Fuelled by social media, the beauty and aesthetics industry is apparently soon to be worth £3 billion. Despite the sector’s booming status, practitioners remain largely unregulated. In the meantime, the number of botched beauty treatments continues to rise rapidly.
It’s for this reason that BBC Three went undercover to produce a documentary titled ‘Under the Skin: The Botched Beauty Business’, available on the BBC website. An important cautionary note upfront here: the BBC’s video contains graphic scenes which some viewers might find upsetting to watch.
According to the BBC, unregulated training courses are leading to extreme injuries in beauty customers including two ladies featured in the half-hour film, Faye Page and Victoria Lee.
The first of these, brow technician Faye, underwent tip-lift filler in her nose causing stage two necrosis – that’s irreversible tissue decay – which could have cost Faye her nose if left unattended. When later assessed by celebrity cosmetic doctor, Dr Nyla Raja, a retinal scan was recommended to fully ascertain the extent of damage as it’s likely she was injected into the dorsal nasal artery which could have transferred into the supratrochlear artery, affecting vision.
The second of these, make-up artist Victoria, actually leaves the house for the first time since undergoing the botched treatment, other than to see her doctor, to be interviewed by documentary presenter, Anchal Seda. Although having Botox for ten years, she used a different practitioner. The treatment hurt and within a week, lumps appeared on her face which bled and oozed puss. She now has permanent facial scarring. It turns out that Victoria was one of nine patients botched by the same injector.
The overriding message of the documentary is the absolute need for education and government intervention in regulating beauticians. Both practitioners and their patients should be better educated in safety and the serious complications that can arise from procedures such as the vampire facial, lip filler, cheek and jawline filler, non-surgical nose job, thread lift, bum Botox, anti-wrinkle injection and laser skin treatment.
Necrosis has already been mentioned above. Other severe issues range from anaphylaxis (life-threatening allergic reactions) to vascular occlusion (blocked blood vessels). Read more about what can go wrong by visiting our blog.
Where regulation is concerned, there are urgent calls for the introduction of governing rules to stop putting people’s lives at risk. Our ‘Wild West beauty sector needs regulating’, ‘The dangers of unregulated beauty treatments’ and ‘Government launches information campaign to raise awareness of risks’ blogs cover this subject in greater depth.
Until such time as tighter regulation comes into force, practitioners can use the lack of a rule book to their advantage, even illegally promoting their courses as being Ofqual accredited, with attendees becoming certified after as little as two hours of training.
At Beauty Treatment Claims, we specialise in supporting individuals who’ve suffered harm by their beauty therapist. If you’ve been injured are considering suing a beauty salon or suing a beauty therapist, contact our legal team in confidence to make a compensation claim. Our free initial no-obligation assessment and ‘no win, no fee’ terms remove any financial worries you may have.
Email enquiries@beautytreatmentclaims.co.uk, call 0800 141 3682 or 0333 202 6560, or complete our online enquiry form.
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