make great before-and-after material, and rarely engender the sort of complications that can badly compromise your online PR.

 

Cagatay Tekguzel: ‘When they arrive, they are healthy, and we call them clients. Then we operate, and they become patients.’

Surgery is always a roll of the dice. Studies show that post-operative sepsis affects just over one per cent of patients, with a mortality rate approaching 30 per cent. Any procedure involving liposuction – the removal (and typically relocation) of subcutaneous fat – comes freighted with the additional danger of fat droplets entering the bloodstream, thereby risking lethal clots.

Every clinician I talk to winces slightly at the very mention of BBLs – Brazilian butt lifts, the Kardashian-inspired treatment du jour that creates beach-ball buttocks through the heavy use of ‘lipo’. (The CatchLife team tell me the procedure is increasingly requested by male clients: ‘They read surveys that tell them women always look at men’s bums before their faces.’)

The doctors seem reluctant to detail their evident reservations, and the statistics tell me why: an extensive study concluded that one in 3,000 BBL procedures have a fatal outcome. The odds might be low, but with 150,000 UK medical tourists a year, they still equate to a grim toll of tragedies.

Three British women have died as a result of complications arising from BBLs undertaken in Turkey; Abimbola Bamgbose, a 38-year-old social worker from Dartford, succumbed to peritonitis in August 2020 after undergoing liposuction and BBL surgery at Mono Cosmetic in Izmir – a clinic that has reconfigured Katie Price. Since 2019, according to the Foreign Office, a total of 22 Britons have lost their lives following medical-tourism visits to the country.

After a rash of UK tabloid horror stories, in 2018 the Turkish health ministry imposed regulations requiring clinics that treat international patients to go through a licensing procedure which, I am repeatedly assured, is both stringent and very expensive.

The cowboy clinics are long gone, I’m told, and standards are now up with any in Western Europe. Every single clinic and hospital I visit in Antalya – both public and private – is spotless and arrestingly well equipped. Most exude the air of an upmarket chain hotel; one even offers valet parking. Doctor after doctor insists that mortality rates for cosmetic procedures are no higher in Turkey than elsewhere.

But despite these reassurances, the undoubted skill of the surgeons and dentists and the tireless empathy of their patient coordinators, there’s no escaping the fact that coming out here for cosmetic work is still a pretty ballsy undertaking. You’re 2,000 miles from home and someone you’ve only previously met on WhatsApp is going to file down every tooth in your head, or snip off half your stomach. They might be brilliantly dextrous, but they might also be exhausted, running on fumes in their fourth op of the day.

And though Antalya never feels in any way unsafe, there’s a vague but pervasive banana-republic vibe that makes a slightly jarring fit with complex medical procedures. Stray dogs, heady smells, nervous conscripts with big machine guns. Dusty old men hauling handcarts full of rubbish down potholed alleys. Almost everyone smokes, though at least the doctors go outside to do it. Nobody seems to accept credit cards, and Turkey’s rampant inflation stuffs your pockets with wads of grubby notes, some worth less than 20p.

Most clinics demand full upfront payment in cash – euros or sterling only.

‘I mean, who deals in cash these days?’ says Steven Rees. ‘When you hand it over, a part of you can’t help thinking it’s a scam, that you’ll come back for the treatment and the clinic’s vanished.’ Paul Adams had to fly out with £12,000 in cash, for his teeth and his partner’s facelift.

‘I was terrified, I thought I might get mugged on the plane! Half the passengers were out here for treatments – there must have been £200,000 on that flight.’

I suppose you just have to keep reminding yourself that there are several reasons why this work is so cheap, and a few of them are a bit murky.

‘In a funny way, I think that’s one of the reasons people can seem a bit jealous,’ says Joanne Murray. ‘It’s not just that we look so much younger, it’s that we’ve had the gumption, the bravery, to come out here and do this.’

Back at Antalya airport I wander through ranks of the walking wounded, scarred scalps, splinted noses, bandaged necks.

There are lots of headscarves, caps and enormous sunglasses. A woman in a white-and- gold tracksuit sits down very gingerly, grimacing as flesh hits hard plastic. Over at the duty-free queue, a middle-aged man extracts £20 notes from a big roll to pay for two cartons of cigarettes. He cracks a smile at the cashier, and I deduce it’s the remaining cash balance from his new Turkey teeth.

Turkey

 

 

 

 

 

https://niptuckholidays.com/group-tour/

Group Tours

Bali’s new hospital is opening soon!

Medical tourism in Bali

The beautiful holiday island of Bali is set to be a medical tourism destination new international hospital built by the Indonesian Ministry of State-owned Enterprises in partnership with the US-owned Mayo Clinic. NipTuck Holidays sources say Sanur International Hospital, the new world-class international 300-bed hospital, is on track for completion in this year with the concept is to position Bali as a world-leading health tourism destination!

The Sanur International Hospital is bringing in consultants from the Mayo Clinic and  international doctors and surgeons who have graduated and practised abroad, with the focus on South Korea.

Currently the legislation makes it hard for doctors and other medical professionals who have trained outside of Indonesia to come to work in the country, however the recruitment process is underway for specialist doctors and that only the best candidates will be chosen.

The Governor of Bali said, “the aim is to position quality, safety, and patient experience at the highest international standards.” He told the audience that the whole project is being designed in partnership with the NipTuck Holidays partners Mayo Clinic, the best hospital in the US. The partnership is developing not only the hospital building itself but working to create the best governance, management, and workplace culture possible.

The international hospital is being built on a former golf course on the coast of Bali near Sanur, close to Grand Inna Bali Beach Resort. The area is on the quiet east coast with white sand beaches and is popular with retirees and elderly tourists.

The hospital grounds merge with the famous Bali Beach Grand Inna Hotel, a new meeting and exhibition center, and a living pharmacy featuring an ethnomedical botanical garden to draw upon traditional Balinese medical practices as complementary therapy to the modern practices within the hospital. There will also be a commercial center for health, wellness, and medical-related medium, small, and micro-enterprises to support the local economy further.

Bali Beach Grand Inna Hotel

While Bali has become synonymous with wellness travel, there will be an even greater focus on medical, health, and wellness tourism and together with NipTuck Holidays to promote Bali as a medical tourism destination.

Debunking the myths about cosmetic surgery in Turkey

In the past decade, Turkey has become one of the top destinations for medical travel competing with Thailand, Malaysia, Mexico and South Korea. Each year, approximately 500,000 people from around the world travel to Turkey for medical treatment or aesthetic procedures.

With the number of patients from all over the world including Australia continuing to soar, questions have also been raised about the quality of treatments, the diligence of regulation and the satisfaction of patients. In the British media there has been some serious misinformation. In the British media there has been some serious misinformation. Because with huge success comes with a huge responsibility we are going to breakdown some of this misinformation 

One of the misconceptions that have been voiced in the tabloid media is that it is legal to perform operations in Turkey at facilities that are not intended for medical use.

Operating Room in a Turkish Hospital

“Turkish surgeons can operate in a garage if they wanted to.”

In an article published in one of the most read tabloids in the U.K., it was claimed that “Turkish surgeons can operate in a garage if they wanted to.” It is easy to discover with a simple Google search that this is as ridiculous as it is untrue. Even so, we still wanted to hear from an experienced professional in the clinical research field, the Director of Mira Projects, Sayeste Bibin.

Mr Bibin says: “In Turkey, operating room conditions and surgical practices comply with the patient health safety and universal protocol determined by the World Health Organization (WHO). The General Directorate of Health Services has the power to authorize and license health institutions and organizations, and to cancel these permits and licenses temporarily or indefinitely when necessary.

Private hospitals can only operate with the permission and/license they receive from the administration according to Article 355 of the Presidential Decree. In addition to that, private hospital requirements were also taken under control with the Private Hospitals Regulation legislation, there is a specific article about the operating rooms in this regulation. Hospitals are frequently inspected by the Ministry of Health Inspection Board.”

Turkey has robust regulations when it comes to licensing premises for medical use. But it also has robust regulations regarding malpractice insurance. One of the claims made in the British media was that Turkish surgeons do not need insurance to practice their profession. This is entirely false. By law, all doctors must have insurance in Turkey. This is called “compulsory financial liability insurance” for cases of medical malpractice and it provides pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages while also covering the litigation expenses of doctors, dentists and specialist chambers working in private or public health institutions and organizations.

Get real, reliable Information!

It is not always easy to pick through real information about medical treatment in the media because quite often competitors give biased views or the tabloid media feeds into prejudices. Any medical treatment decision must be made by a well-informed patient, so each individual must do their homework very thoroughly, keeping the focus on respectable sources. This more than often is not the media.

A medical tourism agency is your best bet! We have done the research and have a number of Plastic Surgeons and hospitals and can provide patients with a wealth of information. My advice is to double-check the information that is provided, ie the surgeons information on Google, social media and to ask the questions! Not all agents are as reliable and trustworthy as we are and by asking these questions you will quickly find this out!

🕸Our website is here to check it out: https://niptuckholidays.com/

📲 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NipTuckHolidays

📲. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/niptuckholidays/

It’s the word-of-mouth successes that draw people into Turkey to get the cosmetic treatment they need. If you know anyone that has had cosmetic surgery abroad ask for their recommendations of who they went through!

There is also a considerable amount of recent statistics available about medical care in Turkey, with its medical faculties joining the club of the 500 best universities in the world, Turkey has no shortage of well-educated medical staff.

There are highly qualified surgeons and full-fledged hospitals are some of the reasons why medical travelers prefer Turkey in Istanbul or Antalya. In Turkey there are nearly 50 medical facilities that are accredited by the Joint Commission International, of which over 90% are hospitals. It ranks third among Junior Chamber International (JCI) accredited hospitals worldwide.

In the past two decades, the number of accredited hospitals specializing in cardiology, transplants, plastic surgery and advanced oncotherapy has grown exponentially. JCI is a nonprofit health accreditation organization based in the United States and known as the Gold Stamp globally in medical care. It is the top criteria for medical travelers.

Turkey invests heavily in its health system.

Statistics estimate that the total health care expenditures in Turkey will reach TL 233 billion ($14.23 billion) by 2020. Health care spending increased exponentially from 2000 to 2020, especially in the last five years, where it more than doubled since 2015. Turkish hospitals, particularly private hospitals, have seen one of the most substantial growth rates among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in the past decade. All the hospitals are regulated and controlled by the Ministry of Health regardless of whether they are public or private.

Another essential criteria in assessing quality health care is patient satisfaction. Research firm Ipsos reported in a 2021 survey that “32% of Turkish individuals rated the quality of their health care as very good or good. Among the high-income countries like Germany, France and the U.K. this figure is 39%, 47% and 52%, respectively. According to the findings of a previous survey done by Ipsos, the percentage of Turkish citizens who trust the health care system in their country to provide them with the best treatment is 43%. This percentage is also 43% in the United States and 45% in Germany.”

 

Remember- The onus to make an informed decision lies with the patient.

The onus to make an informed decision lies with you- the patient. As an agent it is our responsibility to provide you with information and recommendations based upon your inquiry, within your budget. We have spent years working within the medical tourism industry globally to find the best surgeons and hospitals for our clients. However at the end of the day, the best surgeon, clinic and hospital for your specific needs requires that you do your research before making a decision, just as it does in your home country. There are problems with regulations in the U.K. when it comes to cosmetic procedures, as their is in Australia. So it’s important to be aware of this and do your research. I am more than happy to provide information and answer questions!

The cosmetic surgery industry in Australia exposed with Cosmetic Surgeons banned.

In Australia there is a big push for an overhaul of the cosmetic surgery industry with the Medical Board of Australia (AMA) launched an independent review of the regulation of health practitioners in the cosmetic surgery industry in response to the uncovering of dangerous and unregulated practices that the health regulator said raises ‘significant patient safety concerns’.

Since then there have been a number of practitioners banned from performing cosmetic surgery and losing their medical licence after poor quality practices in the cosmetic surgery industry. There was a very high profile joint investigation between Four Corners, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald It revealed revealing disturbing surgical practices at some of Australia’s popular cosmetic surgery clinics.

A class action against a former celebrity cosmetic surgeon and four associates has been filed by patients who say they have suffered injury and losses from cosmetic surgery. This is just one of many cosmetic surgeons in Australia with poor practices and providing sub-standard and results for patients.

In the U.K. there are no regulations around Botox and filler treatments, which means the actual treatment can be performed by anyone with or without training. The U.K. Government like the Australian has plans to tighten the regulations but nothing has been done yet. In Turkey, there are stricter regulations regarding non-surgical cosmetic treatments. Only aesthetic surgeons, dermatologists and specialist doctors can administer Botox and derma fillers.

For more invasive surgical procedures in the U.K., patients need to be extra vigilant because regulations are dysfunctional. A very worrying report by the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death found that nearly three-quarters of clinics in the sector in the U.K. operate effectively unregulated, adding that eight out of 10 providers who offer complex surgeries like breast reductions “do not perform these anywhere near enough to maintain an appropriate skillset and that a third do not even allow patients a ‘cooling off’ period when they book procedures.” The report added that less than half of operating theaters were properly equipped to perform surgery and one in 10 of the clinics actually ceased to exist between being identified and being approached.

Cosmetic Clinics in England forced to close by regulators

For more invasive surgical procedures in the U.K. patients need to be extra vigilant because regulations are dysfunctional. A very worrying report by the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death found that nearly three-quarters of clinics in the sector in the U.K. operate effectively unregulated, adding that eight out of 10 providers who offer complex surgeries like breast reductions “do not perform these anywhere near enough to maintain an appropriate skillset and that a third do not even allow patients a ‘cooling off’ period when they book procedures.” The report added that less than half of operating theaters were properly equipped to perform surgery and one in 10 of the clinics actually ceased to exist between being identified and being approached.

Neither at home nor abroad, patients cannot be complacent about making decisions about their health. Here is a list of things to check before you go ahead with any procedure, anywhere:

✅The medical education and degree of the surgeon

✅Professional credentials including licensing

✅Specialization degree, license and certifications

✅Fellowships or post-graduate training courses they received

✅Special training courses they underwent related to the procedures they offer

✅Previous and current hospital or clinical employment history

Everyone has the right to ask the necessary questions and request information when it comes to their medical needs, and no qualified surgeon or doctor would be offended to be asked these questions.

*This story was initially written by a freelance reporter in London with changes made in writing for the Blog by myself- Claire Licciardo.

 

Are we witnessing the end of the BBL era?

 

New photos of Khloe Kardashian flood social media looking THE BEST she has ever looked with a smaller derriere and very thinner, fitter bod.

TikTok is celebrating a possible cultural shift away from the Brazilian butt lift aesthetic. 

All eras eventually come to an end. But is it’s demise isn’t necessarily a good thing?

 

It’s hard to believe how much time has passed since Vogue dubiously ushered in “the Era of the Big Booty” in 2014 (and even more so since the peach emoji became shorthand for a desirably peachy bum in 2010). In the years gone by, the number of Brazilian butt lifts (BBLs) globally performed has grown by 77.6%, propelled in no small part by an army of uber-famous women with ever-growing, metamorphosing behinds made famous by none other than the above mentioned Kardashians. Anyone remember when unflattering photos of Kim’s butt were published earlier this year, they quickly went viral in 2017?

Photos of Kim Kardashian’s very famous backside made headlines all over the world after she was snapped during a candid moment on a girls’ holiday. Most people were stunned to see the asset (sorry) in all it’s natural glory — i.e. with cellulite — and it seemed to suggest that the smooth version we’ve seen in photos before now may have been digitally edited.

 

Or do you remember when she broke the internet when Kim K’s butt got her own magazine cover?

 

That celebrity effect has inevitably trickled down to our own social media feeds too. A casual scroll through Instagram will often present you with endless examples of the BBL influencer aesthetic; posts of women posing with a perfectly round bottom that takes centre-stage like an object in its own right, matched with an impossibly cinched waist and small breasts.

 Sponsored ads ( much like ours) for seemingly easily accessible BBL surgeries are common on both Instagram and TikTok, while #BBL on the latter platform has 3.9 billion views and is proliferated with videos selling faja body shapers (padded shapewear for women that gives the illusion of a small waist and larger behind).

 

But all eras eventually come to an end, and the BBLs retirement is being helped in no small part thanks to TikTokers celebrating that, women especially, no longer need to feel inadequate about their lack of voluptuous behinds, especially since a series of recent pictures of Kim and Khloe Kardashian have cropped up with what appears to be a dramatic reduction to their famous bums.

 

If not a removal of their implants, there is definitely a smaller implant and a buttock lift (esp for Kim) with the trend very similiar to what happened to breast implants trends and the breast implant era!

 

The “BBL Effect” is one of TikTok’s biggest trends this year with the hashtag having 202 million views. Started by @antonibumba, the trend pokes fun at the BBL-influencer aesthetic, portraying those who get the cosmetic surgery as having a ludicrously self-important, main character energy. There’s also been a decry of “BBL fashion” in the form of growing discontent over cut-out style garments that are practically impossible to pull off on a non-surgically enhanced body. But there’s also been a recognition of how out of hand the invasive trend has become.

Plastic surgery itself has roots partially in the racist and classist ideology of eugenics, a belief that the “genetic quality” of the human race can be improved by discouraging or stopping those deemed inferior from reproducing. Dr Renato Kehl, who founded the Eugenics Society of São Paulo in Brazil in 1918, approved plastic surgery to facilitate “the extinction of the black and the rainforest-dwelling races”.

Historically, beautification went hand in hand with prizing whiteness as the most desirable aesthetic. BBLs seemed to flip the script, with typically non-white phenotypes like big bums being celebrated. However, that celebration of curves was predominantly on the bodies of wealthy white women. As a result, the BBL has become an asset that generates racialised capital.

BBL surgery is also known for being a more dangerous procedure tat should only be performed by experperience Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeons- NOT Cosmetic Surgeons. Assessments are supposed to be undertaken prior to surgery for risk factors like being overweight, blood clotting disorders or any cardiovascular issues. During the procedure, patients run the risk of fat, which has been removed from other areas of the body, being injected into one of the deep blood vessels connected to the heart or lungs, resulting in cardiopulmonary collapse, which can cause infection, strokes or even death.

Surgeon Samuel Lin told Harper’s Bazaar: “the mortality rate from BBL is estimated to be as high as 1 in 3,000; this is greater than any other cosmetic surgery”. Viral plastic surgeon Emily Long has highlighted some of the dangers on TikTok. In some states in the Australia and US, Cosmetic Surgeons ie GPs and doctors can practice as “Cosmetic Surgeon’s” and take a “weekend course” to be qualified to administer BBLs. Inevitably, the cheapest surgeons are also likely those less reputable, increasing the chances of medical complications or botched results for the less wealthy.

 

It is, of course, impossible to dissect the BBL narrative without doing a deep dive of the Kardashian-Jenners, who are often considered the figureheads of the trend. Speaking to MJ – the creator of @kardashian_kolloquium, a TikTok account that demystifies the Kardashians through an academic lens – they speculate why the BBL trendsetters might also be bringing big butts to a close. “We don’t know yet if it really is the end. We don’t have enough data yet,” she disclaims, but “they are ageing and will commodify themselves in different ways.” MJ acknowledges that even super-influencers remain vulnerable to patriarchal ideas of female expiration dates.

MJ further argues that “extreme plastic surgery is inherently a gesture of economic power” and for celebrities “their newly enlarged butts became the perfect display of excess”.

 

There’s also a paradox here. For many women, the idea the BBL era might be ending is cause for both celebration and anxiety. For those of us with curvier bodies, the rise of the BBL aesthetic initially came with a relief at not having to live up to the stick-thin body championed in the 2000s. A trend that for many created a dysmorphic view of teen girls bodies and a perpetual drive to lose weight that continued into adulthood.

While the BBL style was in itself still out of reach, it paved the way for a self-acceptance of natural curves, no doubt at the expense of other women then feeling more inadequate about their bodies. Ultimately, liberation from these trends requires a dismantling of the notion of body standards completely.

Whilst we don’t yet know whether the sun is finally setting on the BBL era, there is one thing we can be sure of: we are very far off from living in a world where race, class, and gender dynamics don’t heavily influence who can profit and who loses in the marketplace of beauty standards, and even further away from living in a world where female body types are not commodified at all.

Original story with some editorial changes was published in BEAUTY by  Banseka Kayembe on 23 December 2021

 

“Nip, Tuck, Not Giving a F***k!”

Instagram influencers Ashley Stobart and Laura Harris are taking the podcast world by storm after becoming the subject of unfounded internet rumours about their personal lives.

Two mums who have spent almost $120,00 Australian dollars between them on cosmetic surgery have hit out at internet trolls as they seek to combat misleading pictures of Instagram models.

Ashley Stobart, whose husband is millionaire haulage heir Ed Stobart, and Lauren Harris are taking the podcast world by storm with ‘Nip, Tuck, Not Giving a F***’, which sees them give frank accounts of life as 30-something mums who openly enjoy cosmetic surgery and facial treatments.

The first episode shot to the top of the download chart and the pair hope to use the platform to encourage women to be honest about cosmetic treatments they’ve had done instead of claiming to ‘naturally’ look a certain way in Instagram photos.

Ashley, 31, from Hale, Greater Manchester, said: “Being natural doesn’t make you any better than someone else, but being honest does.”

She added: “It’s so important to be honest about what you’ve had done, this isn’t how women come out of the womb, we have had stuff done, we’re not promoting it in any way, but if you are out there posting on instagram and showing off the assets you bought, I do think you should say ‘yeah I’ve had stuff done’.

“Whether you like it or not, cosmetic treatments are a part of everyday life now and it’s not going to go away.”

Both her and Laura, 31, from Rawtenstall, Lancashire, are open about how much they have spent on cosmetic procedures – Ashley detailing $7,000 worth of treatments including her first boob job at the age of 22, liposuction, a nose job and ‘bleph job’ on her eyelids, meanwhile Lauren has spent $47,000 on three different breast enhancement surgeries.

Lauren, 31, from Rawtenstall, said: “People can make their own decisions about cosmetic work, we are not trying to promote it in any way.

“We called the podcast Nip Tuck, Not Giving a F***, but it’s not just about cosmetic surgery – it’s about women, about mums being brave enough to be open and honest about their lives, challenge stereotypes and tell funny stories.

“To say nobody’s perfect despite how it can sometimes look on Instagram, and to be honest about ourselves.

“We want women to stop feeling bad about themselves – and what’s more damaging is when people look at certain Instagram photos thinking that women look like that naturally.”

The two women became friends while working at the same cosmetic surgery clinic in Manchester 10 years ago.

They became mums around the same time – Ashley to 2-year-old Saskia and Lauren to Thea, 3 – and both women returned to work after maternity leave to continue their careers in the cosmetic surgery industry.

Lauren and Ashley have shared experiences of being single working mums – although Ashley recently got married to her millionaire beau, Ed Stobart of the well-known haulage family.

 

The motivation to launch their podcast came as a way for the women to create positives from a negative situation that shocked them to the core.

They both regularly post about their lives on Instagram, with Ashley having 14.6k followers and Lauren 21.5k followers, but the friends were gobsmacked to discover they were the victims of ‘toxic gossip’ on the anti-influencer website Tattle Life.

People with anonymous profiles had created entire threads dissecting Ashley and Lauren’s private lives – while making completely unfounded and false claims about them.

To ‘reclaim’ the gossip the girls decided to launch a podcast where they’d be able to be totally open and honest about their lives and hit back at the anonymous bullies.

Former Altrincham Grammar School for Girls pupil Ashley said: “We’re not celebrities, we’re literally just normal people and yet jealous people have gone on to that site just to slander us.”

Lauren added: “People have been saying for ages we should do something like a podcast, and we felt like this was the only way to address the situation with Tattle Life – it’s not like we could go on Instagram and go through everything people had been saying.

“The podcast was a way for us to discuss motherhood, being a working mum, and all the stereotypes around that, like how mums should look a certain way. We feel we’ve got so much to say to a lot of women of our age group.”

Ashley does not share photos of her daughter on her social media pages, while Lauren decided she would share photos of daughter Thea with her friends and followers on Instagram.https://get-latest.convrse.media/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mirror.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fuk-news%2Fmums-whove-spent-63000-between-24210180&cre=bottom&cip=37&view=web

Both decisions were criticised on the gossip site – with the trolls slamming Ashley for ‘never showing her kid’ on Instagram suggesting she is a bad mum and never with her child, while Lauren was criticised for going on holiday without her child.

Lauren says: “There are different things that frustrate us about it, not just that it’s mean, and a lot of it is totally untrue, but that it seems to be mostly women talking about other women.

Originally written by Diane Bourke and Published in The Mirror UK : https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mums-whove-spent-63000-between-24210180

 

Building Turkey’s medical tourism brand

11th February 2022

Story initally published by MTJ TeamThe IMTJ team includes Editor in Chief, Keith Pollard; Managing Editor, Jenny Jenkins; and medical travel market writer and analyst, Ian Youngman. 

Newly launched Medical in Turkey has said that it is seeking to make Turkish medical tourism a global brand. Its plan is to initially target the UK, Netherlands and Italy. Australia too with Klinik Europe in Turkey partnering with Australian medical tourism company NipTuck Holidays and hosting exclusive cosmetic surgery Group Tours ex Sydney Australia to Antalya starting next month!

Medical in Turkey was developed in response to the needs of Turkish medical tourism. It is an IGEME project working with the aim of spreading a sustainable working model in Turkish medical tourism throughout Turkey. In cooperation with the country’s medical tourism stakeholders, it wants to make the destination a world brand for medical travel.

Medical in Turkey states that numbers of inbound medical travellers will increase but only if it can spread understanding of quality and reliable service throughout Turkey’s healthcare institutions.

Medical in Turkey has been designed with the aim of eliminating many problems of medical tourism such as communication, mobility, trust, service and collection. It has a lot going for it and continues to draw the numbers for medical tourists!

Story initally published by MTJ Team The IMTJ team includes Editor in Chief, Keith Pollard; Managing Editor, Jenny Jenkins; and medical travel market writer and analyst, Ian Youngman. 

What a week in travel! 😩 😡Damn you Omicron🤬

Well, where do I start? Today I sit defeated at my computer. A few months ago I had the gall to start planning and booking for clients their dream cosmetic surgery in 2022.  Cancun Mexico? Yes please! Turkey? Don’t mind if I do! My dream travel list grew as vaccinations rolled out. But then the Delta-Omicron tire fire was lit and a fire extinguisher was nowhere to be found. Now the question isn’t where to go in 2022, it’s whether you should go anywhere at all, aside from a meditation studio or a panic room.

With all of that in mind, I temporarily scrapped the list of dream destinations for 2022 (see you in 2023, South Korea) and instead reached out to experts to ask whether travel is a good idea in 2022 — at least the first half of 2022. They (mostly) said there was no need to panic or cancel plans that you’ve already made, but they had plenty to say about how to book a trip, and how to proceed with trips that are already booked.

The advice this week is that Australians wanting to travel to Europe may need to rethink their plans, with the country declared a “Covid danger zone” due to surging Omicron case numbers.

Extra restrictions will be placed on Australian travellers, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated or not.

The directive comes after the US Centre for Disease Control warned Americans to avoid travelling Down Under, declaring Australia “high risk”. Kinda ironic coming from the US!!!!!

While it doesn’t specifically say which European countries and it states very generally that European countries have been advised to block visitors from Australia entirely, or impose tougher restrictions, including quarantine and testing requirements.

This first time since the pandemic began, Australia is on the receiving end of similar bans. We are looking forward to covid numbers going down here in Australia so we can resume our travel plans since the pandemic is unlikely to disappear and life needs to continue, it may still be worth proceeding with travel plans, while taking advantage of all available protective measures.

While the Omicron variant of Covid-19 has been spreading rapidly around the world, travel advisors last week reported that, for the most part, bookings remained intact.

Of course, as with any other Covid-related news, Omicron has caused some cancellations and some rebooking headaches (again). But the good news is, most of the people who want to travel aren’t worried about the new variant.

What is impacting travel, in some cases, are things like travel restrictions and flight cancellations as airlines have smaller crews because of omicron cases. 

But there have been some changes here at NipTuck Holidays…..

The rules for entering Thailand have changed once again!

As we were so excited to confirm our first NipTuck Holidays Group Tour for 2022, the recent Omicron surges here in Australia caused the backflip on reopening Western Australia’s international borders.

While so disappointing, but not surprising according to travel experts who said travel is a good idea in 2022 — at least the first half of 2022.

They (mostly) said there was no need to panic or cancel plans . When travelling expect changes! The key was to flexible and ready to adapt plans.

Here’s what we know about Thailand’s Test and Go so far….

It is back and will re-open for registration from the 1st Feb again.

This will apply to both Thais and foreigners wishing to enter Thailand from any country in the world.

🦠The new rules will feature 2 PCR tests. One on day one when you arrive and one again on day 5.

📲You must register on ThailandPlus prior to your travel details & pay for these tests in advance.

Nip Tuck Holidays✈🌏👭🛍⛱🍹] will assist our clients in this process step-by-step process.

🏩The tests booked as required on our SHA + hotel you are required to stay on arrival pre-surgery and on Day 5.

🥼🩺your surgery can be performed after the first PCR test and when results come back negative. Even if there are further changes and Sandbox back it still does not affect your surgery and we can offer after the first test results on Day 2.

With that said, again, they’re all very aware of travel restrictions because of how clearly advisors at the various brands within the travel industry. We need to  remain very flexible in making adjustments, if that’s needed.

Individual Travel for Phuket is still on as we have clients travelling to Thailand.   For cases if client’s are  testing positive during their journey, we’ve worked with them on making sure they’re in a comfortable and safe environment while they ride out their quarantine that they are fully insured for.

The other major thing that has happened in the last week related to our Group Tour to Phuket in March is WA’s backflip on reopening international borders. This is a major bummer as all flights have been cancelled including the Perth-Phuket via Singapore on Singaopre Airlines for our Group Tour.  This will be until at least the end of April or until Perth borders reopen with no restictions.

Therefore , unfortunately we have to re-schedule our March Group to Phuket.

With that said, again, they’re all very aware of travel restrictions because of how clearly advisors at the various brands within the travel industry. We need to  remain very flexible in making adjustments, if that’s needed.

Individual Travel for Phuket is still on as we have clients travelling to Thailand.   For cases if client’s are  testing positive during their journey, we’ve worked with them on making sure they’re in a comfortable and safe environment while they ride out their quarantine that they are fully insured for. The other major thing that has happened in the last week related to our Group Tour to Phuket in March is WA’s backflip on reopening international borders. This is a major bummer as all flights have been cancelled.

With that said, again, they’re all very aware of travel restrictions because of how clearly advisors at the various brands within the travel industry. We need to  remain very flexible in making adjustments, if that’s needed.

Individual Travel for Phuket is still on as we have clients travelling to Thailand.   For cases if client’s are  testing positive during their journey, we’ve worked with them on making sure they’re in a comfortable and safe environment while they ride out their quarantine that they are fully insured for. The other major thing that has happened in the last week related to our Group Tour to Phuket in March is WA’s backflip on reopening international borders. This is a major bummer as all flights have been cancelled.

What to do? Be flexible and ready to adapt plans

The advice is book something you can cancel or delay Then you can reassess when your trip is closer. It wouldn’t be fun quarantining for a substantial portion of your stay.

Airlines have grown particularly flexible as the pandemic continues. Last week I canceled a trip to see family in Miami less than 24 hours before my departure because of worries about Omicron, and we received a full refund from JetBlue. Most airlines are following the same guidelines. Basic economy fares are usually nonrefundable, so read carefully before you purchase the cheapest ticket.

Likewise, if you reserve a hotel room from a third-party booking site (such as Expedia or Hotels.com), or from the hotel itself, don’t jump on the lowest rate. Those are usually the rooms that are nonrefundable. If you have any worries that you might need to cancel, make sure you can do it without penalty.

In addition to staying flexible, stay on top of travel restrictions and lockdowns. As Omicron surges, many European countries are bringing back restrictions

Buy travel insurance

Travel insurance that includes covid is necessary as an entry requirement into some countries and a must for travelling now.  It’s important to make sure you have travel insurance that covers COVID as well as make sure your bookings are refundable should the situation change. That way, if you do have to cancel, you won’t lose money.

Most standard travel insurance plans do not cover COVID-related closures and cancellations, so when you purchase a policy, make sure it’s a “cancel for any reason” or “change for any reason” policy. These policies are more expensive (prices for travel insurance are based on the protections you choose), but spending more at the onset can save you from battling later to get your money back.

At Cambridge-based Hopper, a company that analyzes flight searches, they’ve noticed an increase in people booking flexible options and also the number of people buying “cancel for any reason” policies. Pre-Omicron, that number was one in every eight international bookings, now it’s one in every six.

What will travel look like this year?

Don’t travel unless you’re vaccinated and boosted

This is just common sense. No one (and I mean no one) in the travel industry or the medical world wants you traveling if you haven’t been vaccinated. If you won’t do it for yourself or those you care about, then do it because unvaccinated travel options are shrinking. Most countries require citizens of the United States to be vaccinated in order to enter. Testing alone is not an option. An increasing number of cities (New York, San Francisco, Boston) require proof of vaccination to enter restaurants, bars, and clubs.

The correct answer to whether or not you should travel is that there is no correct answer

The smart advice is conflicting advice! Be bold, but also be cautious. Book your trip with us as we are not cancelling anything anytime!!!!! But be ready to delay and re-schedule it if we have to.

The advice from the travel industry professionals is not to cancel your travel plans but to also get your travel insurance, because the possibility of testing positive remains high move forward, but be prepared to shift gears.

In other words, travel for 2022, at least the beginning of 2022, is starting to look like travel in 2020 and 2021. Hope for the best, but be prepared for all scenarios, good and bad.