A Melbourne hairdresser/model who has almost 200,000 followers on Instagram has been cautioned by a top plastic surgeon for trivialising a nose job she had as part of a medical tourism package she recently took to Thailand.

Twenty-four-year old Rhiannon Langley travelled to Thailand last month for a $5,190 Rhinoplasty surgey on her nose, something she proudly boasted of to her legions of social media friends. Langley even created the #RhiannonGetsRhino hashtag so her followers could be updated on every facet of her nose job/holiday.

Post-op photographs of Langley quickly appeared on her social media, primarily with her lounging by the hotel pool in skimpy bikinis while sporting swollen eyes and nose.

Langley’s surgery holiday even made the Daily Mail Australia who quoted her as saying: ‘I have quite a big following on social media and I don’t want to lie about it. I think people are more accepting of the decision if you own it. I’ve seen so many other girls on social media get things done and then try and hide it.”

The young starlet said the major reason for her to have the procedure done overseas was the price. “The price difference [between Australia and Thailand] is huge,’ she told the Daily Mail. “I’m getting married in a year, so I couldn’t afford to have the surgery in Australia.”

However, the surgery and the shameless promotion fast caught the ire of a leading Australian plastic surgeon who contacted B&T to highlight the inherit dangers in involved in overseas plastic surgery and trivialising it on social media.

Dr Craig Rubinstein, the principal surgeon from Melbourne’s Cosmetic Surgery for Women, believed Langley’s postings ignored the dangers of cheap overseas surgery and the recuperation times required post-operation.

“Surgery is a very serious undertaking,” Rubinstein told B&T. “It’s not a holiday and nor is recovery. Promoting a person’s story that appears to make light of surgery and post-operative aftercare to younger people could influence their behaviour and expose them to risk.  It takes six to 12 months to see full results. Until then we cannot assume a good outcome has been achieved.”

Rubinstein agreed we lived in vain times and social media was arguably making us even vainer.

“Yes, I believe that the pressure to look and feel our best has increased in recent years; however, I still think that for most people health and safety is more important – it certainly is, or should, be for surgeons and medical businesses.

“In my practice we go to great lengths to ensure our patients are well informed and are realistic in their expectations. If we believe a person is unrealistic or their goals cannot be achieved we will not perform surgery,” he said.