Big eyes, rosy cheeks and heart-shaped lips. These are the traditional features of the wooden matryoshka doll (or grandmother as it has come to be called in the West), where the biggest trend in plastic surgery around the world originates: Russian lips. duck face this past. Instead of giving places an intense volume, the emphasis is now on the outlines: the upper lip is raised, forming a heart.

Crap Instagram and to tik tak before and after – especially after, with juicy, shiny, forever parted lips. “Yes, that’s what I want,” they say. followers to the experts. “Very often, women in their 25s and 40s come into the clinic showing us specific images from influencers, wanting a similar image,” says “K” dermatologist-venereologist Anastasia P. Dzhuma. They can ask for Russian lips and botox before tail lifting (forehead, brow and midface lift, named for the effect created by a tight ponytail) and cheek lift (lift of the middle third of the face). The older ones mainly ask for hyaluronic acid implants in the lips and Botox, the younger ones – for an increase in the volume of the lips and sculpting of the face in the cheekbones.

plump lips

According to experts, over the past three years, the demand for full lips has increased dramatically. Characteristically, the aesthetics of the previous period, which wanted the upper and lower lip based on the ratio of the golden ratio, i.e. 1 to 1.618, today has become 1 to 1. worrying about the mild swelling that follows after 1-2 days of treatment,” says Ms Juma, explaining the increase in requests during the pandemic. The doctor explains that cosmetic surgery only benefits us when it is tailored to our natural characteristics and takes into account their harmony, but often women still want to proceed with the operation. “It is a very common occurrence, almost daily, when aesthetic surgery is abandoned if it is not needed or can lead to a result that does not look natural. There are cases where people left our clinic dissatisfied with this refusal and looked for a specific operation elsewhere.”

The older ones ask for lip implants with hyaluronic acid and Botox, while the younger ones ask for lip volume and facial sculpting.

According to the plastic surgeon Willy Rhodopuluis often a pathological problem. “It’s contagious. It’s called instant chat dysmorphia. Women try to mimic app filters and end up overdoing it.” the next time the patient asks for more material. “But they don’t do it alone, someone else does it for them. There are colleagues who have entered the industry without aesthetic criteria, who do it not because it’s good for the patient, but because that it is beneficial for their pocket, and operations with hyaluronic acid are carried out even in non-related specialties, with tragic results.

Cloning

According to him, instead of improving, this is cloning. “Man loses his individuality. He ceases to be who he was born to be. The goal is to improve your image, not to make everyone look the same with the same cheekbones. It’s not what I swore. Every day, every day for 3-4 years, I also have a patient who has been abusing hyaluronic acid for years. Because hyaluronic acid does not break down and is not absorbed quickly, as they say. Women are advised to apply hyaluronic acid to their cheekbones to lift their face. Big mistake. Patients see that this does not work, and “specialists” answer that there was not enough material. This work is done. And so they look bigger and more teasing.” When is plastic surgery part of self-care, and when is it hiding a mental disorder? “The modern plastic surgery industry often opens up to us as an oasis that takes us away from our internal conflicts, heartache, personal anxieties and gives us the temporary illusion that we can get the best version of ourselves.” says Mrs Aspa Paspali “K”., psychoanalytic psychotherapist, scientific director of DIKEPSY. “To regenerate him closer to the ideal. Undoubtedly, there are cases when plastic surgery helps the patient improve his lifestyle. There is nothing alarming about this.” However, according to her, in his exaggeration, he can hide depression, eating disorders, personality disorders (Estrionic or Borderline Personality) “It has been found that 7%-15% of people who see plastic surgeons suffer from body dysmorphia, body dysmorphophobia, which is described as a pathologically obsessive preoccupation of a person with any part of their appearance.”

In the whirlpool of influencers

Social media and constant exposure to filtered, clean content has accelerated this phenomenon. “In recent years, we have seen a dramatic increase in cosmetic procedures at younger and younger ages, both surgical and less invasive procedures. The easy and frequent access to the accounts of so-called plastic surgery influencers and the inadvertent familiarity with this unnatural image, as well as the rapid “consumption” of filtered, flawless photographs taken by young people, played a significant role in this increase, making people look less attractive in comparison. – and therefore less popular – with an absolute number of followers and likes. They often get bogged down in the endless pursuit of unrealistic ideal standards. In addition, more money is spent on the beauty industry than on education.”

Face dominance on Instagram is bad for mental health

In one of the most insightful and prophetic articles on the relationship between social media and plastic surgery, Gia Tolentino wrote in 2019 in the New Yorker about the “Instagram face”: and after. These posts are gaining hundreds of thousands of views and likes. In 2018, Americans received 7 million neurotoxin (Botox) injections and more than 2.5 million injectable fillers, according to the American Association of Plastic Surgeons. In the same year, Americans spent more than $16.5 billion on such procedures, with 92% of them performed on women. Now, these aesthetic treatments are not only for people who want a dramatic change or are actively fighting aging. They are often aimed at millennials or even, on rare occasions, Gen Z. For example, Kylie Jenner, born in 1997, once explained on her reality show Life of Kylie that she has wanted lip augmentation ever since she was 15 years old and the boy commented on how thin she was.” One of these famous Los Angeles plastic surgeons explains to Tolentino that “30% of his clients come to his office with a picture of Kim (aka Kardashian) or someone like Kim. There is a group of people, but it is at the top of the list and this is logical. This is one of the biggest challenges I have with informing a client whether it’s wise to go down the path to Kim’s face or someone else’s.”

If in the early 2000s you couldn’t mess around with photos, except for correcting red eyes with a special pen, today smartphones offer a wide range of filters and other Photoshop tools that allow you to create perfect selfies. This process is not harmful. However, constant exposure to idealized images can lead to a disconnect from reality, especially in young people. When these children come into contact with photographs that do not have “errors”, it is difficult after a while to remember that everyone has flaws on the face and body.

Psychiatrists have called the syndrome “Snapchat dysmorphia,” which occurs when a person constantly compares their selfies to their real appearance. At the same time, more and more plastic surgeons are reporting that social media users are visiting them with embellished versions of themselves and asking for changes that are impossible to implement.

According to experts, this discrepancy causes obsessions, a constant feeling of dissatisfaction, difficulties in everyday life, asociality, a decrease in the quality of life and, in extreme cases, suicidal tendencies. Although the syndrome is not officially registered as a mental illness, it is certain that it affects more and more people who spend more and more time on social networks, and especially young people who are vulnerable and insecure about their appearance.