Lockdown and working from home have meant that more than ever people are staring at their own faces for hours on end. Do you find yourself not paying attention to your colleagues, picking out small faults with your own face that you’ve never noticed before?

“Lockdown face” is an emerging concern, which is increasing the demand for body “tweakments”, with patients wanting to polish their look. Perhaps wanting to rid themselves of their newly developed frown lines. The non-invasive side of cosmetic surgery, such as botox, fillers and skin resurfacing has seen a 70% increase in requests for virtual consultations since the start of Covid-19.

While breast enlargements still remain the most popular enquiry, followed by tummy tucks and liposuction, the recent rise in alternative enquiries is seen as a massive relief for the industry as a whole, which has been seeing a steady decline in economic growth over the past 5 years. This is, in part, due to the increase in prices. The average UK cost for a breast enlargement has risen 9.25% between 2014 to 2018, from £4,905 to £5,405.

Following the first lockdown, many clinics reported more than double the amount of people booking appointments. Author and “tweakment” expert Alice Hart-Davis said that the majority of women looking into treatments were between the ages of 35-55 with busy careers and families that weren’t used to looking at the themselves on a screen for long periods of time. With many new patients looking into  “fat-freezing for double chins, skin tightening for saggy jowls, or filler to redefine facial features including the jawline”

Another unforeseen factor affecting peoples decisions is the sudden ability to save money, with less social events and chances to go out and about, many people have more disposable income than they’ve had in a while. Combine this with being forced to stay in the house and not having to face people, giving them a chance at a peaceful recovery, more people are using this time to invest in themselves.

Hart Davis has also noticed a trend of multiple treatment appointments, this could in part be down to appointment scarcity but also down to impending lockdowns meaning that patients are wanting to tackle multiple areas at once in order to combine the recovery time. Although the increase in procedures can be seen as risky, many practitioners have reports a more conscious approach to procedures, with people taking their time to research procedures and making more informed decisions.