Latest news with #GisellePrado-Wright
Business Insider
28-05-2025
- Health
- Business Insider
Men are lining up for 'ab-etching.' A cosmetic surgeon says she has to steer some clients away.
Perfectly chiseled abs require investment, whether it's a strict routine of strength training, cardio, and diet — orab-etching. Ab-etching is liposuction that targets the abdominal region, removing some fat to make the muscles more pronounced. For clients with deeper layers of fat, "you shape the fat to look like a six pack or to look more muscular," Dr. Giselle Prado-Wright, a cosmetic surgeon and the co-owner of Exert BodySculpt in Villas, Florida, told Business Insider. She said it's more common in her clients in their 30s to 50s who gain fat in their mid-section and want a little more definition as they age. As more men request cosmetic procedures such as penis enlargement and hair restoration, ab-etching has taken off in her office, she added. How it works Ab-etching was invented in the early 1990s by Dr. Henry Mentz, a Houston-based plastic surgeon. However, it took time for the technique to gain traction. By the early 2000s, other plastic surgeons, like Dr. Alfredo Hoyos in Colombia, enhanced and popularized the technique. Hoyos became famous for high-definition liposculpture, where he would highlight desired muscles rather than simply remove fat. More recently, ab-etching became one of the most popular cosmetic procedures among men during the pandemic plastic surgery boom, Prado-Wright said. It's not clear exactly what drove this trend into turbocharge, but Prado-Wright thinks a lot of guys who come into her clinic ended up spending more time on social media during lockdowns, and started to obsess over having six-packs. While Prado-Wright sometimes recommends ab-etching to lean, toned women, "men are the ones that go out of their way to ask for it," she said — even if they're not the best candidates for it. The procedure is no simple fix, though. It's one of the most involved surgeries you can undergo, Prado-Wright said. Regular liposuction involves suctioning the fat from specific areas of the body to achieve a more toned look. The nerve endings near the abdominal muscles are more sensitive than in other parts of the body, making ab-etching a more painful form of liposuction. Like all forms of lipo, recovery involves wearing a compression garment for about six weeks and abstaining from the gym for at least two to three weeks, Prado-Wright said. To maintain results, she said, you need to stick to an ab-defining lifestyle. If an ab-etching client remains consistent with his diet and gym routine, he will likely "look fantastic until the day he dies," Prado-Wright said. Even with its potentially long-lasting effects, ab-etching is expensive. Prado-Wright said she usually charges $7,000-$9,000. In cities like New York, ab-etching can cost up to $13,000. Social media six-packs The best candidate for ab-etching is someone who's already "very close" to having abs, Prado-Wright said. They work out a lot and have a thin layer of body fat. She said men in their 50s with bodybuilding backgrounds who tend to hold fat in their abdomens benefit from ab-etching. "You just softly define their existing abdominal muscles, and they look really, really good." However, she said she's often fielding men who don't work out much or who fluctuate more in weight. Some men, who don't have big ab muscles, ask for fat injections into their six-pack squares to make them bulge more. "If they gain weight, it looks weird," she said. "Some of them, you've got to steer them to something else." Ab-etching is the tip of the iceberg Cosmetic procedures are on the rise among men. Prado-Wright said male clients often bring in photos from other surgeons, like Hoyos, the Colombian plastic surgeon who transformed ab-etching. They also often ask for things like gynecomastia surgery (breast reduction) and penis filler, she said, the latter of which has exploded in popularity in her office in recent years. Still, she said the popularity of the procedure means men are talking about it more, including when the results feel cartoonish. "They're saying to me, 'My friend did it,'" she said. "'It doesn't look great in person, so I just want it to be softer.'"
Business Insider
04-05-2025
- Health
- Business Insider
The 1 filler this cosmetic surgeon is begging you not to get
In the past four years, cosmetic surgeon Dr. Giselle Prado-Wright noticed an uptick in younger, first-time clients asking for fillers. She chalks the trend up to pandemic lockdowns and more time spent online. "You're looking at yourself on camera, you're seeing everybody perfectly filtered on social media," Prado-Wright, the co-owner of EXERT BodySculpt in Florida, told Business Insider. "All of a sudden, you feel less than because you're noticing a little bit of darkness, a little bit of wrinkles." Some of her clients in their early 20s initially come in for lip filler. Then they start asking for under-eye filler. While Prado-Wright occasionally offers under-eye filler to help clients with "very sunken under-eyes," she said she's very conservative with how much she uses. Most of the time, she says no to under-eye filler because she believes that, at best, the results are usually very mixed — and that the greater risks are not worth it. Short-lived Instagram Face Like Botox and other fillers, under-eye filler is appealing to clients because there's no downtime. "You might get some slight bruising, but compared to surgery, it's not something where you have to do this big recovery, this big investment," Prado-Wright said. Under-eye filler also looks great right after injection. On social media, post-filler videos are usually shot a day or two after the treatment. "The problems come months down the line, maybe weeks later," she said. Fillers, which usually contain hyaluronic acid, draw in moisture. Over time, the under-eye area can become really puffy, with the fillers impairing lymphatic flow and potentially causing blockages. "The immediate before-and-after is being propagated a lot on social media, versus 'let's see what that looks like a year from now,'" Prado-Wright said. Risks include blindness and strokes In the worst case scenario, Prado-Wright said under-eye fillers can pose serious health risks. If a syringe pokes the infraorbital artery, a significant blood vessel below the eyes, it cause cause blindness. It can also create a blockage called a vascular occlusion, which can lead to a stroke. More likely, the filler will look amazing at first and swell later, she said. Ultimately, if the filler migrates or puffs up, it can be removed. But the process isn't easy — or cheap. The filler itself, at its cheapest, will cost you $500 to $600, she said — though it can cost up to $1,500. The cost of getting it dissolved is charged per vial of Hylenex, a solution that dissolves hyaluronic acid. That can range from $250 to $600 per vial. Because the solution has to be injected exactly where the filler is, it can take multiple sessions to get rid of all of it. Try tretinoin and lifestyle changes Prado-Wright said she sees a lot of clients who keep wanting to add more filler. She tries to counsel them into dissolving some of it and looking for other anti-aging solutions. One is using collagen injections instead of hyaluronic acid fillers. Collagen injections, made from cow collagen, are also used to add volume to the face and reduce fine lines. Because collagen is naturally occurring in the skin and collagen injections have a thinner consistency than filler, there are lower risks of vascular occlusions or bad reactions, she said. Injecting collagen closer to the nose and cheeks can fill out the face and camouflage any under-eye hollowness. She also suggested going to offices that offer other treatments besides filler, as under-eye concerns vary and can't always be fixed with injections. Laser treatments can help with dark circles, for example. Before you do all that, she said it's worth making some simple skincare changes. You can try tretinoin, a prescription retinoid that boosts cell turnover. "It's the gold standard just to help that skin quality look better, look brighter," Prado-Wright said. Of course, nothing will help if you're not maintaining good sleep, decreasing your alcohol intake, and drinking enough water. "Not just your under-eyes are going to look better," she said. "Your skin overall is going to look much better."
