Plastic surgery booms in Brazil

Working at home and saving money otherwise spent on travel has allowed Brazilians to invest in themselves

Sao Paulo: Mirrors don’t lie, nor does the screen during a video conference: the virus-induced lockdown has led many Brazilians to undergo plastic surgery to look better. With trips canceled and restaurants mostly closed, many have extra cash to carry out such procedures.

Regiane de Oliveira Sousa, a 38-year-old sales representative from Sao Paulo, has used her stint of working from home to improve her personal beauty. Over the past six months she has had time to get cosmetic skin peels, breast reduction surgery, liposuction to remove unwanted fat, and facial harmonization treatment. “Friends of mine have also taken advantage of teleworking to do these surgeries,” she said.

“When we stay at home, we have more time to look at ourselves in the mirror, because we no longer have this hectic life, where we move around constantly,” said de Oliveira Sousa, who is about to receive a lip-plumping acid injection at a clinic in an upscale Sao Paulo neighborhood. Cost of the procedure: 3,800 reais (around $730), or almost four times the monthly minimum wage in Brazil.

Her surgeon, Cintia Rios, said there has been a significant increase in cosmetic operations this year, about 40 percent more compared to what was done before the pandemic. “I had to lengthen my work hours and I hired three employees. Beauty is not in crisis, thank God!”
According to Rios, otoplasties – cosmetic ear surgeries – are also popular because people feel that wearing a face mask makes their ears stick out. Usually such surgery is for children around the ages of eight or nine, “but this year, many adults are doing it.”

Lips are also important, adds de Oliveira Sousa, “because during telework video conferences we see each other permanently on the screen.”Rita Monteiro Meireles, 34, sees the confinement as a chance to use her savings to carry out cosmetic surgery enhancements that she has dreamed of since her divorce three years ago. “I didn’t like my face, and after getting a bichectomy (surgery to remove cheek fat) I was the happiest person in the world,” she said.