Facelifts and Covid-19: patients having major cosmetic surgery with no social events to attend and everyone masking up, Southeast Asia beauty clinics report

Southeast Asia is out of bounds for overseas tourists, but local demand for beauty treatments and post-pandemic pampering helps the beauty industry recover

Spas and clinics are adjusting to a changing market, opening in suburbs for the work-from-home crowd or giving telemedicine consultations to overseas clients

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Spas, aesthetic clinics and beauty salons in Southeast Asia are seeing business pick up after lockdowns to curb the spread of coronavirus, even though international travel is still restricted. Reassuring customers about safety is one way to draw them back, as Belo Medical Group staff in the Philippines demonstrate.

Published: 12:49pm, 28 Sep 2020Updated: 7:40pm, 29 Sep 2020

If there is one thing the Covid-19 pandemic might have proven, it’s that the spa and beauty industries are more recession-proof than most.

People wanting cosmetic surgery have realised it is the perfect time to have some major work done, with no social events looming and everyone hiding their faces behind masks, says the head of a group that provides such services to an international clientele in the Philippines.

In Singapore, meanwhile, a spa chain has taken over a company running aesthetic clinics and is expanding in the city state’s suburbs to cash in on the growth in people working from home.

In the early days of the crisis, spas, aesthetic clinics and beauty salons in Southeast Asia were among the non-essential businesses that had to stop operations as governments tried to slow the spread of the virus, leading to fears that many might not be able to weather the crisis.

Screens and dividers at placed at the reception of the DRx Clinic in Singapore as demand for beauty treatments pick up.

However, now that more places are loosening restrictions on businesses, there are signs of a rebound in industry on the back of consumers’ pent-up demand for facials, massages and treatments after months of going without. A recent study by consultancy firm Kantar found that customers are most looking forward to getting some “beauty therapy” after the end of their quarantines or lockdowns.