“Beauty tourism” is a practice of seeking medical treatments abroad.
A woman in the United States has claimed that she saved around $40,000 on medical and beauty treatments over nearly 3 years by travelling abroad to visit the dentist, receive Botox and even get her hair done. Bryn Elise Wright, a 29-year-old Amazon reseller from Colorado, embraced “beauty tourism” – a practice of seeking medical treatments abroad – after encountering soaring prices for hair extensions in her home state. She first turned to the idea of getting her hair done abroad in 2021. She travelled to Istanbul, Turkey, and saved a staggering $4,000 on her hair extensions, the New York Post reported.
“I was getting hair extensions done in Idaho – they had raised their prices to $4,500. It was astronomical,” Ms Bryn explained, as per the outlet. “I started thinking about other options. I started looking abroad,” she continued.
The 29-year-old revealed that in the summer of 2021, she found an Instagrammed in Istanbul, who promised to do her hair for $500. “I thought there was a miscommunication at first,” she recalled. “We worked it into our travel plans. It went wonderfully. I was blown away,” she said.
Now, Ms Bryn is all in on “beauty tourism”. She revealed she has visited 14 countries in recent years with her boyfriend for various procedures. She often chooses her next travel destination based on places where she can get cheap treatments. She revealed she got Botox for just $140 in Istanbul, instead of spending around $700 to $800 in the US. She also had laser hair removal in Paris, which cost her just $400 instead of $2,000.
However, the 29-year-old stated that not every trip was deliberate. She chipped her tooth travelling in Bali and upon deciding to get the treatment she found herself just spending $70, rather than the $600 it would cost in the United States.
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Ms Bryn also opted to undergo medical procedures abroad, including a new crown and deep cleaning in Turkey costing just $240, which would have cost $1,800 in the US. And when she and her boyfriend fell in Thailand, they spent 24 hours in a hospital, which cost them only $120 each.
“I wouldn’t have gone to hospital if I’d been at home,” she said, adding that the hospital bill in America would have been between $10,000 and $20,000.
Ms Bryn believes that she has saved $40,000 in just three years by travelling abroad for health and beauty procedures. She now plans to continue travelling and trying out cheap beauty treatments. “Let me be the guinea pig. It’s saved me tons of money. We’re onto something,” she said.
