A Face Only a Mother Could Buy: Families Are Scheduling Plastic Surgery Together
Family time looks a lot different in 2020. There are those who have been unable to see their families, and those who have been unable to escape them. And then there are those who have said, “To hell with it. Let’s just all get face-lifts.”
“I’m seeing tons of relatives and spouses come in together,” says the plastic surgeon and author of The Park Avenue Face Andrew Jacono. “Next week I’m doing a husband, a wife, and a daughter on the same day. The husband and wife are getting their face-lifts done, and the daughter is getting a rhinoplasty. I have another case coming up that’s a grandmother, a mother, and a daughter. The grandmother and mother are getting face-lifts, and the daughter, who is in her early forties, is getting her eyelids done.”
Grown professionals who have found themselves sequestered at home with their parents are getting picked up after surgery the way they once were picked up from school, says Manhattan rhinoplasty specialist Dara Liotta, who has seen multiple sets of siblings, mothers and sons, and even roommates come in for tandem tweaks. “I feel as if quarantine has made people close in so many strange ways.” And there’s nothing like watching each other’s bruises fade to build a bond. “For siblings who normally live apart, it’s really cool,” Jacono says. “You don’t usually shack up with your sister for 10 to 14 days. They tell me stories about what shows they’ve binge-watched and how they’ve gone through photo albums and done goofy stuff that they otherwise would not get the chance to do. It’s like sleepaway camp.”
Dynasty dynamics can make for complicated consults. Jacono recalls a bejeweled, well-preserved seventysomething matriarch coming in “dragging her 52-year-old daughter, telling her she needs a face-lift too. The daughter was open to it, but her mother was literally driving the consult—like, if you’re going to do this, you might as well add this, and maybe you also need this. I’ve seen some hyper-critical parents, but I’ve seen it the other way around, too.” Support from a relative going through the same thing can make recovery easier, says Liotta: “People are happier, because they have encouragement along the way. I did twin sisters’ noses, and even in the recovery room I could hear them talking through the curtain, saying, ‘You’re amazing, you did a great job.’ It was sweet.”
Many multigenerational nip-tuck seekers are treating the experience with all the pomp and circumstance of a major family milestone. “I recently did a very fun-loving mother and daughter who had their surgery experience like a party,” Liotta says. “The next day they sent in bags from Bergdorf’s with gifts for everybody in the office. It was a celebration they wanted to share. Because people don’t have much of a social outlet now, getting surgery is almost like a shopping spree. They’re doing something big for themselves.” It’s also an excuse to take a break from the circumstances of day-to-day life, with the promise of returning both physically and mentally refreshed. “During Covid,” Liotta says, “surgery is the new vacation.”
This story appears in the November 2020 issue of Town & Country. SUBSCRIBE NOW
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