People do it at the hair salon all the time. You might sit down in the chair and say, “I want that new Jennifer Aniston cut,” or, “I like how David Beckham styles his hair.” It’s a way to give the person doing the work a visual representation of what you want to see in the mirror.
If you are contemplating a makeover that includes fuller lips or reshaping of the nose, why wouldn’t you take the same approach? There is some question about whether the trend of people getting plastic surgery to look like a celebrity is really a healthy one, but ultimately, it comes down to picking a style for most patients. They see a famous face and body and decide that’s the look they want.
Creating a Doppelganger
This is by no means a new trend, but it’s certainly getting a lot of attention these days. Nino Dean, a freelance fashion stylist living in Manhattan, had surgery over a decade ago to look like French singer Vanessa Paradis. For Dean, Paradis’s baby face appealed to him, according to the New York Times. The truth is that even the best plastic surgeon cannot create a doppelganger. It most cases, the patient isolates a specific body part and uses the celebrity as an example. Is it wrong to want Angelina Jolie lips or Kim Kardashian curves?
Cause for Alarm?
Some would argue that paying thousands of dollars to look like someone else is unhealthy. Even celebrities have intervened on social media sites to prevent these makeovers. In 2010, Kim Kardashian communicated with a fan via Twitter asking her to reconsider surgery, emphasizing that you should focus on being yourself. Doctors will tell you any plastic surgery is a case-by-case scenario. Wanting to be beautiful is a healthy goal, as long as you have a practical understanding of the process and not an unhealthy obsession or a type of psychosis.
Celebrity Style
Sometimes, a surgical makeover is a strategic business move. Miki Jay spent over $16,000 because she could make money imitating Michael Jackson. Her celebrity impersonation became more realistic after plastic surgery. Justin Jedlica made a similar career move when he had 144 procedures to look like a Ken doll.
Real estate technology consultant Deborah Davenport didn’t start out wanting to do anything but improve the way she looked. Davenport was unhappy with her aging face, so she decided to get surgery. She used Kate Winslet as an example of what she would like to look like. The surgeon shaved cartilage from her nose to thin it out and used nonsurgical approaches like Botox to change other aspects of her face. The final bill for the Winslet look was about $15,000.
Ashley Horn invested $25,000 to look more like her famous sister Lindsay Lohan. That might be taking sibling rivalry too far, but Ashley wants to make it in Hollywood, too. It took five separate procedures to get there, including rhinoplasty and fillers.
Any time a patient considers plastic surgery, doctors evaluate the reasons behind the request. Wanting to look like your favorite celebrity is one way of identifying the style you like. An extreme makeover to get the exact look of a star, however, is not a practical or healthy option.