Photo: Getty Images
Once considered an over-the-top beauty trend, boob jobs and tummy tucks could be classed now as the first base of plastic surgery.
But why stop there when 2015 boasts a line-up of new trends that will make you forget all about Renee Zellweger’s face and accept that, despite claims, Jennifer Hawkins will never admit to going under the knife.
Here are eight bizarre procedures gaining momentum this year.
Eyebrow transplant
Though the main function is to stop sweat from dripping into our eyes, a girl’s eyebrows are said to be the face’s most defining feature.
Over-plucking eyebrows can cause them to become thin or not grow back. A permanent solution is an eyebrow transplant.
This involves a surgeon removing hairs from “a four-inch-wide slice of scalp from the back of your head and then dissect all the hairs to graft in wherever you’d like”, Refinery 29 says.
Thigh gap therapy
If shoulders are the new bums and bums were the new boobs, where does that leave the thigh gap?
The Daily Mail says a thigh gap is “what every girl lusts after,” with women spending up to $US1000 ($1200) on laser treatment that zaps fat.
This procedure “uses Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) that ‘pokes’ temporary holes in the walls of fat cells, causing them to collapse”.
Grin lift
For some, a frown appears more naturally than their smile.
Also known as bitchy resting face, a grin lift, or a corner lip lift, claims to turn that frown upside down. The procedure involves removing the extra skin above each corner of the mouth, causing it to lift.
Plastic surgeon Dr Lyle Back told The Gloss patients can end up with “permanent scars that can make you look like The Joker”.
Chubby cheek surgery
The allure of having chubby cheeks wears off pretty quickly once you hit puberty.
A minor surgery called buccal lipectomy can help to improve the look of chubby cheeks.
Plastic surgeon Dr Anthony Youn told CBC News: “Surgeon makes a small incision inside the cheek and removes a gumball-sized chunk of fat. This causes the cheek hollows to contour inward, improving the jowly or “chipmunk cheek” look.”
Bellybutton surgery
Do you have an “outie” or an “innie”?
Turns out, an “outie” belly button is actually a small umbilical hernia. So, if you’re in the market for an “innie”, surgeons can repair this hernia with an umbilicoplasty.
This involves “a small incision on the upper surface of the belly button that turns it into a more aesthetically pleasing innie – and creates a permanent scar that is usually well-hidden,” said Dr Youn, who is also author of the plastic surgery memoir In Stitches.
Bra link back lift
Rolls of fat on your back can sometimes make wearing a bra uncomfortable.
Also known as “bread back”, there is a procedure available to have back rolls surgically removed.
Patients are left with a scar that is hidden by their bra line.
Internal bra
This relatively new procedure means you don’t have to wear a bra.
The procedures takes 45 minutes and involves “surgeons inserting silicon cups underneath the breast tissue and anchoring them to the bones of the rib cage with titanium screws”, The Independent reports.
But surgeons have warned this procedure hasn’t been around long enough to determine any side effects.
Nipple and areola reduction
“Long nipples and wide areolas” are common in some men and women.
“This can be due to heredity, pregnancy, or plain bad luck,” Dr Youn said.
Doctors can reduce the size of the nipple by removing skin at the base, or the areola by removing a ring of skin from around the area, but Dr Youn warns this leaves a scar.