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Date Posted: 01:23:27 11/15/02 Fri
Author: True Facts
Subject: We always hear about plastic surgery in beauty pageants by these people, but what about regular people and whom plastic surgeries are very common for...

I work in the field of Plastic surgery field 4 years, it's recognized Plastic Surgery is very common w/ middle eastern people. Lebanese, Syrians, Egyptians, Kuwaitis, has gained more popularity with Saudi Arabians, Arabs from United Arab Emirates and Arabic peoples. Most common: rhinoplasty(nose jobs) lip botox injections, breast jobs, liposuction, check implants, chin implants, lastly Facelifts.
(an interesting article) Beauty at any Cost

Facing extinction: The Lebanese nose
Anne Renahan asks why
( Beirut, The Daily Star, February 22, 1999)

Original works of art are highly prized. The same cannot be said of the Lebanese nose a facial feature that some people are starting to say is an endangered species on the verge of extinction. Pert noses may be cute but for a growing number of people, tired of the national nose job obsession, big noses are better. That¡¯s the opinion of Mireille Azouri, 26, who had her nose cast as part of an exhibition that celebrates the natural Lebanese nose. ¡°Yes, you can say that the Lebanese have strong noses,¡± she says. ¡°But I like them. We should trust our noses because they are proportional with the rest of the face.¡±
But it would appear that many more people disagree with her. Although there are no statistics for the number of people who have had nose jobs in this country, plastic surgeons agree that it is the most performed cosmetic surgery procedure in Lebanon.
But has it gone too far?
Hala, 16, who had a nose job last summer thinks it most definitely has. ¡°It¡¯s really getting out of control,¡± she says. ¡°I know at least five of my friends all about 16 years old who have had operations and I¡¯m sure there are many more.¡±
While she feels it¡¯s acceptable to undergo surgery to boost a person¡¯s self-confidence, she feels that this often isn¡¯t the case. ¡°It¡¯s so trendy to have this done now that people who don¡¯t need to change their noses, are having operations. It¡¯s bad now and I think that it¡¯s going to get even worse,¡± she sighs.
She feels that the sheer number of nose jobs suggests that people view the attainment of a new nose in the same light as buying a designer suit or a pair of expensive shoes: A fashion decision that is as easy to make as deciding how to color your hair or paint your nails.
Not everyone views the nose job quite so lightly. For nose-conscious Cherine Fahd, an Australian artist of Lebanese origin who is heading the fight to preserve the Lebanese nose in all its original glory, the nose job is a fashion statement with more sinister implications. In Beirut for the Sydney-Beirut/Beirut-Sydney contemporary art exhibition, she makes plaster molds of Lebanese noses that will be displayed in an exhibition to be held in Sydney later this year. She¡¯s cast about 100 noses so far and hopes to preserve another 100 before the exhibition ends.
The nose project started out as a way of examining identity, ¡°I was shocked by the number of people who have had nose jobs here,¡± says the fresh faced 25-year-old artist, who is proud to point out that her nose has never been touched by surgical hands. ¡°I think it¡¯s a shame because it¡¯s a denial of who you are.¡±
But Fahd says that her artistic project has taken on another dimension. Finding an original Lebanese nose is difficult and her exhibition aims to redress the balance. Instead of deriding that much maligned feature, she is determined to celebrate it.
¡°This is an important project for me,¡± she says flicking through a local magazine filled with society pictures of people Fahd is convinced have had nose jobs. Just about every woman in every photo has had a white nose drawn over her own to indicate that what you see is not what that person was born with.
Fahd shrugs her shoulders and says that whilst she understands the desire to have a small nose, she doesn¡¯t agree with it. The Lebanese nose is a distinctive feature that should be shown off rather than shorn off the face. ¡°The ideal nose for me is large. In fact, the bigger the nose, the better,¡± she says defiantly. Fahd adds that this is not just the case with the Lebanese in Lebanon. ¡°I see it with the Lebanese population all over the world: In Sydney Australia or the States too. You have to ask yourself: Why?¡±
The answer is very simple. ¡°There¡¯s a certain ideal of what constitutes a beautiful woman,¡± she says. ¡°Having a large nose doesn¡¯t conform to the standard of beauty that we see in magazines.
¡°So people want to change to something more European.¡±
Doctors agree with this assessment.
¡°There¡¯s no doubt that there¡¯s a higher tendency for people to have plastic surgery in Lebanon than other countries,¡± says Dr. Nabil Fuleihan, a facial plastic surgeon and professor who also heads ear, nose and throat medicine and head and neck surgery at AUH. He worked in the States for 15 years. ¡°And rhinoplasty cosmetic surgery on the nose is definitely the most popular.¡± Fuleihan, 47, uses a new technique of computer generated graphics to show patients what their reshaped nose will look like. The plastic surgeon who returned to Lebanon a year ago in and says there is a particular reason why the Lebanese have rebelled against their most prominent facial feature.
Many Lebanese feel that they have ¡°big, bulbous noses, or a big hump, wide nostrils or that their nose is asymmetrical,¡± he says. This doesn¡¯t have to be a bad thing, says the doctor, but people are conditioned by the world around them and particularly by the media which promotes a very different ideal nose to the one that most Lebanese feel that they possess.
¡°I think that the Lebanese population tends to be very fashion oriented. People want to look as good as possible,¡± says Dr. Fuleihan. ¡°They¡¯re influenced by Western aesthetic norms and by magazines and TV.¡±
Media images of small delicate noses are what just about everyone, young and old, wants, says Fuleihan.
But for younger Lebanese the desire to change their appearance is even more acute than it is for their parents. ¡°For one thing many of them have traveled more and have a more European outlook,¡± he says.
¡°If it makes some feel better than it¡¯s a good thing,¡± agrees Dr. E.M., 65, a member of the Lebanese Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, which does not allow members to publish their names. The surgeon has been practicing for 36 years and he alone performs up to two operations a day. But he doesn¡¯t think that the high number of nose jobs in Lebanon is a fashion trend. The low cost of operations means that it cannot be considered a status symbol because to a certain extent it is available to everyone. ¡°The operation is easy to do and can be done in a day. And it¡¯s also cheaper here than other countries.
But Fuleihan at the AUH insists that the reasons are much deeper. Better surgery has encouraged more people to have surgery, but the desire to change appearance is rooted in something much more psychological.
Having a nose job may be fashion statement to a certain extent. ¡°But it¡¯s not like buying a dress or changing your hair-do. It requires a lot of thought. People need to know what they¡¯re doing¡± says Fuleihan who estimates that while he was a surgeon in the States he turned away around 30 percent of people who came to see him ¡°for aesthetic reasons.¡±
He says that this is particularly the case for women who form the majority of plastic surgery patients although the number of men is starting to increase.
But Fuleihan does not feel that the Lebanese nose is danger of extinction. He says that maintaining the character of a face is important to him and that when doing a nose job, he tries to be as ¡°natural¡± as possible.
¡°There are some people who may do all their noses the same way, but I don¡¯t like to put a signature on faces,¡± he says. ¡°I don¡¯t want to lose someone¡¯s natural looks.¡± A good nose job should be undetectable.
But for Cherine Fahd, the undetectable nose job is virtually non-existent. ¡°When we go out to bars or whatever, we have this thing where we¡¯ll count all the Lebanese Arabian people who have had their noses done,¡± she says eyes widening in vague disbelief. ¡°It¡¯s usually a very high number.¡±

al@mashriq
98/bl

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