According to the Mental Health Foundation, UK, research suggests that body image may be influenced by our relationships with our family and friends; how our family and peers feel and speak about bodies and appearance. The same report also states that over one third of adults said they had ever felt anxious (34%) or depressed (35%) because of their body image, and one in eight (13%) experienced suicidal thoughts or feelings because of concerns about their body image.
However, during the Covid-19 pandemic, statistics from the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) showed that virtual consultations rose up to 70% during lockdown.
Self esteem and self expression
29 year old Shonali told Asian Voice that she underwent a cosmetic correction surgery under the guidance of a senior dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon who helped her get rid of her warts which initially made her less confident in appearance and mingling with friends at college. She in fact started dating men with more confidence, which was otherwise diminished due to warts all over her face.
A mother of one toddler felt that her husband was cheating on her and that she started feeling less confident about her looks and at some point felt “ugly”. Therefore, she went on to get some fillers on her face and she started wearing make-up (which she never did before) to reignite passion in her marriage. It helped her.
A 47 year old woman just underwent an eye bag surgery because she felt it was making her look less attractive, especially when she was spending more time with her husband during the lockdown than she ever has in a marriage of 18 years. It has empowered her so much that she has got herself a job as a coordinator in a nearby local school after taking a 20 year long sabbatical from fulltime teaching.
Why only women?
Harriet Hall in her column for The Independent wrote a year ago and said, “When we talk about these procedures as another way to achieve ‘confidence’, we’re ignoring the fact that it’s still, in many cases, just a convenient scheme to make money from female insecurity. Women write about their cosmetic procedures as if there’s empowerment in shaking off the stigma, as though they are embracing their liberated choices and sticking it to the man.”
Are cosmetic surgeries confined only to women? Asian Voice spoke to Dr Puneet Gupta (who has practiced at Harley Street for 12 years and now owns the Hunar Clinic) an aesthetic physician with more than ten years of experience mainly specialising in skin care for Asian and Black skin.
Dr Gupta said, “Male patients coming in for chest reduction. That’s huge now. Among the male community, it’s acceptable to have a bit of a belly, but no man likes to have m**bs with a chest or breast on the top of it. I’ve seen a guy who is in his 50s and has never taken his top off and doesn’t go by the pool or by the beach. Now I have grandchildren and they ask me why I have breasts like mummy and then want to go out and do things with me in the pool and I've found that there’s something that can be done now.”
Touching upon the Asian obsession with fair skin, Dr Gupta said, “It is a very well accepted fact in our community that fairness is associated with being beautiful. I see a lot of requests coming through. Offering skin lightening treatment upfront is almost illegal in the UK. People with dark spots due to acne marks and pigmentation can take some treatment and can be cleared off. But patients like to continue with it long term because they like the brightness of it. The onus goes on us as doctors to control it and make sure that we don’t put our patients onit for a long term. You have to manage it very carefully.”
The cost and stigma
According to Dr Gupta, the cost of a wrinkle correction procedure is about £300 (3 times a year), Fillers go by how many syringes are used to help women get big pouty duck-like lips. They cost about £250-£300 on an average and last for about 6 months. Lightening treatments over a course of four months, considering Brexit amount to £400 to £500 and laser treatment bills up to £2000.
But how do people approach cosmetic surgeons? “Some will come alone, some will come with their partners, some will come with a younger or elder sister, or mother. I had a mother bringing her son for chest reduction That’s a brilliant support to see. Women in their 40s who don’t want their husbands to know, they come when they are gone on business trips outside the city for a couple of days,” Dr Puneet Gupta said.
He continued to tell us that, “Anti-wrinkle treatment and filler enhance your looks and are more aesthetic which make women feel more confident. That’s almost become a day to day life thing, like how we all go for haircuts or regular manicure and pedicure.”
“A huge proportion of my clients of Asian origin come for acne scar reduction. It can be quite daunting for them. It improves their self esteem and it’s not just a cosmetic procedure,” he added.
Addressing myths about Liposuction, he said, “People have a wrong mindset about liposuction. They think it’s for fat people. It’s actually the other way round. Liposuction is not meant for fat people. If you are fat, no amount of liposuction will help. Doctors who do it in one session, sound very appealing, with that huge amount of fat removed from your body, the body goes into a state of shock and then they die or get serious complications.”
Dr Gupta also said, “Imagine 20-30 litres of fat coming off from both legs, is like walking with a sand bag of 10 to 20 kgs tied to your each leg. You feel like flying after that.”
