Dawn Images

Model and actor Saheefa Jabbar Khattak recently took to social media to share her experience undergoing a corrective surgery to fix her deviated septum in order to tackle various health issues. She is no longer afraid to tackle the topic publicly despite the fact that cosmetic surgeries are considered a taboo in Pakistan.

Whether it's to enhance one's beauty or address health concerns, more people are now open to going under the knife. However, despite the increasing popularity and acceptance, there's still a strong a stigma attached to revealing about one's experience or even admitting you had surgery in the first place.

Khattak — who starred in dramas Log Kya Kahenge and Beti — took to Instagram to talk about her own corrective surgery. "I had a deviated septum," she wrote. "The doctor told us we'd need to operate on the nose and surgically fix the bone. I've always been afraid of going under the knife. And cosmetically removing a part of my face just freaked me out. I didn't want to get it done then.

"Over the years this protrusion in my nose has given me bleeds, an excessively dry nostril, infections in the winters, and worst of all a breathing problem! This last year breathing had become extremely difficult. And with all this pollution around us, I thought it's just wise to have two working nostrils filtering the air," she explained.

"So I did the surgery two months ago," Khattak continued. "Alhamdullilah it went perfectly fine. My fears about it were real though. Everything about it was painful and uncomfortable and scary. The procedure itself wasn't complicated, but the post operation time was hard. I found breathing quite difficult in the two weeks after the surgery, and had to stay glued to my bed."

Khattak then mentioned the elephant in the room — how the topic of cosmetic surgeries is taboo in Pakistan no matter what the purpose of the surgery is. "It isn't always about beautification, there are a good number of cases when it's about alleviating pain, and improving health. It's best to educate ourselves before jumping to conclusions and making assumptions," she explained.

"It took eleven years of courage to get to this point, but I'm glad that I did it now, and can at least breathe normally," she added.

Dr Anam Falak had told Images in an earlier interview that when it comes to beautification, many people opt for procedures that give the desired effect without being too invasive. “They want minimal downtime, minimal bruising and as less healing [time] as possible. This is why my most popular procedures are lip fillers and under eye fillers,” she said. She highlighted how in comparison to her clients in the UK, the clients in Pakistan are much more secretive. That goes for cosmetic procedures as well as corrective surgeries.

However, there is always a risk when it comes to these surgeries. Actor Zahid Ahmed has previously opened up about his nose job as well. In a video uploaded to his YouTube channel, Ahmed shared how the procedure did not go as planned, leaving him with a botched nose job. He shared the experience as a lesson for others to be more comfortable in their skins rather than focus on physical features as flaws.