Beauty Demands

The British Association of Cosmetic Nurses held their annual conference at ICC Birmingham Saturday 17 th September with nearly 300 delegates and up to 50 exhibitors what a resounding success it was, and it was inspiring to see so many nurses who all have the same ethos. I’m not just saying this because I sit on the board, feedback from those who attended was very positive.  The day had a wonderful atmosphere with many new members. Previously the profile of a BACN member was a registered nurse with between 10-30 years nursing experience and 5-10 years’ experience in aesthetics, but we now have nurses who have just started working in aesthetics or who are thinking of joining. We encourage our members to become non-medical prescribers and to date 89% of our members are. Toxins are prescription only medicines and  although dermal fillers are classified as medical devices often local anaesthetic is used for pain relief and this is also a prescription only medicine. ...

In this post, Jean McHale discusses some of the legal and regulatory challenges posed by the globalisation of the beauty industry. Jean is Professor of Health Care Law at Birmingham Law School and Co-Investigator of the Beauty Demands project . The globalisation of the beauty industry gives rise to some fundamental regulatory challenges. Individuals seeking beauty procedures such as face lifts, liposuction and even cosmetic dentistry are increasingly likely to travel to seek such procedures as illustrated by the growth of the cosmetic surgery “holiday” market.  As many of these procedures lie outside the control exercised by the clinicians in a standard therapeutic context, whether through a National Health Service or standard Health Insurance schemes, the consumer has far greater autonomy in relation to choice of procedure, timing and provider. The scale and the nature of effective regulation of safety of beauty products and procedures is problematic. Globalisati...

One of our network members, Melanie Latham, discusses EU regulation on body modification technology and potential UK feminist frameworks for human enhancement procedures. What do you think? [vimeo http://vimeo.com/28299045] Would you like to join our network? Get in touch here . Please note: the network exists to share views on beauty norms and practices. Beauty Demands is encouraging debate between the network members and beyond. Content should not be read as endorsement by project staff of views expressed here.