TikToker argues for 'beauty tourism,' travels over 6,000 miles for hair extensions: 'Save money, get super hot'
When Bryn Elise wanted to get her “dream hair” — bleached platinum blond with 300 pieces of 22-inch keratin bond extensions, plus some light styling — her American salon quoted her over $4,000. So she booked a flight to Turkey.
After traveling over 6,000 miles to the Ferdi Karatay Hair Studio in Istanbul, Turkey, she ended up paying only $500 for her salon visit. She also shelled out $200 for an Airbnb, $750 for her flight and estimated she spent $100 on food. In total, she claimed it was cheaper to fly to a different country to get her hair done than it would’ve been going to her home salon.
“My hair is definitely the thing I like to spend my money on,” Elise wrote in a TikTok comment. “And dang, what I like to get done is soooo pricey in the United states.”
Elise is a full-time traveler who documents her lifestyle on TikTok and Instagram, but she’s been open about how she and her partner specifically look to get beauty services, medical and dental procedures done outside of the U.S.
In her videos documenting her hair journey, Elise talked a lot about “beauty tourism” — which is when tourists travel all over the world for beauty.
South Korea, for example, has seen an enormous boom in cosmetic-related tourism, and the country has leaned into it. At Seoul’s Incheon International Airport, NPR correspondent Elise Hu writes, “You can fit your face into a spectral imaging machine to get your skin qualitatively analyzed for its health relative to your age.” Hu is the author of Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital, which analyzes medical tourism and the beauty industry in Korea.
“Korea boasts the most sophisticated medical aesthetic market in the world. It is the destination if you’re looking to get your a****** bleached, armpits colorized and/or your skull reshaped over the weekend in time for a return to work on Monday,” she continued. “Seoul boasts more cosmetic surgeons per capita than anywhere else on the planet — twice as many surgeons as the U.S., and 150% more surgeons than Brazil, the distant runner‑up.”
But beauty tourism has expanded beyond cosmetic surgeries into even noninvasive treatments like Elise’s hair extensions.
The global wellness tourism market — which counts places like spas, wellness retreats and mineral springs to be under the umbrella of “wellness and beauty tourism” — is estimated to be valued at $923.6 billion, as of February, and is expected to hit $2 trillion by 2030. While the market balloons, costs for these services outside the United States are still appealing to travelers who are attracted to the idea of getting work done and saving money.
“The scope of cosmetic treatments is expanding with the inclusion of hair care, slimming, male grooming, sun protection and active makeup procedures, among others,” a 2021 report found. “Non-invasive treatments are gaining traction due to high preference for less downtime post-treatment.”
Fashionista wrote in 2019 that Americans could save up to 30% if they opted to have cosmetic or dental surgery in Brazil, or up to 90% if they went to India. A rhinoplasty — one of the world’s most popular procedures — costs around $4,800 in the United States and only $1,600 in Thailand.
Elise isn’t done, either.
“I have a huge list of beauty services I want to try next time!” Elise wrote in a comment on her TikTok. “Laser, tattoos, facials, lip blushing, I want it all.”
She’s already flown to Turkey three times to get her extensions done and also documented a trip to Thailand for dental work.
On Elise’s website, she has a form open to followers who are “Interested in joining me for a group trip to get beauty services, medical, and dental care abroad.” In another video, she presented the trip idea as a way to “save money, get super hot and get three to four free vacations a year.”
With Elise’s logic, each beauty trip to a different location counts as a “free vacation” — although it’s technically not free at all since travelers still have to pay for the beauty procedures and lodging. Elise also listed “three to four” vacations a year because some of the beauty treatments, like hair extensions, require regular maintenance visits.
In another video, Elise talked about her search for an inexpensive Tretinoin cream that she heard was sold at drugstores throughout Thailand. Tretinoin is an anti-aging cream commonly used to treat acne, texture and fine lines and requires a prescription in the U.S. It usually costs around $30, although Elise got a tube in Thailand for $12.
“I just walked into the first pharmacy I saw, didn’t need a prescription, I got it in two seconds,” Elise said.
“welcome to the rest of the world,” another commenter quipped.
While the reasons behind a beauty tourism trip can vary from something noninvasive like hair extensions to something like dental work, U.S.-based doctors have said that there are “risks” but travelers can minimize them by doing proper research.
“Depending on the country, city, clinic, and dentist you choose, it’s possible to get dental care abroad that meets or exceeds the level of care in the U.S.,” Sheila Miller Edwards wrote for GoodRx. “It’s a good idea to find out about the medical hygiene regulations in your destination country and how they are enforced.”
If something goes wrong abroad, research has also found that “surgeons and patients alike are often unprepared for management of complications after patients return to the USA.”
“Incomplete medical records, uncommon bacterial infections and unfamiliar surgical practices pose significant challenges for U.S. physicians,” a 2023 study concluded.
The problem isn’t limited to outside of the U.S. either. In an article for the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, Dr. Josef Hadeed referenced “chop shops or plastic surgery factories” in Miami.
“Patients will come in, oftentimes, they won’t even meet the surgeon until the day of the procedure,” he said. “Then they’re discharged from the care of the clinic with no postoperative instructions, no follow-up care. A lot of times they don’t even see their surgeon again. And they’re sent back home and there’s no appropriate follow-up care.”
Hadeed emphasized the importance of checking a surgeon’s or clinic’s credentials before surgery. If that’s too difficult, patients should at least meet with the surgeon beforehand.
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