The no-scalpel boob job

It’s not every day that we sit in posh restaurants talking lady lumps over salmon steaks (that’s more a café, with-our-girlfriends kind of conversation, really), but that’s what happened when beautyheaven met Dr Ron Goedeke for lunch. The cosmetic physician had flown in from NZ to introduce beauty media to the Brava Breast Enhancement System and, as we fought back chicken fillet puns and the waiters politely ignored busty visual props, he explained the science that’s defying the scalpel. 

Brava looks like a sports bra, albeit a clunky, wildly unsexy one, but Dr Goedeke describes it more like a boob job. Lifting, firming and boosting the size of the bust minus surgery, silicone and scarring, Brava can bump a modest B cup up to a more eye-popping C, and the effects are said to be long-term.

The increased va-va-volume comes through vacuum, elucidated Dr Goedeke. A rigid plastic dome is placed over each breast and an attached SmartBox sucks air out, drawing the flesh forward in a gentle pulling motion. According to the scientific principle of tension-induced growth, this sustained stretching causes cells to divide and you end up with more natural fat and glandular cells. It’s like getting a non-surgical implant of your own tissue.

It all sounds good if you’re scared of the scalpel, but Brava isn’t for every girl and it’s no shortcut to a killer cleavage. The technology only works on A and B sizes who’d be satisfied with a single cup of growth, users can’t be lactating or have keloid scars and will have to satisfy a consultant and checklist first. Plus the Brava takes commitment- you need to rig up for 10 hours a day, every day, for 10 weeks on the trot to see real growth (initially it’s just swelling). But then your conservatively bigger boobs are yours to keep, says Dr Goedeke.

There are no scars, stretchmarks or saggy skin issues to worry about, Dr Goedeke assures us. All it costs you is $2695 for the system and uncomfy  sleep for 10 weeks or so (you’ve got to sleep on your back and if one of the domes dislodges overnight, an alarm will let you know all about it). The biggest bugs in the system seem to be that, because you perspire so much while wearing the domes, salt crystals can clog the SmartBox and seals on the domes can fail. Then, because one day off the system requires four days extra catch-up, waiting for repairs or replacements of can then set you back days on the road to real growth.

For every woman we’ve spoken to who says a Wonderbra would be so much less hassle, there’s another who’d still opt for implants and yet another who thinks it’s just the compromise she’s been waiting for. Without having tried Brava ourselves, we’d just say it’s worth researching before going under the knife. Isn’t everything?

Find out more about the research, clinical trials and safety studies at www.mybrava.com.au.