Tuesday, May 29, 2007

New magazine for the cosmetic surgery generation

As an avid magazine reader, a new title caught my eye: "Brand New You." It was only a matter of time before a magazine was devoted to cosmetic surgery, and this is it. The adverts are unlike those you see in mainstream women's titles: they're for products offered by dermatologists, fillers and private hospital groups offering plastic surgery. The latter is not unusual except that their ads in this magazine are big and blatant, whereas in the other magazines they're much smaller and tucked away at the back.

So what did I think of Brand New You? Well, the cover of a launch issue is usually crammed with the most eye catching headlines the team can think up: those that will persuade people to part with their cash. So on the cover we're offered 148 anti-ageing secrets, a complete enhancement guide to sexy breasts and how to look and feel 10 years younger, plus 107 cosmetics you can't live without.

But inside, these tempting morsels are still only appetizers and don't deliver a main course.

Maybe I'm biased, being a former journalist, but it gets my hackles up when a magazine offers you various experts and then you find the experts have huge adverts. So, what we get here are lots of mentions of the Hurlingham Clinic, for example, in the articles, and lo and behold, a huge advert for the clinic. Angela Kavouni is described as the magazine's body expert on the panel, but she gets countless mentions in articles. When the advertisers write the magazine, it loses credibility, and credibility is essential when you're talking about potentially deathly surgery that costs thousands of pounds.

The other thing that bugged me is that the various treatments which are reviewed are nearly always in the Bath / Bristol area. Not surprising, given that the magazine is published in Bristol, but irritating nonetheless. I could imagine the staff of Brand New You gleefully rushing off to the local beauty salons for some freebies in exchange for a positive write-up.

The case studies of people who have had various procedures are all positive. I wonder if the magazine will touch on the darker side of cosmetic surgery: the procedures that go wrong and have to be repeated. Even "Extreme Makeover UK" had a couple of cases where the operations didn't go the way they should.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Send Gok Wan round!

The summer blight has struck. All the women's magazines are in a frenzy about looking good for the beach. It's all there, bikini diets, slimming wraps, fake tan, swimming costumes for all sizes, the desperate need to exfoliate and epilate. Bombarded as I am with all these messages, which is my fault for buying so many magazines because I hear it in stereo, I'm at a low ebb even thinking about baring all on the beach. The diet has been applied on and off since January and I've still only lost two pounds. I've had a personal trainer for the last six weeks, but I still feel unfit. I tried SmartLipo (see previous posting) but no improvement so far.

What I need now is Gok Wan!

He's the stylist who presents Channel 4's How to Look Good Naked. I find this such an uplifting show. Every week he takes a woman who hates her shape and convinces her she's beautiful. There's no plastic surgery involved. By the end of the programme, the women genuinely do look great. It's a far cry from the sterile and awful 10 Years Younger, where each week a woman is humiliated by experts who analyse her flaws and find ones she hadn't thought about, and then mutilate her with plastic surgery. At the end of the programme, the "reveal" is no better than Gok Wan's, and sometimes they even look worse than when they started.

Still, it's not very likely that he's going to turn up at my door so in the meantime I have to put up with a DH who says "go out running" all the time. Now, back to my web search for beach cover-ups....

Monday, May 21, 2007

Think carefully about SmartLipo: it's not the answer to all your prayers

SmartLipo is a fairly new procedure in the UK that has captured many headlines with its claim to be a fast and pain-free alternative to traditional liposuction, with no downtime. The Sunday Times Style magazine joined the bandwagon yesterday, running a full page article on the lipo you can have in your lunchtime.

When you do your research before having it done, you'll find it's very difficult to find anything other than positive articles and the websites of clinics offering it.

So I want to offer some much needed counter arguments. I had SmartLipo three weeks ago in two areas of my abdomen, roughly speaking above and below the belly button. Believe me, it is not the pain-free fast fix everyone seems to think it is.

My SmartLipo was performed by one of the doctors mentioned in the article, in London, and took about one and a half hours. My BMI is under 25 so I am not hugely overweight; I do however have a podgy midriff, and with the beach looming, I wanted to try to reduce it. I had consultations for Ultrashape (ultrasound) and Accent laser, and wasn't considered suitable for either. SmartLipo seemed ideal because unlike traditional liposuction, it improves the condition of your skin. The laser stimulates the production of collagen. At my age, this was a big plus because loose skin often looks worse than tightly packed fat.

I did find the procedure quite uncomfortable at times. I have a very high pain threshold; I don't have a lot of sympathy for people who scream and cry at the slightest thing. My eyes watered at the needle for the local anaesthetic, but I thought that would be the end of it. However, sometimes the probe hits a part of you that wasn't anaethetised and it is very jarring and painful.

Well, after the procedure I felt fine and went home in the compression garment and clutching some antibiotics.

I had traditional liposuction seven years ago on my hips and thighs, and I can honestly say that the next day, the SmartLipo treatment left me in more pain. Previously, I didn't even take the painkillers I'd been given and I felt ok to start exercising a few days later. A week after SmartLipo it was still hard to bend over, and it was two weeks later before I could even contemplate exercise.

Three weeks later I am still wearing the compression garment (they say it's usually worn for 3-5 days) and waiting for the procedure to show some positive effects.
What they don't tell you is that the fat, which is turned to liquid and then metabolised over a period of months, becomes a coagulated mass which gravity pulls downwards. So in my case, I have a very big lump above my belly button which is painful to touch, and visible in a swimming costume or a t-shirt if I don't wear the compression garment.

It hasn't gone down at all. I'm starting to fret that when I go on holiday in late June, I will have to buy swimming costumes because there's no way I can wear a bikini with this abormality.

I did speak to the doctor a week after the procedure and was assured this was perfectly normal and it would dissolve over time.

I thought I should share my experience because everyone thinks SmartLipo is an instant panacea, and when I searched the web for any negative or adverse reactions, I didn't find any.