Would you have surgery to be selfie-ready?
As pressure mounts to be pictureperfect at all times, a rising number of women are taking drastic action...
Let’s face it. In today’s selfie-obsessed times, it is rare to go for a night out without someone enthusiastically whipping out their camera phone. There seems to be little less disheartening than logging on to Facebook and spotting that you’ve been tagged in an unflattering photo. Suddenly, that funny pose you pulled after one too many Proseccos doesn’t seem so hilarious after all, as your perceived imperfections are on view for all to see.
Of course, we’ve all had a bad snap taken but, thanks to the popularity of photosharing on social media platforms, the pressure to look selfie ready has never been stronger. And then there’s the rise in photo-editing apps and filters to erase blemishes!
So, how do we deal with this? While some might just change our social media settings to vet snaps before they appear on our feed, there’s a growing number of women who are turning to cosmetic procedures to become picture-perfect.
Soaring popularity
According to the latest report from the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS), over 9,000 eyelid surgeries, neck/facelifts and rhinoplasties were performed in 2016. And the popularity of non-invasive treatments, such as facial fillers, are soaring, with Dr Dan Marsh, from The Plastic Surgery Group, noticing a sharp increase in clients bringing doctored and filtered selfies of themselves for reference.
‘One in 10 people who come to me for fillers show me a picture of themselves that they have altered, or a selfie picture,’ says Dr Marsh, who’s also a member of the BAAPS council.
‘Selfies are often taken at a higher angle looking downwards, which narrows the face, so I get asked if I can emulate that effect. Some people have a “favourite” side for a selfie, and ask if they can have the other side made the same. But, it’s not always possible. Nobody’s face is perfectly asymmetrical,’ he continues.
Consultant plastic surgeon Dr Reza Nassab, from the Skin & Follicle Clinic, adds that Insta-famous celebs, such as the Kardashians, who’ve openly talked about using injectables to achieve their trademark pouts, have also fuelled this filler-frenzy.
‘ We’ve seen a big rise in people coming in with photographs of social media celebrities they’d like to look like – Kylie Jenner lips are hugely popular,’ says Dr Nassab. ‘Now, non-surgical procedures count for about 80 per cent of our treatments.’
Although this trend for an ‘Insta-face’ (as it’s known in the industry) is popular among younger women, the pressure to be picture-perfect is trickling through to the older generation, too, as Dr Marsh has experienced.
‘I had a mother and daughter come in recently,’ he recalls.
‘They showed me a photo from Facebook. The mum said to me, “Oh, look at my neck. Can you do something about it?” She’s booked in for a neck-lift later this month.’
‘Is that me?!’
And she’s certainly not the only person to feel this way. Mum-of-two Muriel Rens, 49, had a non-surgical facelift after seeing an unflattering photograph of herself online.
‘It all started with some pictures of me on Facebook. When I saw them, I thought, “Oh, God, is that me?!”’ she says. ‘There’s an expression that as you get older you have to choose between your bum and your face and, while I’m naturally slim, my face had definitely lost its sparkle. I looked tired and my skin had lost its firmness.’
Muriel was going through a divorce at the time, and the photos made her even more self-conscious.
‘Then, I heard about a non-surgical facelift that uses the body’s stem cells to boost and regenerate the skin. It promised natural results,’ Muriel explains.
‘Afterwards, I was so happy with the results. My face looked younger and fuller, as if I’d had a filter put on it!’
With a price tag of £6,000, there’s no denying that selfie surgery is big business. And, with social media here to stay, the trend is only set to get bigger...