In pursuit of physical perfection, several South African celebrities have taken drastic measures, opting for surgical procedures to enhance their appearance.
While procedures such as hip dip transfers, Brazilian butt lifts and liposuction have been popular among female celebrities and they’ve candidly shared their journeys, facelifts, tummy tucks and weight loss surgeries are also becoming popular among men.
Media personality and ex-convict Molemo “Jub Jub” Maarohanye recently got tongues wagging after he posted a video of a popular doctor, known as Dr Lipo on Instagram, drawing lines on an abdominal area while the Ndikhokhele hitmaker spoke about his struggles with weight loss and why he is opting for liposuction.
Dr Brian Monaisa, the former head of surgery at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital who is the founder of Marang Asthetics and Smile Artists Africa spoke to TshisaLIVE about the surge in men undergoing cosmetic surgery.
“Men worldwide are feeling more comfortable to look after themselves and take better care of their skin. A beer belly bothers a lot of South African men and they are starting to approach us more for liposuction of the belly and sometimes the lower back as well,” he said.
“There has been an increase in men looking to do plastic surgery. Facial rejuvenation is very popular for men, mostly for skin care, but light stuff such as fillers or blepharoplasty. Blepharoplasty is eyelid surgery and is used by a lot of executives who want to refresh their face, because often they reach their peak in the corporate world at a time when they start looking a bit tired.
There’s a trend towards being more free and extreme. People are getting multicoloured implants and modifying their ribs. Procedures such as the cat eye are not anatomical but are desired by people looking to stick out from the crowd
— Dr Brian Monaisa
“A lot of guys are good candidates for tummy tucks. Procedures such as liposuction, or lipo 360, are popular and I believe Instagram and social media have played a role in making us more conscious of how we look, but also in spreading information about the available options. The increase in and demand for plastic surgery is not necessarily from social pressure but from more information being available and it being more acceptable to undergo surgery.”
Dr. Brian, who shot to stardom after his relationship with Minnie Dlamini, warned against people choosing surgeons based on social media popularity or recommendations in a climate where influencers can easily mislead their followers because of ignorance or not enough research.
“Social media has allowed a lot of fraudulent people to practise in the space. The best thing to do is to avoid choosing them based on TikTok popularity and to Google the Health Professions Council of South Africa website to check if he’s a registered practitioner and qualified plastic surgeon. There has been an increase in general practitioners looking to do smaller plastic surgery procedures such as liposuction. This is generally not acceptable, because most of the time you have to know how to treat the complications and the surgery. Someone who has done a few courses or looked at YouTube videos might struggle to know how to treat problems that arise, because complications do happen in surgery and you have to be ready for them.
“There are potential red flags when it comes to choosing a plastic surgeon. You might find the surgeon is practising from their office and not in one of the large and recognised hospitals. This is always confirmation the person is not good, and it’s often a clue that the person is unable to get admitting rights to the main hospitals, forcing them to do some procedures in their office.
“Other red flags are the general standard of the place. Anyone who does practice at home or in their office should have a full theatre set-up, with full resuscitation equipment.
“In recent years, we’ve seen influencers and celebrities jet off to Turkey to undergo surgery. Medical tourism is a real phenomenon worldwide. There will always be patients who wish to travel abroad.
“The main risks associated with traveling for surgery is the management of post-surgery complications. If something goes wrong, it’s very difficult to return there to solve the problem. We see some strange things being done to patients when surgeons know they are not likely to see the patient again. For example, a patient being given two different sized implants and being told the implants will settle. Issues such as fat necrosis and sepsis are very difficult to deal with if you’ve travelled out of the country.”
Monaisa spoke about procedures he believes could become more popular in future.
“There’s a trend towards being more free and extreme. People are getting multicoloured implants and modifying their ribs. Procedures such as the cat eye are not anatomical but are desired by people looking to stick out from the crowd.
“The bigger trend is towards generalised wellness, longevity and feeling as good as you look. This is being seen through the advancement of peptides (powerful molecules that can help you achieve your goals much quicker), the classic peptide being semi-glutide or Ozempic. Imagine a peptide for skincare, a peptide for memory, a peptide for muscle recovery. There are peptides for every category of human development and behaviour and the science is moving very fast.”
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