Young customers in developing countries propel a boom in plastic surgery

Like many other members of the Lebanese community in the suburb of Boston where he grew up, Peter Makhlouf goes to Beirut every summer to visit family. Recently the annual trip has acquired an extra purpose. “At some point [the women] all started to do cosmetic procedures,” he says. They began with little tweaks, such as getting their lips plumped or teeth whitened. Then came cheekbone-lifts, nose jobs “and so on”. The plastic pilgrimage has become so common that Mr Makhlouf, who is 29, says he no longer knows “anyone who hasn’t gotten plastic surgery”.