From The Straits Times    |

Rare is the woman who hasn’t looked in the mirror and thought, “If I could just tweak that feature a little, I’d look so much better.”

It would be hard to deny that appearance is more important for women than for men, at least based on statistics of who seeks plastic surgery; according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS), women accounted for 92 per cent (8.6 million) of all elective cosmetic procedures.

Women and the plastic surgery business DECOR

With such a premium placed on female beauty, many women can now arrange to have that little tweak done. For some women, though, it doesn’t stop at one or two small fixes.

Heidi Montag is the poster child for extensive plastic surgery. The onetime star of “The Hills” underwent ten dramatic procedures at once and emerged from the operating room unrecognizable.

At only 25-years-old, the actress got a chin reduction, a brow lift, a rhinoplasty, liposuction and oversized breast implants ‒ and that’s only a partial list. While she does look beautiful in still photos after the surgery, her face can no longer express the full range of emotion on film, leaving her looking a bit like a waxwork figure.

Montag now says she regrets the procedures that left her expressionless and preoccupied with her physical appearance, telling ABC News that she would advise other women away from drastic plastic surgery.

While Heidi Montag was famous before her changed appearance, another woman is famous solely for her adventures in plastic surgery.

Cindy Jackson has set a record for the number of plastic surgery procedures she’s undergone. Her 52 surgeries include eye lifts, brow lifts, liposuction, fat grafting and multiple rhinoplasties. Her goal was to look better, but looking better never ends; there’s always another feature to perfect or another sign of age to erase. To date, Jackson has spent over US$100,000 (S$126,000) on surgery.

Sarah Burge had a goal in mind with her multiple surgeries; she wanted to look like Barbie. Her drive to get multiple plastic surgeries arose from a dark place: domestic violence. After she had to have major reconstructive surgery to repair damage to her features, she just kept going.

She told the Daily Mirror that she’s “addicted to looking good” and sees nothing wrong with that. She’s so committed to the wonders of plastic surgery that she’s given her daughter Poppy a voucher for a breast augmentation as soon as she hits 16; the girl is currently 7-years-old.

It’s easy to understand how someone who was left disfigured by some catastrophe would want to regain her beauty or at least a sense of normalcy.

Two of the most extensive plastic surgery procedures restored faces to women who had lost theirs. Connie Culp lost her original face to a shotgun in 2004, but when she became the first face transplant recipient, she gained a new one. She looks nothing like her old self, but she can now smile and has sensation in her new face.

Charla Nash’s face transplant came after a horrifying chimpanzee attack that destroyed her face and hands. While the attack left her blind so she can’t see her new face, Nash can now feel more confident about going out in public. With her restored face, she can eat, talk and smell normally. You can read their stories in Dramatic Reconstructive Surgeries Underlie Evolutions of Cosmetic Procedures.

This was the original intent of plastic surgery – to restore normalcy to people who had been disfigured, not to chase an ephemeral idea of beauty. When women feel that they could be perfect with just one more procedure, they fail to appreciate their current beauty.

This article was written and provided by Lisa Moore from Plastic Surgery Guide. Read more information about reconstructive plastic surgery at PlasticSurgeryGuide.com.

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