FASHION : Augmentation Is the Latest in Lip Service
Two years after the fad got started, full lips continue to be the talk of the trendoids. Fashion magazines are loaded with pictures of such models as Christy Turlington, Kelly LeBrock and Cindy Crawford and their colossal kissers.
The newest line at singles bars has become, “Your mouth is fabulous. Have you had implants?”
Cher’s lips have provided the latest grist for the gossip mills. After her appearance on the Music Video Awards there was a flurry of speculation: Was her new mouth made with pounds of lip gloss or surgically injected collagen?
And on the big screen, such stars as Kim Basinger, Michelle Pfeiffer and Julia Roberts continue to be big box-office draws as both men and women drool over their killer-bee-stung pouts.
Increasing numbers of admiring women want to imitate the look that, for some celebrities at least, is natural. And plastic surgeons, who called it a fad two years ago, are reporting two and three times the requests for “lip service” (the new slang for what doctors call lip augmentation).
In this procedure, the lips are temporarily plumped using injectable substances such as liquid collagen or fat that has been removed from the patient’s thighs, stomach or derriere by liposuction.
According to Dr. Norman Leaf, a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon often linked to celebrity clients, at least 16 injections must be made directly into the lips to achieve the proper fullness. Some doctors ask patients to return two or three times for follow-up injections to perfect the mouth’s contours.
And yes, it hurts.
“The lips are one of the most sensitive parts of the body. Imagine sticking a pin deep into your lips several times,” he cautions. Doctors typically numb the area before the injections, but the needle still stings, says Leaf.
Although patients are warned that attaining this fashionable power mouth is not only painful, it’s temporary (most doctors say collagen treatments last about two months), they’re more than willing to pay $700 to $1,000 to have it done. Indeed, some women admit to becoming “addicted” to augmentation once they’ve seen themselves with luscious lips.
One is Joanne Fradkin, owner of Pigments, the makeup studio in Beverly Hills’ Menage a Trois hair salon. “I had good lips to begin with,” Fradkin admits. “But once they were bigger, I loved the way I looked. I had them done six times last year. Now I’ve let them go back to normal because the expense brought me back to my senses. I’m happy to have my normal mouth back. Now I stick to making it look bigger with lipstick.”
Dancer Donnlynn Bennett, who considers her own lips to be too thin, had her first collagen injections last May and a second treatment in August. “It’s not that you wake up one morning without full lips,” she says. “The fullness fades away.”
Why the obsession? Most doctors who perform the procedure and patients who have it done say that the results are startlingly youthful and sexy.
“As people age, the lips lose their fullness,” says Dr. Lawrence Koplin, the plastic surgeon who injected then 40-year-old actress Barbara Hershey’s lips for her role in the 1988 film, “Beaches.” “Replacing that fullness immediately makes a person looks younger.” These days Koplin routinely performs lip augmentation as part of a face lift “to complete facial rejuvenation.”
But that doesn’t explain why the under-40 set--and even teen-agers--are lining up at doctors’ offices for lip service.
“They equate the look with sexiness,” says Dr. Raj Kanodia, a cosmetic surgeon who performs as many as 15 lip augmentations each week. “Young models and actresses come in the day before a photo shoot because they feel fuller lips help create their most appealing look.”
European models, both men and women, have become such enthusiastic supporters of collagen enhancement that a French plastic surgeon has developed a new collagen insertion procedure called “The Paris Lip” that enhances the Cupid’s bow area of the top lip.
Kanodia notes that he has also augmented the lips of about 50 men over the last year. They aren’t coming in to get a Mick Jagger or Garry Shandling look, however.
“Many men are concerned with very thin lips, the kind that curl under when they smile,” Kanodia explains. “They just want to look like other people who have normal lips.”
Doctors warn that trouble can follow lip augmentation. Because of the extreme vascularity of the lips, bruising can result in one out of 100 cases, Kanodia estimates.
But will kisses still feel the same? The doctors are unanimous. “My patients say there’s no problem,” says Kanodia. “No change in the sensation,” says Leaf. “Kisses are just like they were before, only bigger,” concludes Koplin.
