Online Reporter
THE Kardashians popularised the Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL), a fat-transfer procedure which transformed beauty standards around the world and inspired millions of women to transform their figures.
While Kim and Khloé appear to have moved on from BBL, shifting towards a leaner and more conservative aesthetic, the revolution they popularised continues to gain momentum around the globe.
In the BBL surgeries, fat is liposuctioned from other parts of the body, including the abdomen or thighs, and injected into the buttocks.
The Kardashians dramatic curves sparked massive global demand for the procedure around the world, including here in Zimbabwe.
Today, there are some clinics which offer BBL surgeries in Harare, with their adverts being found on Instagram, and the costs vary from US$5,000 to US$5,500.
Some Zimbabweans have had their BBL procedures in Turkey. In South Africa, the costs range from R50,000 to R170,000. There are also the non-surgical Brazilian butt lift (BBL) — a procedure involving the injection of large volumes of dermal filler into the buttocks. The BBL phenomenon has been thrown under the spotlight, once again, after Shona Elliot, of the BBC News Investigations team, published an indepth article highlighting “he dark side of the Brazilian Butt Lift boom.”
The article highlights the story of Alice Wee, a 33-mother of five, who died just 24 hours of a procedure two years ago.
“Over the past two years, I have investigated this industry, going undercover to find out what is really happening behind clinic doors.,” writes Elliot. “I found practitioners willing to inject hundreds of millilitres of filler into my body from makeshift treatment rooms in office blocks.
“I was offered prescription-only medicines without proper consultations and sold unlabelled weight-loss injections on social media.
“I’ve spoken to dozens of women who have told me about the excruciating pain they experienced caused by cosmetic injections that were marketed as pain-free and low-risk, and the resulting infections that left them in hospital.
“The cosmetic accreditation service Save Face says it has seen numerous cases of serious harm linked to cosmetic procedures — including one patient who was left unable to close her eyes following a botched eyelid surgery, and another who sustained perforated intestines during a liposuction procedure.”
Ashton Collins, of Save Face, believes social media and reality television have played a significant role in driving that change. “The Kardashians, Love Island and social media made it fashionable for younger women to have bigger lips, cheeks and frozen faces.
“People might be getting their nails or eyebrows done and see these treatments as an extension of that. If you’re under 35, it’s very likely you perceive these treatments as beauty treatments rather than something medical.”
The result, Collins argues, is that consumers often focus on convenience, popularity and price rather than safety credentials. “We repeatedly find that people don’t know Botox is a prescription-only medicine. They don’t know they should be assessed by a healthcare professional. “The way these treatments are presented on social media removes much of the perception of risk.”
At the same time, injectable treatments have become increasingly widely available and are often offered from beauty salons — which can make them appear similar to routine beauty services, according to Collins.
Four days after undergoing a liquid BBL at an Essex clinic in October 2023, 28-year-old Louise Moller from Bolton was rushed to hospital with sepsis.
She rang her mother, Janet Taylor, from A&E: “Mum, I think I’m going to die,” she said. To stop the sepsis spreading through her body, surgeons removed large areas of dead tissue from her left buttock.
Janet reported the incident and the practitioner who carried out the procedure— Ricky Sawyer, a well-known rogue injector who also performed the non-surgical BBL that left Joanne with sepsis— to police. But because the procedure took place in Essex while Louise lived in Greater Manchester, she says she was told the case would need to be passed between forces.
For Collins, Louise’s experience illustrates a wider failure of enforcement.
“People assume there must be somebody regulating these practitioners and holding them accountable when things go wrong,” she says. “Very often that simply isn’t the case.” —H-Metro Reporter-BBC
