09/27/2013 | By: Guest Contributor
Leave your stereotypical Burka perceptions at the carousel when you touch down in Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport.
Fashion and religion in Lebanon have never been a match made in heaven.
Looking one’s best in Lebanon is a national duty embraced by many women and men. Lebanese people like to live their lives to the fullest spending every penny on their clothes, colognes, shades—all labeled with LV or Gucci, of course. Even the strapped-for cash can now get brow lift, Botox, breast implants Lebanon and tummy tuck in Beirut.
Loans for Liposuction and More:
During the last couple of years, a bold advertising campaign was launched offering loans and financial plans for plastic surgery in Lebanon.
To cater to the unquenchable thirst to look good, the First National Bank is giving lower-income secretaries and flight attendants an equal opportunity to go under the knife and make fashionable enhancements to their face, skin, and body.
The bank offers “Plastic surgery Loans” between USD 500- 5000, as long as applicants are employed and under 64 of age.
Maher Mezher of First National Bank told David J Constable, writer and essayist of Huffingtonpost, “You cannot find a job in Lebanon if you are not good-looking. People will reject you socially." Marketing manager, George Nasr added: "There are people who see this loan as their life raft."
Beirut is a unique city of contrasts with multiple personality and an incredible zest for life.
The people never cease to enjoy every moment regardless of challenges to overcome power cuts, inflation and effects of political and security instability.
Plastic surgery Lebanon clinics are at their peak practice during spring before the summer season kicks when women undergo breast implants to strut their stuff on Beirut's breathtaking beaches.
"A lot of people tell you, 'Why should I wait five years and collect the money, put it away bit by bit every month, when I can do it now, benefit from the surgery now for the next five years?' "said Amin Nasr, a Beirut eye plastic and reconstructive surgery at Middle East Surgical Clinics.
The bank reported receiving more than 200 calls a day about the loan since it was launched. There are people in Lebanon who don’t have sufficient funds to rent a proper house or send their children to a good school but you would find many of them taking loans to get cosmetic surgery.
While local residents apply for plastic surgery loans, overseas patients find plastic surgery in Lebanon significantly affordable compared to other destinations.
"We are cheap, with a rhinoplasty costing around $2000 and breast augmentation around $4000. We've seen an increase in 'combined surgery' too in which I'll perform a breast enlargement, a tummy-tuck and a nose-job at the same time." Edouard Abdelnour, a renowned Beirut-based plastic surgeon, told the Huffingtonpost.
Saving up or applying for a plastic surgery loan, Lebanese men and women will always look their very best—it is a national treasure!
