As promised in my last blog, this month’s blog is a review of a three-part documentary series I recently watched. As a practitioner of aesthetic treatments and a registered nurse I found it fascinating and thought you might like to hear my take on things (if it’s not your thing, next month’s blog will return to Skin Deep Clinic news, I’m sure!).
The premise
Sex, Knives & Liposuction aired on Channel W – which I never even knew existed before – and was presented by Cherry Healey. I’ve been a fan of Cherry since her other documentaries back in the days of BBC 3, and again, she didn’t disappoint.
Having had two children and reaching a stage in her life where she felt her body wasn’t looking as good as it had previously, Cherry was entertaining the idea of ‘tweaking’ things – cosmetically. So she decided to research the options, watching various treatments being performed. These included liposuction, the infamous BBL (Brazilian Butt Lift), breast lift / enlargement and injectable treatments. Somehow she managed to end up at a naked yoga session too…! I’m not sure where the “sex” came into the series but it was a catchy title for sure!
During her investigation she debated whether the treatments were worthwhile. She also looked at others’ motivations for choosing to go under the knife / syringe.
The BBL
The first episode covered the Brazilian Butt Lift. This shocked and saddened me. The surgery was far more invasive than I had imagined.
The patient travelled to Turkey for the procedure, which was where a young British mum unfortunately died earlier this year after having the same surgery. What really saddened me was her motivation for treatment… social media. She felt that she couldn’t compete with the images of girls she sees on Instagram.
To me, this was yet another reminder that social media is contributing to feelings of inadequacy and goading people into making huge, potentially life-threatening decisions. Consider the pressure this girl felt – it was obviously enough to convince her to get the BBL, which has the highest death rate of all plastic surgery.
The poor girl was brought back to the house in Turkey where she would spend a week recovering. She travelled on her front, lying across three seats in the back of a van. It took her six minutes to walk the short distance to the front door. She was clearly in agony, which wasn’t surprising given the extent of her surgery. She would fly back to the UK a week later (they are advised not to sit down for 6 weeks post-op so quite how the flight was managed I’ll never know).
Think before you book
Cherry pondered long and hard about undertaking a procedure. She met plastic surgeons and patients from the UK and beyond. At the end of the third and final episode she opted to visit to a clinic for Botox®.
I have now seen 700 people for consultation since the launch of Skin Deep Clinic over five years ago. Every new client must book a free initial consultation first. This is where I remind them that aesthetic treatments are not medically necessary and go into depth about the potential risks and side effects. They can’t book a treatment until after this consultation. One reason for having a cooling off period after the sessions is that it gives them time to consider these risks together with the benefits.
I applaud Cherry for going to the depths she did in researching treatments, not sugar-coating them and not rushing into making a decision. I hope that many watching the series were put off undertaking any procedure without huge consideration first.
If you have any questions or concerns about treatment, please do get in touch via my social media, or you can text / call me on 07801 644888.
Wendy
