Plastic surgery is a booming business in Lebanon

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Beirut (dpa) - Looking at Lebanese women on the streets these days, you would be forgiven for thinking they were clones. Why? Because cosmetic surgery has become common and is a booming business in the country.

In the past few years Lebanon has earned a reputation as a place for Arab tourists as well as Lebanese expatriates and locals to come to for plastic surgery. The cosmetic enhancements vary from nose jobs to facelifts to body sculpting.

"During the war there were mainly six or seven plastic surgeons in Lebanon, nowadays you can find more than 100 surgeons with well established names," plastic surgeon Elie Chamas told Deutsche Presse- Agentur, dpa.

"We are now competing with the famous Brazilian plastic surgeons," he said.

Chamas, who owns one of the biggest plastic surgery centres in town, established in 1999, says: "The young Lebanese want to look older and the older Lebanese want to look young. We are here to meet their requests to make them cuter, prettier and sexier."

But according to Chamas, this common trend among the Lebanese has been easily transferred to women in neighbouring Arab countries who in recent years have begun to take an interest in the cosmetic enhancement surgery available in Lebanon.

Most Lebanese surgeons estimate that between ten and twenty per cent of their clients are Arab nationals and the remainder are locals.

Dr. Mukarem abu Fadel, a well-known plastic surgeon told dpa he does eighty nose operations each week in addition to facelifts and liposuction.

"Mainly half of my clients are Lebanese and the second half are Arabs, mostly Kuwaitis and Saudis," he said.

Doctors say, however, that in the past two years there has been an increasing number of men investigating this beauty trend.

"Around 20 per cent of our new clients for a facelift and nose jobs these days are men," Chamas said.

Mary Nahra, a middle-class Lebanese woman who has had at least ten surgical makeovers from nose to buttocks, now looks at age 55 as if she in her late thirties. She believes that men have the right to beautify themselves to look more "sexy and young."

"Beauty should not be confined to women only," Mary said.

Mary revealed that she spends all her salary which she earns from teaching on plastic surgery and sometimes she resorts to bank loans.

"Yes, believe it or not, I have borrowed from the bank to do my nose and facelift. I had to pay around 5,000 US dollars for both operations," Nahra says smiling.

"It costs to be a beauty like me," Nahra added.

Lebanese plastic surgeons are today also expanding their expertise outside Lebanon and are travelling to hospitals in countries like Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait to lecture and perform operations.