DUBAI: Doctors are warning against a growing demand for extreme cosmetic surgery in the Gulf, which combines dramatic weight loss with high-volume body augmentation — a combination one surgeon described as the “XS–XL look.”
Dubai-based Russian plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dmitry Melnikov, a member of the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery and national representative of the World Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery, said the term was not a formal medical one but described “a deliberately exaggerated contrast” between an extremely slim frame and enlarged curves.
He said he had noticed the combination more clearly in recent years, as rapid weight loss — including loss linked to GLP-1 medications, the class of weight-loss and diabetes drugs that includes Ozempic and Wegovy — coincided with patients “being exposed to highly engineered body shapes online.”
Melnikov said he regularly steered patients toward smaller implants. (Supplied)
The medical risks, he warned, could be severe. Significant weight loss left the skin thinner and less elastic, and placing a heavy implant beneath weakened tissue created a continuous mechanical load.
