Natural-looking results
Gone are the days of individuals looking obviously “done” with highly sculpted noses, plumped-out puckers, and frozen faces of plastic surgery past.
Today's procedures create natural-looking results so that you look refreshed, relaxed and like the best version of yourself. With more alternatives to surgery, we can expect an even greater uptick in the number of men and women seeking cosmetic enhancements.
The desire to look better, but natural, is not new. What had discouraged person's from indulging in cosmetic procedures was the fear of looking overdone.
Everything micro
Microneedling with platelet-rich plasma (PRP), microblading, and micro- or baby botox will gain momentum in the coming year.
Microneedling uses a special roller or device with needles to create tiny channels in the skin to trigger its natural wound-healing capabilities, namely the production of collagen and elastin, the building blocks of supple, youthful skin. PRP injections jump-start this healing response.
Microblading (pictured above) is the new go-to for over-plucked or waxed eyebrows. It's a type of tattooing where pigment is implanted under the skin with a manual handheld tool. The art of creating 3D strokes gives clients realistic eyebrows that shape and accentuate their features, which last up to two years.
Micro-botox involves injecting small amounts of neuromodulator within the upper layers of the skin to enhance tone, smooth wrinkles and reduce the size of pores.
Safer alternatives
With the rise of social media, selfie-awareness and the recently coined “snapchat dysmorphia”, there was a significant uptick in the pursuit of looking like their filters and photoshopped images. Plastic surgeons encountered patients expressing a desire to look like the Instagram models that have a smaller waistline with a disproportionate lower body, and this has only got more pronounced.
In 2017, there was an increase in back-door buttock enhancement procedures, where females desperate to get the desired look would allow themselves to be injected with harmful substances such as industrial-grade silicone and, in extreme cases, cement to get extra curves and a bigger butt.
Needless to say, this led to several cases of infection, necrosis due to low blood supply, and even death.
With the increased awareness of the dangers of these procedures, we saw the emergence of a safer alternative dubbed the “Mommy Makeover”, which involved a traditional lift, where the surgeon removes excess sagging skin and sometimes a little fat to raise and tighten the buttock. There is also augmentation using an implant, where (like a breast implantation procedure) a silicone implant is placed either on top of or under the muscle to add volume to the region. The latter is often called the Brazilian butt lift (BBL), which (despite its name) is technically another form of augmentation. The surgeon grafts fat from another part of the body (usually the stomach or thighs), and then injects that fat into the butt to alter its size and shape.
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