Until recently, if you wanted to change the shape of your nose there was just one painful, complicated and unpredictable option - a surgical nose-job.
This involved a general anaesthetic, a stay in hospital, broken bones, pain, bruising and sometimes even scarring.
It was also not something you could do on the sly - the plaster cast, black eyes and bandages saw to that. But now there's a new way to make bent noses look straight, smooth out bumps, give dignity back to ski-jumps and reduce flared nostrils.
Spot the difference: Leah Hardy's nose looks straighter with narrower nostrils after the non-surgical nose job
It's called the non-surgical nose-job and it can achieve all that in just 20 minutes and a few injections.
The procedure was invented in Brazil, has been performed for a few years in the U.S., but is new to Britain.
Los Angeles surgeon Dr Alexander Rivkin is an expert in the non-surgical nose-job, and even coined the term.
Nose-jobs are one of the most popular cosmetic operations in Britain, yet they have the highest rate of dissatisfaction
Over the past six years he's performed more than 1,000 procedures and now does up to ten a week.
'It is effective at disguising bumps, and I also use it to raise the bridge on flatter noses,' he says.
'I am injecting a filler so I can't make a nose physically smaller, but I can make it look smaller by correcting asymmetries and making bumpy or hooked noses appear straight.'
The demand for this nonsurgical procedure is likely to be high because nose-jobs are one of the most popular cosmetic operations in Britain, yet they have the highest rate of dissatisfaction.
'I often do work to correct post-surgical issues, with around half of my patients coming to me after they've had nose-jobs. They don't want more surgery because they don't want to turn into Michael Jackson.'
Now, I can't hear about a new procedure without being curious. My nose has always been slightly wonky and it is a little too long and scooped - it's what my husband calls 'pixie-like'.
I fancied having a straight, classic nose, and sought the help of Dr Daniel Sister, a London-based French cosmetic doctor with lots of experience using fillers, who has recently introduced the non-surgical nose-job to his A-list practice.
He said he could make my nose less scooped, and also use Botox to narrow my nostrils, which were, apparently, rather flared.
I settle down in the couch in Dr Sister's consulting room, excited about my new nose, but have a minor panic attack when he tells me the filler he uses, a hyaluronic acid based on the long-lasting temporary filler called Radiesse, can last up to two years.
I suddenly feel attached to my funny old pixie nose and beg him to be 'very, very subtle'.
The procedure is quick, but it's not exactly what I'd call painless. The injections of filler into my nose itself aren't too bad.
I have three, one on the bridge and two on each side to correct the wonkiness.
Dr Sister then expertly moulds the filler like putty under my skin to form a narrower bridge and straighter shape.
He then moves on to my poor nostrils. The injections of Botox, one on each side, sting pretty badly, and my eyes water like crazy. I'm on the verge of calling it off when, barely ten minutes after I've laid down, it's all over.
After four or five days, I notice that I can't flare my nostrils any more and they look slightly narrower
In fact, after a few minutes, I put on some make-up and, still feeling slightly shaky with adrenaline, I am able to leave the clinic and go to a nearby café for some consoling tea and cake.
Nobody gawps, so I assume I look pretty normal. At home I peer at my nose. It is slightly puffy, but there is no bruising and you can't see the injection marks.
The result a few days later? Well, given that I asked the doctor to be ultra-cautious, I couldn't expect the kind of dramatic result that I know is possible with fillers.
But yes, I think it looks straighter with a nicer bridge. After four or five days, I notice that I can't flare my nostrils any more and they look slightly narrower.
Happily, I can still breathe perfectly well. Certainly, if I hated my nose enough to consider surgery, I'd go down the filler route first.
As Dr Sister says, it is the perfect try-before-you-buy option. You might well love the effect so much that you decide you don't need surgery. And you might even decide that, faced with the prospect of change, you are rather attached to your own imperfect hooter after all.
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