STOMACH-turning undercover footage lays bare the shocking reality of procedures carried out by cosmetic cowboys in Britain’s high street salons.
Cameras captured the shocking moment a beautician pierces a client’s cheek with a sharp, metal “suction wand” to suck out fat – before allowing a student with less than an hour’s training to take over.
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“This looks quite scary, but really it’s not,” the practitioner says as she brandished the long needle, while leading a one-day training course for the “fat reduction” procedure.
Secret filming also showed the beautician admitting she had damaged just “two nerves” and “one artery” during the hundreds of procedures she had carried out with students.
The blood-curdling clips were captured as part of an investigation carried out by ITV News into dangerous cosmetic practices being carried by out by “wild west operators”.
The TV channel had an undercover reporter sign up for the training course at Luxury Medical Aesthetics in Clapham, which promised to teach people how to carry out the treatment over a matter of hours for £1500.
Read more on cosmetic ops
Students received half an hour of instruction before the client arrived to have the “fat reduction” treatment.
Footage shows the moment the beautician makes an incision in the client’s jawline before inserting the suctioning into her jawline.
The client – who has had only local anaesthetic – is clearly in pain, but the trainer continues to plunge the wand up and down beneath her skin.
“If we damage the nerves on one side, then we’re very, very careful on the other side,”she tells her students.
She even tries to reassure the group that during hundreds of procedures, she has only damaged “two nerves” and “one artery”.
It isn’t long before she hands over the instrument to her students to have a go, despite them having no prior experience handling the tools.
ITV’s reporter made her excuses and left before she was invited to join in, but despite this, she still passed the course, leaving with a certificate from Luxury Medical Aesthetics.
The Sun has contacted the clinic for comment.
Watching the undercover footage, consultant plastic surgeon Professor Iain Whitaker was appalled and blasted the clinic’s practices as “disgusting”.
He said: “I’ve been a doctor for over 22 years, and I never thought in my lifetime I’d see something like that.
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“How she can be allowed to do this, with zero training, or medical background is just beyond belief.
“They’re just not thinking about the patient. It disgusts me, to be honest.”
In the UK, there is no regulation to prevent non-medics performing these procedures, while doctors face strict regulation from the General Medical Council (GMC).
A freedom of information request carried out by ITV News found there have been 1193 ambulance callouts to businesses with “beauty” or “aesthetics” in the name, for reasons including “chest pain”, “immediate threats to life” and “major trauma”.
In the last five years, there have been 670 complaints to local authorities about aesthetic procedures.
‘Squealing in pain’
ITV News spoke multiple women who suffered side effects or medical emergencies after treatments at Luxury Medical Aesthetics.
Keylea-Anne Griffiths was rushed to hospital, suffering damage to her bladder, after paying to have the fat reduction treatment.
She recalled: “I felt this hot metal rod piercing my skin. I was squealing in pain.”
Keylea-Anne also remembered lying on the bed and seeing another person’s blood splattered up the salon wall.
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The following day she drove the four-hour journey home from London in agony, without any pain relief.
She was eventually taken to A&E after being unable to pass urine, due to temporary damage to her bladder.
She said when she messaged the salon to tell them what had happened, it was two days before she received a call.
“They said I had been too interested in what machines we were using, rather than the aftercare advice we were trying to provide,” Keylea-Anne said.
Luxury Medical Aesthetics did not to respond to ITV News about the safety concerns raised.
Nor did the owner answer questions when she was approached outside the salon.
‘Lives at risk’
The grim footage comes in the wake the tragic death of Alice Webb, 33, a mum-of-five who died after having a non-surgical BBL carried out at a studio in Gloucester.
Alice was the first person to die of a liquid BBL performed in the UK.
Two people were arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and bailed.
Experts speaking to The Sun condemned procedures advertised on on social media as ‘risk-free’, ‘cheaper’ alternatives surgical ones, saying this “could not be further from the truth”.
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Surgeons performing a Brazilian Butt Lift would typically inject fat from another part of the body into the buttocks.
But salons are able to offer a “non-surgical” option, by inserting hundreds of millilitres of filler instead.
Alice’s partner, Dane Knight, and her family are now calling for the introduction of Alice’s Law.
This would make it illegal for anyone other than a registered Plastic Surgeon on the GMC specialist register to perform bum augmentation procedures using hyaluronic acid dermal fillers.
Safety tips for cosmetic procedures
If you are considering getting a liquid BBL or other cosmetic procedures, there are some key things you can do to ensure that the procedure is as safe as possible.
he first and most important step is to seek out a qualified and experienced medical practitioner.
Here are the key steps to ensure a safe procedure:
- Verify the practitioner’s credentials: Ensure the surgeon or aesthetic practitioner is properly trained, qualified, and registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) for surgical procedures, or trained in non-surgical aesthetics with a reputable provider, like Harley Academy, for injectable treatments.
- Ask about their experience: It is essential to choose a practitioner who has extensive experience with BBLs. Ask how many procedures they have performed and about their complication rates.
- Ask about materials used: For liquid BBLs, check that only UK or European approved fillers are used and that strict hygiene standards are followed
- Clinic safety standards: The procedure should be carried out in a regulated medical facility that meets high standards of hygiene, has proper equipment, and can handle emergencies. For surgical BBLs, this means a licensed surgical centre with proper accreditation.
- Realistic expectations and clear communication: A responsible practitioner will take the time to fully explain the risks and manage expectations. Patients should always be informed about both the best and worst outcomes, and there should be a comprehensive discussion of the aftercare and recovery process.
- Avoid cut-price deals: Cheaper is not better when it comes to cosmetic procedures. Be wary of low-cost deals or practitioners offering services without proper medical oversight. This can often be a red flag for unsafe or unregulated treatments.
- Be open about your medical history: During your consultation, you should be open about your medical history and medications and ask detailed questions about the procedure.
- Be diligent about aftercare: Following all aftercare instructions and going to follow-up appointments can help prevent problems and ensure a safe recovery.
- Be wary about travelling abroad: Following all aftercare instructions and going to follow-up appointments can help prevent problems and ensure a safe recovery.
The previous Conservative government conducted a public consultation to investigate the issue of non-surgical cosmetic procedures and committed to looking at new regulations.
Labour health secretary, Wes Streeting, this week addressed the issue, saying it was “absolutely disgusting that there are wild west operators practising actually dangerously in cosmetic surgery and putting people’s lives at risk”.
“And we’ve seen that in the tragic case of Alice,” he added.
Mr Streeting said he would through the work the previous government initiated, but didn’t expand on how long that would take.
“We are carrying it through. We are working as fast as we can. We know that we need to act. We are taking this seriously. We’re going as fast as we can.”
