The secret economics of plastic surgery
Cosmetic procedures have become cheaper, less invasive and vastly more common in recent years, in middle-income countries as well as rich ones.
The young are especially keen. As cosmetic interventions go mainstream, getting injected, lasered or operated on may become “similar to getting an annual check-up”, says Marcelo Araújo, a plastic surgeon.
Such touch-ups are already so common among young people that they have developed slang terms for them: “tweakments” and “upkeep”. Meanwhile, social media are spurring a convergence in beauty standards around the world.
When cosmetic surgery took off in the 1980s and 1990s, it was the preserve of television stars. Today it has been democratised. Tap the link in our bio to discover some ugly truths about the industry.