Just wondering what the general consensus is on plastic surgery here.

Are you asking if I would have such surgery for merely cosmetic reasons? The answer is no.

If I were scarred in someway or my health were at risk if I did not, then yes.

Ask me in again in 30 years

The question is more general than anything else. I understand that there are two sides to the question. And I'm looking for all opinions because most people will say it's not natural, but in either situation it's not natural.

I'm not sure if most people will get hung up on the natural idea in both instances. No surgery is "natural" really.

I think I know what you're getting at though...I think

My answer stays the same.

For vanity purposes, I think it's frivolous.

For reconstructive surgery, I think it's fine.

Yes.

I need my nose fixed something fierce. It was broken when I was a child and has restricted my breathing ever since. So the surgery I'll be having this year will be for both purposes.

I've got this awful wrinkle in my forehead I'd like to see plumped back out.

I'd also like skin reduction surgery (if its even called that) here and there.

Why not? Nip, nip here, tuck, tuck there, reset here. Nothing wrong with that.

I voted yes, but I'm biased. I was born with a cleft lip & palate, and I have had over fifteen reconstructive surgeries. Some involved plastic surgery, and some didn't, but all of them improved my ability to function physically. Just because something is plastic surgery, doesn't mean that it is cosmetic surgery, and just because something is cosmetic surgery, doesn't mean that it isn't necessary to improve the life of an individual.

I don't desire any type of cosmetic surgery because I think it is better to be comfortable with yourself as you are. I also am sure I would do something that was trendy and I would look even more ridiculous later. (Puffy collagen lips when thin lips will probably be all the rage a decade from now)

But I am not a big appearances person. I don't want to color my hair or get my chest waxed.

However there are dumber things to spend your money on. If you truly fell that you would enjoy yourself dollar for dollar more with a little medical procedure, go ahead. Know the risks, know why you are doing it, and go ahead. I vote no.

I think plastic surgery if you feel you need it go for it. I for one wouldn't do it. In cyan's case it is surgery to fix something. But then you have cosmetic surgery and I think this one is a big one and that would be Michael Jackson. He has turned out to look like a freak! I know he is probably the only one that I know of that had all that surgery and for what? To look like he does? How scary. So I guess I am saying do you really need it?

Corrective or reconstructive surgery, sure. Cosmetic surgery, if you can afford it and think it'll make you feel better about yourself, I suppose, why not. It troubles me a little that so many good surgeons are spending time on vanity surgery when their skills could be better used elsewhere - but if that's what they've trained for and there's a market...

I do think that cosmetic surgery in excess can make people look more grotesque than youthful. I remember John Waters once saying that the first time he attended a Hollywood party he wondered what had happened because everyone looked so surprised - then he realized that they'd all had one facelift too many.

If it makes the person feel better, then what could it possibly hurt? If you have the money to burn like that, sure. But what I have always found odd is the people get cosmetic surgery to look like everyone else in the crowd.

I don't know--I saw this Extreme Makeovers show a few weeks ago, and they showed three people who had TONS of things they hated about themselves, so they got plastic surgery out the wazoo, and liposuction, and boob implants, and new teeth, and on and on. It was kind of interesting to see the before and after (I enjoy b&a stuff like that for some reason--people, houses, etc. Don't know why), but jeez, to change that much about yourself suggests to me these people were serious head cases. So like most anything, I say do what you want, but expect that I'll feel free to call you a freak for doing so. I have a co-worker who wants a nose job, and I guess she'd look good with a smaller nose, but it's not like I find her unpleasant to look at. I mean, that's how she looks! And I like her, so it's fine.

I thought I'd add something here, since I live in the homeland of plastic surgery. Does laser hair removal count? If so, that is one of the very best inventions known to man. It really works.

I don't need it, but my dark-haired Hispanic better half had his back done (not that I ever complained) and I can truly praise the results. An end to hirsutism! Thank modern technology.

Pam Anderson, on the other hand, is starting to remind me of Michael Jackson.
I intend to have my face microdermabrased (sp?) in a couple of years, along with perhaps a botox injection or two...

i dont find anything wrong with it, its just a product of our or any society like it. i know in some places its even a right of passage into the community , me i dont care if i go bald and my ears fall off, not the ears part but some people prefer to keep thier good looks( you look good mrs.p ) as they go into older age, i dont think you can blame anyone for that. i did watch a special on it in california, is amazeing the younger kids boys and girls will basically change thier bodys with it, i am talkeing fake muscles, breasts(duh) and of course the face. is it out of hand is a question you can ask.

I think of it as "false advertising" which is the same way I think of makeup and waterbras (only of a more permanent and deceptive nature). But I recognize the fact that people need to feel comfortable in their own skin and with their bodies. I just wish more people would learn to be comfortable with THEIR body instead of trying to get somebody elses.

Losing weight via lyposuction is not a lifestyle change and if you don't make changes to your lifestyle (ie: become more active and eat healthier) afterward you'll just gain it back. It's not healthy. I can understand obese people for whom their weight has become a health issue and the decision to have their stomach stapled is less one of vanity than medical concern. I think its counter evolution as people then select mates that appear one way but genetically code for something entirely different.

I agree with jaime and otseng most definitely. For vanity purposes I don't think I'd personally would get it (I think its frivolous) but for reconstructive surgery or medical concerns I don't see why not.

I have no problem what so ever with plastic surgery. If you have the money and if it makes you happy, why not? I'd have plastic surgery if I could afford it.

That reminds me of a conversation I once had with a male friend. He was looking at a beautiful woman's plastic bosom across the room. I commented,"You know they aren't real." He replied,"They're REALLY attached!"

Liposuction is not a weight loss strategy. There are many women who have very little body fat, but remain bottom heavy. I think it's a great thing for those women. It would be nice if everyone loved their own body, but let's be honest. Does everyone love the pear body type? Does everyone love cellulite or varicose veins? That isn't realistic. If a person is very unhappy about their appearance, and has the means to correct it through surgery, I think that's a wonderful thing.

Is it counter- evolutionary to select a skinny mate at the age of 20, only to realize that they eventually turned into their mother/father? Age doesn't hit everyone well, and people change physically after their child bearing years.

MrsP, I don't disagree with you but I think I tend to be a bit more anti taking drastic measures. Thats why I said "I wish..." because I know it is unrealistic to think that everybody can learn to accept their unaltered selves happily. I think that it is important that one should feel proud/comfortable with the face they greet the world (or body) and if reducing the size of their thighs makes them feel better then I suppose for them that might be a viable choice. But I still think that the cosmetic surgery fad has gone a bit too far. People who look perfectly healthy and normal are going out and having potentially dangerous surgeries to try to fit the images they see in magazines (which are often airbrushed). I think that this is disturbing and to me it indicates a problem with our society more than necessarily the individual.

Hair removal and varicose vein treatments are relatively simple and completely understandable treatments. They are not major body alterations and pose little if any risk.

I suppose more than anything I take issue with the youth of America indulging in these treatments. But I do venture to ask what is so wrong with aging? I realize that nobody wants wrinkles, cellulite, varicose veins and an ever expanding A** but these are realities of growing older. No, I am by no means saying it is counter-evolutionary to select a skinny mate at 20 who later exhibits signs of aging. Thats exactly the opposite of what I intended to express. I think that there are biological factors involved in who we select as mates. For example: ample breasts and thighs can be a sign of fertility, altering these features alters selection for or against them. Not that that really matters very much anymore nowadays, evolution has kind of been chucked out the window now that we have modern medicine to fix so many problems.

Have you ever seen long folds of skin on the arms, legs and bellies of people who have lost a lot of weight? If they can somehow afford it, why not have surgery--beats pachyderm jokes behind their backs.

It's an individual decision. And I think that if it is merely cosmetic it should be put off until adulthood, unless a minor is having great difficulty socializing without the corrective surgery.

What's WRONG with hirsutism? You didn't mind your hubby's hairy back before he had the hair removed - not enough to put you off him, anyway. So what's the big deal?

It's bad enough that women can't leave the house without being waxed and plucked to within an inch of their lives, but now men are "supposed" to be hairless bronze statues, too.

Hopefully it's just a fad - the Romans used to get their armpits plucked at the local baths, yet we somehow managed to get back to thinking that male armpit hair wasn't the worst possible thing in the world. (Although the cycle now seems to have turned full circle, and hairless male pits are the new black).

And yes, for the record, I do have a hairy back. It's called male adulthood. I wouldn't have it waxed for the same reason I wouldn't wear a hairpeice or run joo-joo lotion on my bald head - it's the way I'm supposed to look.

But on the thread topic, I would have surgery on my nose. I've never broken it, but the older I get, the more it looks like I have done. It's getting more and more crooked, so eventually it might turn a right angle if I don't do anything. My grandfather had a similar kink in his nose, so I have an idea what it'll look like. Characterful, certainly, but still a little odd.

Beyond that, I'm not interested.

I didn't mind his back. I liked his back, but he didn't. Isn't it great he could have that corrected? When you say it's bad enough that women can't leave the house without waxing and plucking, does that mean you like hirsute women?

Plastic surgery is primarily for the recipient. A lot of the pilots in the AF have deviated septums in their nose, which hinders breathing in their oxygen masks. The airforce pays to correct that procedure, so they often have a bit of cosmetic alteration while the surgeon is 'in there' anyway. I have never been able to tell much of a difference before and after, but it seems to make them happy. That's what matters, IMO.

I disagree with plastic surgery. There are tons of flaws that I find on my body, but I refuse to go under the knife. I do see where plastic surgery can be helpful, though. If you have a horrific disfigurement of some kind, and you are emotionally effected by it, then making necessary changes is okay. And I agree with it when it is for health purposes. However, getting a boob job just because your significant other wants them to be bigger, or something along these lines, is not very valid in my opinion. Imperfection is human, and the human body is beautiful despite, or perhaps because of, that imperfection.

Not particularly - it depends more on the woman than the hair - but I don't especially like women whose bodies are completely hairless either.

It seems to me that the only humans that have totally hairless bodies are very young ones, and I find it vaguely distasteful that we are being led to believe not just that excess body hair is unattractive (which it may or may not be) but that any body hair is undesirable.

My mother got plastic surgery done about 3 months ago. I'll admit it looks good, but the reason she got it was very vain. Spending over $5000 on something that is just for "looking better, or looking younger" is very unpractical. I just think that all plastic surgery to make yourself look like something you're not is vain and unneccessary. If you were SUPPOSED to look that way, you would have. As for growing older, everyone does it, wrinkles are a part of life, and there's nothing a person can do about it. That also goes for people who were black and are now white...You were made the way you were for a reason. Why change that? *Sorry Billie Jean, I know you like Michael, but for the sake of arguement it had to be said

As far as reconstructive surgery because you were in an accident or for whatever reason is perfectly ok. They aren't doing it to "look better than normal" they are doing it to look like they did.

Plastic surgery is like many things initially positive that can go negative very quickly- a glass of wine is healthy every day, 12 a day is not LOL

My nose was pretty badly squashed from my boxing days, along with an ear, they have been nicely fixed, no one can tell the abuse I use to allow myself in the ring LOL

However, I am overwieght now, probably badly so, about 60lbs, but have no ambition to get the "stomach" surgery stuff, or liposuction. Guess I will have to bet back on my boxing workout, without all the getting hit in the face LOL

Guess I can only address the hairy body part of this. I kept my 2 chest hairs plucked until they stopped growing back. Now that one back hair is hard to reach, so it is still with me.
Plucking armpits? yuuuch...
A little bit of elective cosmetic surgery is o.k., but some have overdone it until they look pathetic. I intend to grow old gracefully. Besides, women adore me for my "personality".

Like others have stated, I personally would never have plastic surgery done for merely cosmetic reasons. But for reconstructive purposes, yes. There are things about myself that I'd like to change (namely, my boobs), but I wouldn't have surgery. I don't like the idea of paying thousands of dollars and unnecessarily going under the knife, just because I don't like something about my body. Why would I want to look like everyone else, anyway?

However, I'm still a teenager (though there are teens getting cosmetic surgery-scary!) so my opinions my change as I get older and, well, start to look older. I was talking to a woman in her late 40s who had some work done a couple of years ago (lipo and something else...) and she said that when I'm her age, I'll want plastic surgery, too. I can't imagine myself getting to that point, but you never know...

And if other people want cosmetic surgery to fix what they don't like about their body, well, that's fine with me. It's their life, I'm not going to condemn anyone for that. It's just not for me...

I have to agree on all accounts, with Jaime.

If someone does want surgery for cosmetic reasons, so be it. If it boosts a woman's self-esteem to have bigger or smaller breasts then she should go for it. If a man wants lipo to get rid of a double chin and he'll feel better about himself, he should.

why oh WHY, didn't I go to Med school!

It really makes no difference to me what someone wants to do with their physical appearance. But I cannot help but feel pity when I look at 45+ year old women,
who were obviously once very beautiful, having their faces "pulled back".
It looks like a desperate attempt to hold onto the youth that is so fleeting for
all of us.

Perhaps it is a curse to be born "beautiful". Especially for those who never felt the need to develop a personality to supplement their good looks.

As far as plastic surgery goes - I don't believe I would have anything unnatural added to my body - but I sure wouldn't mind sucking out a few fat cells here and there. Fat cells never go away on their own - they just get more full or more empty. After you build up a lot of them, even if you lose weight - the empty cells are still there. I think all costs considered - I would definately pay for a second chance to keep the weight off instead of trying to lose it and then maintain.

Call me lazy, but the healthiness one can derive from an active lifestyle are worth the money to get back to a "workable" weight.