17 September, 2020
Trish gets interviewed on Bay FM’s “Body Parts” series where she talks about Plastic Surgery. Here is the transcript.
Gem & Page
Yeah, but I guess like so much of the problem with people saying plastic surgery is, I don’t know something to complain about or put others down about. It’s just the whole argument over bodily autonomy.
Yeah, absolutely. Which really speaks to that in this interview. I’m really excited to play it. He is. Cool. Okay, well, let’s just start by you Trish telling us a little bit about what you do and what Plastic Surgery Hub is.
Trish
So what Plastic Surgery Hub is basically it’s an information resource website and community for people who look at having aesthetic procedures or plastic surgery procedures to kind of you know, enhance their aesthetic appearance.
Gem & Paige
Okay, where did the need for this come from? Like, what gap in the market did you solve? Or did you have your own experience that made you want to start something like this idea.
Trish
So about nine years ago, after losing like 50 kilos, it leaves its own problems. So I had all this excess skin and I had big breasts all my life and I couldn’t wait to have a breast reduction. So I went to have a breast reduction and the breast reduction went well. But my recovery was really horrific. And during my recovery, like I got addicted to, you know, the pain meds or sort of double dosing. I became suicidal, and despite that, the pain level was so bad. Anyway, I jump onto Google and try to connect with people who were going through the same thing as me. But all I could find online were doctors websites, and I thought, I don’t want to speak to a doctor, I don’t want to speak to a nurse. I just want to speak to someone who is in the same position as me. And that’s when I realised that, you know, there needs to be a community, you know, where people can speak to each other. And that’s how it started.
Gem & Paige
How long has plastic surgery hub been around for now.
Trish
I started Plastic Surgery Hub in 2013. So it’s been nearly seven years. I can’t believe it, but seven years and it’s evolved and changed over that time as well. But yeah, seven years since I first started.
Gem & Paige
How has the industry evolved and changed over the last seven years?
Trish
Oh so much – it’s just it’s always been a public issue. I guess that the last five years is it’s just been phenomenal, you know. We can thank the Kardashians for all these extra things that people want to have done. And yeah, I put that down to the Kardashians and, you know, the fact that we’re on social media now we look at ourselves all the time. So, it’s become a lot more popular and considering it’s not really a regulated industry, that hasn’t actually changed yet, but hopefully things are happening there, that’s changing as well.
Gem & Paige
What are some of the stigmas associated with plastic surgery and cosmetic injectables and where do you think they come from?
Trish
Look, I think what happened people generally think, you know, plastic surgery is for vanity, and nine times out of 10 or maybe not nine times out of 10 but a lot of times it’s not just about the vanity, it’s form and function as well. It’s not only the way it looks, but it’s also the way things function. An example is when I had my breast reduction, I was having a sore back, rashes under my boobs, and, you know, there’s all these non aesthetic things that you know that you want to get fixed. And when you know you can, you think, “well, why not do it,” but I think people kind of relate plastic surgery to just some people that are vain. And even though it might be the way you look at then it might be, you know, someone might say, there’s nothing wrong with your nose. But the thing is, you may have actually lived with your own demons about your nose since you were little, you know what I mean? And then the opportunity comes up where you become old enough or can afford it, you want to get it fixed. So, you know, why wouldn’t you if you could.
Gem & Paige
Totally there’s nothing wrong with feeling beautiful and enhancing your beauty and, there isn’t even really anything wrong with being vain.
Trish
Hey, exactly, I can remember after having my son which is my second child, I’d lost weight and then I had him and then I was left with all of this – and doesn’t happen with everyone but the most disgusting floppy skin around my stomach and I couldn’t even look at myself. So psychologically, that was affecting me. And once I got that fixed, it changed my whole perception about myself. So that’s the benefits it can do as well, you know, like, the self esteem, can improve significantly.
Gem & Paige
And that’s all that matters, right?
And if you feel good about yourself, then you’re more likely to go out and help other people feel better about themselves as well.
Trish
Absolutely. And that’s the good thing about the community that we’ve created, because I’ve got a closed group on Facebook as well – a closed community of women. The thing is, they’re all somewhere on their journey. And if they’ve had something done, they want to help other people that are, you know, where they were at the beginning of their journey or if someone’s had something done, then they can speak about it from their perspective. So it’s nice to share that info with people.
Gem & Paige
You said before how the industry isn’t really regulated. I know with the advent of all of these cosmetic injectables, it’s made stuff really accessible to people, which is great. In one way, because it means people who couldn’t afford it before or thought that plastic surgery sounded too hectic cannot get it. What are some of the negative impacts of that?
Trish
Yeah, well, basically I think about three or four years ago, there was that woman that had injections in her breast for augmentation – she passed away! And that was in a facility where someone came from overseas and they weren’t qualified, or actually, it was just kind of practicing something, I guess, and the person that, that they were doing it on, just went into cardiac arrest and couldn’t be resuscitated – or I’m sure that’s what the story was, but obviously, that person wasn’t qualified to do you know, that procedure, like the fact that they could actually just do it in a clinic and there was no nothing there available for resuscitation or anything like that.
So I think people take risks because, you know, the industry isn’t really regulated. Even I’ve heard of situations where a beauty therapist doing injectables, you know, so there really needs to be a standard, you need to have this qualification to be able to do this procedure. But also consumers need to know that because, it’s like you walk into a clinic, you see something on the wall and you just take it for granted. Oh, yeah, they’ve got a qualification there from, you know, some random – I don’t know – association or you know, society, online or, yeah, and you just think that they qualified but, you know, they may not actually be qualified or educated or trained in what you want to have them do for you.
Gem & Paige
So what advice would you give to people who are looking to get other elective surgery or cosmetic injectables to help them make good choices for the professional that that they list to give them those procedures?
Trish
Well, these days there’s so much information on social media and online where you can actually check out people’s pictures – providing their genuine because sometimes people put other people’s pictures up and say that they did them, so But it’s it can be really hard to navigate. But I think the most important thing that you can tell someone is not just rock up somewhere and be blinded by, yes, I can do this, I can do that, I can do this! You need to actually look at that person’s qualifications, jump on to AHPRA. Make sure that that person is qualified – doesn’t have any restrictions against their name or that person is what they say they are. Check out the qualifications, look at before and afters, and also I think it’s really important to speak to other people that have actually been to that person and had what you want to have done, so that way, you go armed with all of your right questions, you know what to look for, and hopefully you know that it will lessen your risk of something going wrong.
Gem & Paige
So the average civilian that wants to have a procedure can go to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, and actually find out if the surgeon or nurse that they want to have that procedure from – if they’ve had a black cross against their name.
Trish
Pretty much for a certain amount of time anyway, so that’s just doctors and nurses. But once you start to do your searches on Google and on Instagram, there should be red flags coming up here. And then I’m a great believer that, if you’re in doubt, just don’t do it. You know, – like, take a pause, take a breath, I think, if people can get away from just rocking up somewhere saying, “Oh my god, I really want to get this done. This is the cheapest place and I’m gonna get it done now” and people can avoid doing that and have a little bit more preparation behind what they want to do. A cooling off for themselves. Because it’s easy to get caught up in that. “oh, my god, yes, that’s what I want. Do it to me now!” You know, I think that’s when people can run into problems.
Gem & Paige
I think it’s so wonderful that you speak so candidly about your experiences with plastic surgery because there is a lot of shame around it and people aren’t that transparent, which kind of sometimes creates unrealistic expectations of beauty. Because we see all these influencers on social media who looks so great, but they’re not admitting that they’ve had work done? Do you have an opinion on that? Or do you have any advice for women who are thinking about doing it, but are really nervous about telling other people about it?
Trish
Yeah, I think it’s a real personal thing. I think if you want to share with people great, and if you don’t, that’s great as well, it’s entirely a personal thing. I like to share it because, you know, people say, “Oh, your skin looks great”. But the thing is, I don’t just wake up the morning, do nothing to my skin, for my skin to look great. Like I put on five different layers in the morning, five at night, I take a sunblock with me all day, and I put it on three times so, I think its really important for people to know that, that’s what actually happens. Like, it doesn’t just happen. I mean some people are born, you know, absolutely beautiful. Don’t do anything but in life you have to put in to get out. So I think I like to be open because we’re not proud of it. Because I’ve come up, you know, I come I think I look way better now than I did, you know, 30 years ago. So I want to flaunt it.
Gem & Paige
Yeah you’re banging Trish! Thank you so much for chatting to us. This has been really inspiring this conversation. And it’s nice to see that you have rallied together a bunch of women who just been candid about what it is to age because really that’s what we’re running away from when we get cosmetic and plastic surgery.
Trish
The ageing thing. I think it’s very important that it’s not that we don’t want to age we just want to age well, so you know if there’s things that you can do to do that, and that’s what you want to do like for the people that don’t want to do it – I say more power to you, but I am not one of those people.
So thank you.
Gem & Paige
Thanks Trish.
Your Beauty Needs Under One (Beautiful) Roof – Dr Rohit Kumar and Dr Nidhi Berera
Women of Influence on the Rise in Medicine
Women in Aesthetics for International Women’s Day
WiQo One – Skin Tightening Without Downtime
Why enCurve could be your body contouring solution
What’s the FracTotal Facial and Why Do We Want It?
Leave a Reply