As I was driving on the highway to Beirut, a huge banner covering almost half a building caught my eye; a commercial for a TV show currently broadcasting in Lebanon, where I literally couldn’t stop staring at the host’s lips and at how gigantically fake they are.
Filling up breasts for the younger, botox for the elder, Lebanese women seem to get pickier with time and one surgery appears to be far than enough. Women are becoming more and more obsessed with their physical appearance. This phenomenon is so widespread in our country, especially in the TV business. Popular journalists like May Chidiac and Maguy Farah have undergone cosmetic surgery. Even when you flip the pages of a magazine and pictures taken inside pubs or nightclubs, there always has to be one person who has undergone surgery.
According to industry experts, 1.5 million plastic surgeries are performed annually in Lebanon in addition to 10 million non-surgical operations such as Botox and collagene fillings. Some have even called Beirut “the capital of plastic surgery” in the Middle-East or the "Mecca of Arab states". Arab women fly to Beirut to undergo surgery because it is prohibited in their countries.
Cosmetic surgery is a “must”, not only when it comes to reconstructive surgery, but simply when it’s self-satisfactory. There is nothing wrong with wanting to feel better about yourself and boosting up your confidence. But it seems to have become an addiction among the Lebanese ladies. You start off with a nose job, which is the most popular surgery, then end up with a face-lift, breast implants and a liposuction. A tiny nose, big cheeks, perfectly shaped breasts and sexy lips have become the typical facial features of most Lebanese ladies. Some don't hesitate to go for complete makeovers.
Lebanese women are undeniably amongst the most beautiful and glamorous women on the planet. But the silicon industry is making big money by targeting new markets and by providing facilities with bank loans, with offers ranging from one thousand to five thousand dollars for example from the First National Bank. Plastic surgery has become cheaper, easier and Lebanese surgeons are highly professional. With new forms of cosmetic surgery, like the non-surgical nose job- which consists of injections only, younger women are now interested in plastic surgery.
The fact that Lebanese women are becoming so image-conscious is quite notorious knowing the economical crisis prevailing in Lebanon.
