Taking looking good that extra step

 
 
Yomna Kamel Middle East Times staff


Only a few years ago, cosmetic surgery in Egypt was a luxury restricted to movie stars, models and public figures ready to reshape their features in order to improve their appearance. Now however, it's becoming much more widespread.

More people, especially women, are more conscious of their shape as satellite televisions, movies, and fashion magazines are playing an influential role in changing women's idea of the perfect body. At the same time, cosmetic surgery has become more affordable. Liposuction (fat removal), for example, now starts at E£2,000.

"We receive a good number of patients a day. We've noticed that cosmetic surgery has become very popular, unlike five years back when the hospital was established," said Dr. Walaa Abou Hagag, director of Salma Hospital for Cosmetic Surgery.

"Women belonging to poor families are now among our clients. They save money for years to be able to have their appearance improved through a cosmetic surgery," she added.

In fact, the business of beauty is booming all over the region according to Dr. Muhammad Bedawy, who operates a number of hospitals for cosmetic surgery.

"All women want to have a beautiful body and we fulfill their dreams. More and more women have become conscious about their looks. The increase in our number of clients encouraged us to open another hospital for cosmetic surgery. Cosmetic surgery is becoming popular across the Arab world too. In the next few weeks, we will inaugurate a new hospital for cosmetic surgery in Dubai," he said.

Even with hospitals spreading around the region, Cairo remains a center for the cosmetic surgery industry and Arabs from around the region come to Cairo to have their bodies redone.

"Fifty percent of our patients [in Egypt] during the summer months are women from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Tunisia and Libya," said Abou Hagag.

The most popular procedure performed, according to doctors, is liposuction. Women come and have fat removed from the stomach and hips so that they can achieve a body shape more in line with what they believe is attractive.

"Our clinic receives an average of three female patients a day who want to have liposuction. It is a one-day operation that does not take up more than three hours,"Abou Hagag said.

She added that after liposuction, the most popular operations they perform are breast augmentation (mammoplasty) and "skin streching," a procedure that smoothes and minimizes wrinkles and bagging skin. Tummy tucks (abdominoplasty), breast lifts, facelifts, hair replacements and nose surgery are also often requested.

The popularity of liposuction reflects new ideas about correct body weight in the region that many attribute to the influence of more Western ideas of beauty.

With the exposure to other cultures through satellite television, European and American models affect both men and woman's images. The slim girls with oversized breasts they see in TV shows like Baywatch and in dozens of American soap operas have become the new role models.

Muhammad Shaalan, professor of psychology at Al Azhar University, said if the models or actress are admired by men, women try to imitate them and they use cosmetic surgery to turn themselves into a model men like.

"She must internally be unsatisfied about her appearance. In some cases, the woman is beautiful, but still she wants to change herself," Shaalan said.

The ads for most hospitals and clinics performing this kind of surgery feature thin, often blonde, Western models.

However, Nadine, an Egyptian model of Lebanese origin, thinks that Egyptian women are not trying to imitate Western notions of beauty when they get surgery.

"They just want to look better. They are now more conscious about their beauty and this is a good trend that we should encourage. Egyptian women want to look smart, not Western," Nadine said.

"Personally, I am not against cosmetic surgery if its purpose is to improve and beautify the body, not to change it. If a woman changes her features, she will be another person. In Egypt, models who had cosmetic surgery did not change their features, but improved them."

She contrasts this behavior with that of the models in Lebanon, whom she says do indulge in a great deal of plastic surgery in an effort to look more European.

"For example, they have nose surgery where the nose is reshaped to look strait and thin like the Western nose," she said.

Nadine herself had cosmetic surgery to eliminate a bump she believed disturbed the beauty of her nose. "I did not change the shape of my nose, but improved its look. I did not want to make it thin or straight. I wanted it to look natural," she commented.

According to Abou Hagag, cosmetic surgery does not involve any risk as long as the patient is healthy and the patient is given a full medical check up before carrying our any type of cosmetic surgery.

The American Society for Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) stress, however, that liposuction it is not a suitable method for weight loss, nor will it tighten loose skin or eliminate the cellulite.

"Imperfections in final appearance are not uncommon after liposuction. The skin surface may be irregular, asymmetric, or even baggy, especially in the older patients. Numbness and pigmentation may also occur," the ASPS stated in their online information service. The organization added risks increase if the operation is performed repeatedly.

Regardless of these and other reported complications growing numbers of women and men in Egypt and around the region are taking that extra step to look good.