The sanctions imposed by Western countries against Russia have also directly affected the beauty services market.
While cosmetologists are switching to domestic analogs of imported drugs for “beauty shots”, and nail studios are raising prices for manicures everywhere, plastic surgery clinics are also adapting to the new reality. We spoke with two of the country’s leading plastic surgeons and learned from them exactly what changes await the beauty industry in times of crisis.
Incredible, but true: even in such a difficult period for our country, people think not only about how to stock up on buckwheat, sugar, and medicines but also about how to stay beautiful. Otherwise, how else to explain that in the last few weeks, against the backdrop of economic fluctuations, the demand for plastic surgery has suddenly increased?
The excitement, however, did not just happen. Having collected rumors all over the Internet about interruptions in the supply of consumables for operations, the girls began to frantically book implants for breast augmentation and queue up for leading specialists. They simply explain their actions: what if, in the future, high-quality implants simply disappear from the Russian market, and plastic prices will skyrocket?
Will implants fail?
To find out if there is really a reason for concern, we decided with the country’s leading plastic surgeons. They shared their predictions for the bleak future of the Russian beauty market. So, Frau Klinik plastic surgeon Gleb Tumakov urged the Russians to put aside the panic for now. He assured me that nothing had changed in their work with foreign implant suppliers. Supply restrictions are not expected in the foreseeable future.
“I don’t think that there will be any problems with consumables in the near future. Many instruments are manufactured in Pakistan. We have cooperated with suppliers and will continue. If we talk about Russian analogs, then there is a Kazan plant that produces good-quality medicines. Even if there are temporary interruptions associated with international logistics, they are unlikely to affect the work of private plastic surgery clinics, “Gleb Tumakov shared his opinion.
The surgeon also assured us that there are simply no operations that clinics will have to completely abandon for the period of sanctions. All the necessary materials are available, which means that patients will have access to all the operations that were offered before the crisis.
Will transaction prices rise?
But Olesya Startseva, professor at the Department of Oncology, Radiotherapy, and Plastic Surgery at Sechenov University and head of the plastic surgery department of the Semeynaya clinic network in the direction of beauty, admitted that she and her colleagues felt the impact of the sanctions as early as the very last week of February. First of all, suture material, implants, in particular mammary glands, and synthetic mesh materials have risen in price. The prices for them immediately rose in the range from 20 to 60 percent – just, for this reason, the price list for operations also changed.
“The increase in prices for operations also happened almost immediately by 10–20 percent, as it became obvious that there was an increase in logistics costs and an increase in prices for suture material. The cost of implants and other artificial materials provide a separate margin for plastic surgery, ” explains doctor Olesya Startseva, the policy of new prices.
Plastic surgeon Gleb Tumakov also confirmed the rise in prices for plastic surgery – this is due to the link to the exchange rate. At the same time, clinics are still trying to keep the cost of their services, however, it is not yet possible to predict what will happen next – it depends on the behavior of the market and the economic situation as a whole.
What about the demand
Both experts noted an increase in demand for plastic surgery in recent weeks. The explanation for this is simple – the expectation of price increases, forecasts for a shortage of “necessary implants” and rising prices for them.
My patients ask to pay for surgeries scheduled in a month or two and to buy implants in advance, expecting price increases and shortages. We are going towards them. I am sure that this is a temporary phenomenon, – said the surgeon Olesya Startseva.
However, in reality, there is no need for nosebleeds to make an appointment with a plastic surgeon. This is confirmed by the doctor Gleb Tumakov: he considers the rumors about the impossibility of plastic surgery in Russia during the crisis to be greatly exaggerated. According to his forecasts, cardinal changes will not affect the market in the next 2-3 months.
However, if you have already planned some kind of intervention for a long time, do not postpone this matter for a long time. Now the clinics, at least, manage to keep the previous prices for the services themselves, and what will happen next is simply impossible to predict.
