Airbrushing is a cheaper choice than cosmetic surgery

It's our own brush with perfection. Thousands of holidaymakers returning home this weekend will seek to improve their photographic souvenirs by enhancing their appearance.

It may mean slimming an expanding midriff, lengthening the legs or plumping up lips. All will be done at the click of an airbrush rather than the flick of a surgeon’s scalpel.



Britain has become so vain that one high street photographic chain says it has seen a 550% increase in the past year in people requesting remedial work on their holiday snaps to make them look more attractive.

“It’s plastic surgery without the knife,” said Snappy Snaps, which has 140 shops nationwide. “We can even put people on a beach in the Seychelles when they have had to stay at home instead.”



Advances in technology mean that airbrushing is no longer the preserve of film stars and it is now available to everyone. Crooked teeth can be straightened, brightened and whitened to create a pixelperfect smile. Dark shadows can be removed, wrinkles and frown lines eased and bodies can undergo a magical digital diet in which pounds disappear in seconds.

Sociologists believe the advent of networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace has raised people’s expectations of how they ought to appear in their holiday photos. Some are spending hundreds of pounds having photographs visually enhanced to make them look more attractive and their holiday more fun.