Why so many people, including the Kardashians, have plastic surgery regret

Dr Tim Edwards, President of the Australasian Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, agrees, saying that while the link between trending beauty aesthetics and plastic surgery is nothing new (think 1970s Charlie’s Angels-era button noses and the early 2000s overt breast augmentations a la Victoria Beckham), social media and our direct access to celebrities has turbo-charged the situation.

“What has made plastic surgeries more accessible is undoubtedly social media,” he says, cautioning that while lesser procedures like botox and fillers, which were responsible for the recent ‘trout pout’ trend, are temporary, “a surgical procedure is permanent and once you’ve had that done you can rarely go back.”

In addition to the high cost of plastic surgery, there are also the recovery time and long-term risks associated with any surgery to consider. If you’re a billionaire or multi-millionaire as Kourtney, Kim, Khloe, Kendall or Kylie are, taking a few weeks out to rest while a bevvy of nannies, cleaners, cooks and personal assistants keep things running is completely viable. For everyone else, though, this new norm poses alarming risks.

“A lot of people can now quite easily get major work done but in a way that they perceive to be quite a minor thing because normalisation around cosmetic procedures has increased so dramatically,” Sharp says, adding that another rarely talked-about risk is post-operative disappointment.

“What I hear most commonly when speaking with people after their plastic surgery is unmet expectations. They thought this was going to mean that they’d be more comfortable in their skin or attract a partner or improve their job prospects and those expectations haven’t been met.”

This kind of buyer’s remorse of body modification is something set to feature on season three of The Kardashians, with a teaser released this week showing Kylie Jenner admitting, “I wish I never touched anything to begin with.”

In the same trailer, Kylie tells her older sisters: “All of us just need to have a bigger conversation about the beauty standards that we’re setting,” before adding, “I don’t want my daughter to do the things I did.”

The sentiment is shared by Kylie’s close friend and A-list model Bella Hadid, who has gone on the record admitting she regrets having rhinoplasty at age 14 to fit in with Western beauty standards.

“I wish I had kept the nose of my ancestors,” the Dutch-Palestinian model told Vogue in 2022, adding, “I think I would have grown into it.”

Having practised for 30 years, Edwards says people need to “think long and hard about what it is they want to achieve” when it comes to undergoing any cosmetic surgery. “The vast majority of people have positive experiences and achieve their desired outcomes through surgery. But if people are thinking of getting surgery to fit in with what is a very transient trend I would argue against it.”

This far down the line, though, and with the rise in social media accounts like Celeb Face that exist solely to compare before and after images of famous faces, would celebrities finally conceding to having work done actually stem the surgery tide?

Sharp says while disclosures might not allow us fully reverse course, more honesty would allow people to make more informed decisions when it comes to their own surgeries.

“For celebrities, there’s always the fear that they will be judged and trolled if they do admit to having surgery. But at a community level, it can be really reassuring to know they have had some kind of cosmetic intervention.”

As the age of the Brazilian Butt Lift ends and the buccal fat removal and chin sculpting era begins, maybe now is the time to draw a close to keeping up with the Kardashians.

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