The chilling cosmetic practices carried out by ‘wild west operators’ in some of Britain’s high-street salons were today exposed in a shock investigation.
Raw footage shows one beautician crudely continuing to suck out fat from a client’s cheek using a ‘suction wand’ — a long metal tube that pierces the skin — despite her clearly being in pain.
Cameras also capture the practitioner admitting she only ever damaged just ‘two nerves’ and ‘one artery’ during the hundreds of other procedures she has done.
All of the hard-hitting clips were secretly captured by an undercover reporter who had signed up for a one-day training course at Luxury Medical Aesthetics in Clapham, south west London.
Experts today slammed the ‘unbelievable’ and ‘disgusting’ practices that were found in the ITV News probe.
Doctors also warned Brits contemplating getting non-surgical procedures to choose carefully and only ever opt for experienced practitioners.
During the training course in ‘fat reduction’ procedures, which cost £1,500, students were told about the different treatments before a client arrived just half an hour later.
The undercover footage shows a beautician making an incision into a client’s jawline, before beginning to remove fat with the ‘suction wand’ plunging it up and down beneath her skin.
Footage shows one beautician crudely continuing to suck out fat from a client’s cheek using a ‘suction wand’ — a long metal tube that pierces the skin — despite her clearly being in pain
Cameras also capture the practitioner admitting she only ever damaged just ‘two nerves’ and ‘one artery’ during the hundreds of other procedures she has done
The client — who has had only local anaesthetic — is clearly experiencing pain, but the procedure continues regardless.
‘If we damage the nerves on one side, then we’re very, very careful on the other side,’ the trainer says.
Before shortly handing over instruments to students on the course, she also tells them she has only ever damaged ‘two nerves’ and ‘one artery’ carrying out the procedures.
The undercover reporter excused herself and left before she was invited to join in.
Despite this, she still passed the course, leaving with a certificate from Luxury Medical Aesthetics.
The footage forms part of a year-long investigation into unregulated cosmetic surgery for a new ITV documentary – ‘Britain’s Backstreet Surgery Scandal’
The clinic did not respond later to the safety concerns raised by ITV News, when contacted.
When the owner was also approached outside her salon, she also chose not to answer any questions.
Experts today slammed the ‘unbelievable’ and ‘disgusting’ practices exposed by the probe.
Consultant plastic surgeon, Professor Iain Whitaker said: ‘How she can be allowed to do this, with zero training, or medical background is just beyond belief’
Consultant plastic surgeon, Professor Iain Whitaker said: ‘How she can be allowed to do this, with zero training, or medical background is just beyond belief.
‘To say they’ll continue after damaging the nerves on one side, they’re just not thinking about the patient, it’s unbelievable.
‘It actually disgusts me, to be honest. I’ve been a doctor for over 22 years, I never thought in my lifetime I would see something like that.’
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).
But a separate freedom of information request by ITV News also found there have been 1193 ambulance callouts to businesses with ‘beauty’ or ‘aesthetics’ in the name.
The reasons include ‘chest pain’, ‘immediate threats to life’ and ‘major trauma’.
In the last five years, there have also been 670 complaints to local authorities about aesthetic procedures.
Experts have long warned of ‘non-surgical’ aesthetic treatments carried out by practitioners will little experience and repeatedly called for tighter controls over the cosmetic industry..
It is reported that Alice Webb (pictured), 33, underwent the procedure at The Studio 23 clinic in Gloucester, run by beautician Jemma Pawlyszyn and Parke, 32, dubbed the ‘Lip King’
Beautician Jordan James Parke has addressed concerns raised following the death of a mother-of-five who died hours after having a non-surgical BBL procedure
In September, Alice Webb, 34, died just hours after having a non-surgical butt lift, understood to have been performed in the West Country.
Two people were arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and bailed, including the beautician Jordan James Parke, alleged to have carried out the treatment.
At the time, one of Britain’s leading plastic surgeons told this website Ms Webb is believed to have had a ‘large volume of filler’ injected into her buttocks.
While the risks of a traditional Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) are well known — surgery to transfer fat from other areas to the buttocks — a non-surgical methods that aim to create the same result are less understood.
Unlike a traditional BBL which sees fat transferred from other areas of the body, a liquid BBL involves hyaluronic acid fillers.
Dermal filler — the same material used to fill lips — is injected in large quantities into the buttock.
Non-surgical BBLs are not illegal in the UK.
Last year, however, Wolverhampton City Council barred a company from carrying out liquid BBLs after identifying risks associated with their processes.
These included blood clots, sepsis, and the potential for the death of body tissues.
Five local authorities in Essex and Glasgow followed suit and have banned certain companies from carrying out liquid BBLs in their area.
In 2023, the Conservative Government conducted a public consultation, on the issue of non-surgical cosmetic procedures and committed to looking at new regulations.
But no further action was taken prior to the election.
When the safety concerns were put to Labour health secretary Wes Streeting this week, he said it was ‘absolutely disgusting that there are wild west operators practising actually dangerously in cosmetic surgery and putting people’s lives at risk’.
He added: ‘We’ve seen that in the tragic case of Alice.’
