Plastic Surgery Business Sags Amid Recession, Celebrity Regrets

The New York Times reports that plastic surgery is on the decline...especially in regions where it's most enjoyed.

"In Orange County, where plastic surgery is a part of their culture, doctors told me business is down 30 to 40 percent," said Thomas Seery, the president of realself.com, a site devoted to reviewing vanity-medicine procedures. "That tells me something is fundamentally changing there."

Even a few celebrities, those early adopters of appearance technology, have started to deride the plasticized look that sometimes accompanies cosmetic interventions, a harbinger perhaps of a new climate of restraint in which overt augmentation seems like bad taste.

Call it a Botox backlash. Last month in interviews with different magazines, the actresses Courteney Cox and Lisa Rinna said that they did not like the look of excessive facial injections.

Keep reading.

-OR-

Keep reading about Lisa Rinna's plastic surgery regrets.

-OR-

Keep reading about Courteney Cox's plastic surgery regrets.

Comments

[hortonhearsawho2]

BooB BailOut!

[Overd0g]

Fewer breast enhancement surgeries is deflationary. Especially for men.

[cruisepuppy7452a]

Ah Boobs, Globes of Love. Which inspired the great song......

Do your boobs hang low do they swing high and low, can you tie them in a knot can you tie them in a bow
Can you flap them around as you waddle too and fro, do your boobs, hang low?

Do they swat you in the face, do they do the suffocate, do they parade about like a gay gone straight, do they go awol like a two bit poser, do the boobs hang low?

Thought you all could use a wake up call. Enjoy!!!!

[scouserinlondon]

Just checked..... and NO !!!!!!

[lneely]

That headline is priceless.

[ajm8127]

Absolutely.

[Repub4Obama]

Business is SAGGING. LOL. Perhaps we need a "boob bailout" for all those poor plastic surgeons not making 300k a year anymore.

[FessorFrink]

So I guess our economy will not have a "soft landing" after the recession.

[ElPerro]

Bummer

[bluerednot]

OK, setting aside the gratuitous aspect of this and most other implant story, it is worth noting a few things about cosmetic surgery -
(1.) it is essentially all "self-pay" - all patient "out of pocket" and not covered by an insurance plan (unless it is a reconstructive procedure - post mastectomy - and that is variable)
(2.) it has, in the past, been generally immune to economic ups and downs - in the past it seemed that some how the funds were found regardless of the economy.
(3.) over the past 8-10-12 years cosmetic procedures have increased substantially in second tier markets - so, no longer just a symbol of the "glamor-set" / major metro area population - in other words, a cosmetic surgery clinic in Erie, PA or Mobile, AL or Omaha, NE could be a very lucrative practice. Clearly, this is now changing .

So, my reading on this story is that it is a further indication that we are in uniquely difficult times.

[JudgeCCrater]

Also, don't breast implants need to be replaced/removed every 15 years or so? My neighbor had this done (twice) in order to fulfill a desire for "porn star" breasts. While the results are nice, having to have a second surgery somewhere down the road definitely makes it seem like a bum deal to me.

[Palomares]

We need more photos like this on Huffpost. Enough with the Bush-bashing! More boobs!

[wadenelson1]

Artificial tumors.

[AnnArky]

Eets naht uh toomah!

[flyteeskee]

i thought you were supposed to wear a bikini bra not a nipple cover.

[ibsteve2u]

Seems to me that any bikini at all - once you have gone to the extreme of having the surgery - is rather like making the effort to sculpt a statue worthy of Michelangelo only to insist that it forevermore remain concealed.

How Tom Ridge...

[cinemabon]

I was hoping for a larger picture on this link...

[leeman79]

Playdough.

[hortonhearsawho2]

are those two related?

[hortonhearsawho2]

Oh great, a hands on story...