Lebanon’s most wanted: Haifa’s breasts and Angelina’s sexy lips

 

By Lamia RadiBeirut – Wanted:Angelina Jolie’s luscious lips or Lebanese sex bomb Haifa Wehbe’s noseor breasts. Clutching pictures of their idols, Arab women are flockingto Lebanon which has become a hub for plastic surgery in the MiddleEast.

”The boom in plastic surgery started in 2000 in Lebanon, which then becameTHE destination for ‘plastic surgery tourism’ in the Middle East,”plastic surgeon Tony Nassar, who owns the Brazilian Esthetic Clinics inBeirut, said.Men and women from oil-rich Arab Gulf states have been coming indroves to fix their noses, lift buttocks and enlarge their breasts inLebanon, attracted by the reputation of the country’s surgeons, its lowprices, good weather and buzzing night-life.”Sixty percent of our clients are Lebanese and 40 percent from theGulf,” said Elias Shammas, owner of the Hazmieh International MedicalCentre, which employs an army of no less than 50 plastic surgeons.Thereare no official statistics, but industry experts say as many as 1.5million plastic surgeries are performed annually in Lebanon in additionto 10 million non-surgical operations such as Botox and collagenefillings.

Lebanon’s ambition to become the region’s plastic surgery hub hashowever been dampened by a prolonged political crisis and a series ofassassinations targeting figures from the ruling majority.”After the (2005) assassination of former prime minister RafiqHariri, our revenues went down by 70 percent,” Shammas said.

“But we have been rebuilding our client base, and this last August we reached arecord of 240 operations in one month.”The most sought after surgeries are nose jobs, liposuctions, face-lifts and breast implants.”A nose job costs about 2,000 dollars in Lebanon, against 4,000dollars in London and between 5,000 and 10,000 dollars in the UnitedStates,” Shammas said.

Clients, ranging from 14 to 75, often ask for operations to make them look like their favourite stars.”It is rare for a client not to show up with the picture of a star, askingfor Angelina Jolie’s lips or Haifa’s nose and chest,” Nassar said.”For Lebanese woman, being beautiful is a national duty, not a luxury.

Women compete with each others, and plastic surgery has ceasedto be a taboo subject and become something to brag about,” he said.On Beirut’s trendy shopping streets, women stroll along thesidewalks with band-aids covering their nose jobs and sleeveless shirtsshowing bandages covering recent breast implants.”If at the age of 65, I can look 50 why deprive myself?” insisted Nadia, anelegantly-dressed Kuwaiti woman who did not wish to reveal her familyname.”A few weeks with a swollen face, and goodbye to wrinkles, bags and double-chins,” added Nadia as she examined a computer-generatedsimulation of her future face.Shammas said even mothers drag their daughters in to guarantee them a good catch.”After I performed several operations on a young woman, she got engaged,” he said.

“Without the surgeries, she would have probably hadto wait 30 years before finding a man.”He said winter is a busy time for nose jobs and face-lifts whilesummer is the hot season for breast enlargements, liposuctions andtummy-tucks.Shammas said even men are entering the race and now represent three out of 10 clients.”They mostly ask for hair implants, eye-lid liftings, removal of double-chins and liposuctions, in that order,” he said.In a country suffering an economic crisis, the plastic surgery crazehas even prompted Lebanon’s First National Bank to offer three-yearloans, with a six percent interest rate, for such operations.”

Demand for these loans has increased by about 35 percent since theywere launched in May 2007,” said Georges Nasser, head of the bank’smarketing department.”The only requirements are for applicants to be over 17 years old,and with a minimum monthly salary of 600 dollars,” Nasser said.He brushed aside critics who say that the search for eternal youth ends up producing clones with similar lips and noses.”All the women don’t become identical,” Shammas insisted.

“These areallegations made by people who are against plastic surgery.”For 25-year-old Myrna, the choice is simple.”I would rather we all look like Haifa, than be ugly,” she said.

Source:Yalibnan