Britons are set to spend £1bn on cosmetic surgery and treatments next year, as the popularity of non-invasive procedures such as Botox and collagen wrinkle fillers continues to soar.
The number of operations and treatments has almost doubled in two years as consumers strive to get the perfect figure and wrinkle-free face, market analysts Mintel said. This year 1,600 procedures were carried out every day.
Some 472,000 of the total of 577,000 were non-surgical, with laser hair removal, chemical peels and teeth whitening helping boost that figure. In 2005 there were 300,000 procedures, 230,000 of them non-surgical.
Non-invasive treatments are on the rise because Britons see them as relatively risk-free, and because many require people to keep coming back for top-ups, according to the report. But it said the fact that such procedures did not have to be carried out by medically-qualified staff, and that the industry was still self-regulated, should be of more concern to consumers.
Nose jobs were the most popular surgical procedure with men, while women preferred breast enlargements. Botox, used to smooth forehead lines and eliminate crows' feet and other lines, was the favourite non-surgical cosmetic procedure, with a new approach dubbed "baby Botox" using smaller doses to achieve a more natural look and avoid a frozen facial appearance.
Mintel said people were turning to cosmetic surgery because airbrushed images of models and photos of surgically-enhanced celebrities left them feeling inadequate. "This, along with a love of all things anti-ageing, is driving Brits towards cosmetic procedures," said senior cosmetics analyst Alexandra Richmond.
This year the total cosmetic surgery market was worth just over £900m - more than double the £430m spent in 2005.
Surgical procedures still make up the bulk of spending, at £604m compared with the £302m men and women spent on non-surgical work.
Facial enhancements and breast surgery were the two most popular surgical procedures. Body reshaping, which includes liposuction, tummy tucks, arm reduction surgery and buttock lifts, accounted for the rest. One in five facial surgery operations carried out in the past year was a nose job. Breast uplifts were popular among women unhappy with the way breast-feeding and pregnancy had affected their figure.
The analysts found that 44% of Britons would consider cosmetic surgery. A majority (60%) said it was their self-consciousness that would push them to try to change the way they looked, while a quarter wanted to look younger and a fifth wanted to boost their sex appeal. One in 10 of those who would consider cosmetic surgery said they had been influenced by reading about it in magazines and seeing it on makeover shows on TV.
