In the world of aesthetic and cosmetic medicine we are in the business of helping people look their best. TSLMS is a society made up of practitioners of beauty. Some of us are more focused on helping people with medical problems that they are overcoming – but at the end of the day we are all trying to help people look their best. In the world of celebrities and high profile people, looking good is even more important than for the average person. For some, this is largely due to the media attention and scrutiny that they face, and for others it is because their looks define their ability to have their career, as in the case of actors and models.
When you have one of these high profile clients, they look to you to hold their appearance as a first order of priority. They have hired you. They are relying on you and they depend on you to advise them if there is going to be a glitch with looking 100%, 100% of the time. This can be enormously stressful. We get it. And helping you help them is a big part of why we are here.
Celebrities Get A Lot of Work Done
The Huffington Post wrote, in 2016, “Yes, Every Female Celebrity Has Done This Surgery.” In that piece, they suggest that literally every celebrity has had some type of plastic/cosmetic procedure done – whether a more invasive surgery, or a less invasive filler, they have all had something done. We think just as many men are having work done too, by the way. That said, the article points out:
A lot of celebs aren’t having surgery, but are still having work done.While you might hear certain celebs claiming they’ve “never gone under the knife,” Dr. Nassif explained that a lot of celebrities are doing non-invasive treatments that don’t require surgery. CoolSculpting, also known as cryolipolysis, is one of those procedures. It freezes the body’s fat and requires very little recovery time. Meanwhile, Dr. Dubrow told HuffPost that almost everyone in Hollywood is “clearly” having fillers, like Restylane and Juvéderm, injected. Khloé Kardashian recently admitted to getting fillers while talking to him on her short-lived talk show “Kocktails with Khloé.” These days, there’s less shame associated with cosmetic surgery. It’s becoming more common for celebrities to be more open about the procedures they’ve had done. In terms of actually admitting to certain surgeries…doctors agree there’s an evolution of admitting to “acceptable” procedures.
“Celebrities will [admit to] breast implants now, but they wouldn’t for a while,” Dr. Dubrow said, citing rapper Iggy Azalea’s recent carefree admission to having breast augmentation as an example. “Liposuction was verboten to admit to. Now, they will say, ‘I had a little something sucked out.’”
While this was written in 2016, the trend has most certainly not slowed down and more and more celebrities are admitting with pride the work they have had done that helps them look fabulous.
Advising Celebrities
As a professional, licensed provider of services, sometimes it is our responsibility to tell a client that what they want done is a bad idea or will not work for them. This can be exceptionally difficult if your client is a high profile, or a celebrity. All too often we are tempted to, or pressured to, give in and say yes to whatever these clients want.
In the age of social media it is even harder to resist – especially with so many celebrities being so proud of the work that they get. Cosmopolitan even wrote a piece last year about the “celebrities who are proud of their plastic surgery.” In it, they lay out 30 people who are very open about the work they have done and the people who did those procedures. These include people like Kelly Ripa and her Botox treatments. “The Live! host told her then co-host Michael Strahan in 2015 that she had indulged in Botox to avoid the affliction known as “resting bitch face.” “I got Botox here,” she said pointing to her forehead, “because people kept saying ‘Are you OK’ and I’m like, ‘I’m fine, why?’ “you look like you’re angry.’ I was like, ‘Then it’s time to get Botox.'” In an Instagram comment responding to compliments last year, she also wrote, “For everyone saying such nice things, I just got Botox on Friday, and you just can’t beat fresh Bo.”
It is articles like this that makes it more and more ‘ok’ for high profile people to get work done. They look around at their peers and their own role models and if those folks are getting procedures they are more likely to. In the same way, the general public looks up to celebrities and wants to emulate them, their look, and their lifestyle.
So, as a professional what do you do if you know that what they are looking for won’t work the way they think it will or will have adverse effects?
Our advice. Suck it up. Tell the truth. And if they decide to go somewhere else and get the procedure done then that is ok.
Guiding A Celebrity to Do The Right Stuff
The best case scenario is that you end up with a high profile client that comes to you asking for your opinion instead of telling you what they are getting. In that case, you have an opportunity to really guide them into getting a procedure that works for them as an individual and also will help them walk back out into the world looking their very best as fast as they can.
As WebMD points out, there is a very basic place to start this conversation. “a good candidate for cosmetic surgery is if you’re healthy, have reasonable expectations, and know the risks of the procedure you’re considering. You may not be a good candidate for cosmetic surgery if you have serious health problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, a bleeding disorder, heart disease, or depression. If you’re obese or you smoke or drink too much alcohol, you may not be a good candidate for cosmetic surgery,” You can share sources like this with those clients and you can talk to them about the very immediate after effects of the procedures that they are asking for.
Hopefully this type of open and honest conversation will help you retain the client and influence them to do the right thing instead of just the fad that everyone else seems to be doing.
