Feeling good ... Natalie Cheeny, 50, has had a facelift. ? Source: The Daily Telegraph THE global financial crisis may have slowed spending on clothes and holidays, but when it comes to looking younger we're prepared to pay.
Aussies have embraced cosmetic surgery with such enthusiasm it has driven the industry through a $1 billion-a-year boom as procedures increase by 10 per cent a year, The Daily Telegraph reported.
"Australians now spend as much as $1 billion annually on appearance medicine," Australian College of Cosmetic Surgery president Russell Knudsen said yesterday.
While men over 35 were the fastest growing segment, baby boomers make up the bulk of the non-surgical sector.
Natalie Cheeny, 50, of Erskine Park said she had a liquid facelift "for myself ... I just didn't feel attractive.
I looked after my skin ... but I started to look like my mother and I couldn't face that".
Seeking to look younger, 15,000 men and women have had liposuction, while 16,000 young women had breast augmentation in the past year, Dr Knudsen said.
Australians shell out for nearly a quarter of a million wrinkle reduction procedures annually at a cost of $225 million, he said.
"People are time poor. Non-surgical procedures are becoming more popular and more accepted," he said.
Parramatta-based Dr Joe Hkeik said his clinics in the west and in Darlinghurst had a similar turnover.
"In Darlinghurst, we get 30 to 40 per cent male patients - in Parramatta we get 15 to 20 per cent males," he said.
Double Bay's Dr Anoop Rastogi said his male clients seek facelifts and treatment for "love handles", plus Botox under the arm to stop excessive sweating.
Surry Hills-based Dr Zion Chan's clients are women - with an average age of 28 - seeking breast augmentation at anywhere between $9000 and $13,000.
Dr Hkeik specialises in a "liquid facelift", which takes only "a couple of hours and some people go back to work on the same day". It costs between $1200 and $4000.
"Patients ... are under pressure from their workplaces and it's taking a toll on their faces," Dr Hkeik said.
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