Women Reject the Knife, Get a Lift From Mature Faces
It had to happen sooner or later. Turnabout, it would seem, is fair play. In this, the land of the lift, where more cosmetic surgery procedures are performed than in any other region of the country, a small but vocal group of women is rejecting the knife, even though their faces aren’t exactly what they used to be.
They are looking in the mirror and saying, “Love me, love my lines.”
If it sounds like an insurrection, it is. Many of these women say they are tired of looking at women who have had one too many face lifts, with skin pulled so taut that their eyes are wide open, their smiles forced and their eyebrows raised to mid-forehead.
Some call it the “Bistro Garden look,” after the Beverly Hills restaurant famed not only for its food and ambience but also for its numerous patrons with obviously resculpted faces. Others call it the “wind-tunnel look,” as if gale-force winds are blowing all expression from the face.
The women who are rebelling are the very ones who might otherwise fit the cosmetic surgery patient stereotype: They’re over 40, their friends or colleagues are going under the knife, they have high-visibility jobs, they’ve even thought about having surgery at one time or another.
(And contrary to popular belief, they aren’t necessarily rich. According to the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, 30% of people who have elective cosmetic surgery have combined family incomes of less than $25,000 a year.)
In other words, these women have felt the pressure to look younger. They could easily have been, according to new statistics from the surgeons’ society, one of the 48,740 American people who had face lifts in 1990, the 79,110 who had their eyes lifted or the 89,400 women who had their breasts augmented. After all, 19% of all those surgeries were performed in California, compared to 8% in New York.
But they are not. They’ve decided to just, well, say no.
As the population matures, signs of age may not be as threatening as they once were--at least for some folks. The newest surgeons’ society statistics indicate that only breast surgery and chemical peels showed dramatic increases recently. Although the number of face lifts performed in 1990 increased by 25% over the number in 1981, it increased by only .5% over the number in 1988.
These Southern California women who are rejecting cosmetic surgery say they would rather age gracefully, accept the changes and make the best of their appearance.
Judith Szyf, who works in the Los Angeles office of the French Trade Commission, admits that she once contemplated cosmetic surgery, but rejected it. Pleased that she elected the natural route, 53-year-old Szyf is adamant: “Now I would never even consider surgery. There’s something very distressing about such interference with nature.
“My friends and I never discuss it; we accept ourselves the way we are,” says Szyf. “I don’t have any close friends who have had surgery, but I’m aware of the tremendous pressure here in the United States. It is much greater here than in Europe.”
Marge Sasaki, 61, says her work as a secretary in a private Brentwood school has made her conscious of the numbers of women who have surgery. “I feel very comfortable that I don’t have to keep up with the Joneses,” she says. “I get my hair done weekly, dress neatly and try to look my very best. I just started to color my hair to cover my gray, but I think it’s ridiculous when women start trying to look 20 years younger than they are.”
Sabra Lande, a woman “over 40,” says she’s “proud of my expression lines” and that she has never considered surgery. As president of Giorgio Beverly Hills retail stores, she’s in a field where appearance is of constant concern. But she doesn’t let the pressure of the fashion and beauty industry sway her. “I’ve got good genes--my mother is beautiful at 84--and I’m just going to trust nature. Plus I’m a sissy when it comes to the knife.”
Some men are as opposed to cosmetic surgery as women. Fred Hayman, a Beverly Hills retailer and perfume manufacturer, says the attempts to look younger are usually failures. “Young women look entirely different than women who have had plastic surgery,” he says. “I’d much rather look at a wrinkled but natural 55-year-old than at a 55-year-old who has had surgeries. Natural maturity is very sexy.”
Even some plastic surgeons balk at the number of women who believe resculpting is necessary. “I think this backlash is a healthy thing,” says Dr. Norman Leaf, a Beverly Hills plastic and reconstructive surgeon. “There are women here who are so obsessed with their appearances that they’ve overdone everything about their appearances, including surgery. Their looks suffer for it.”
Leaf points out that some women’s careers are dependent on looking beautiful, especially in Los Angeles, and that for others, aesthetic surgery would be deleterious to their image. “I can’t image Barbara Bush having plastic surgery any more than I can imagine Liz Taylor not having it,” Leaf says. “Miss Taylor has a career based on her looks; her fans expect her to look perfect. Mrs. Bush has a career based on her intelligence and her seriousness. Her public doesn’t care about wrinkles and silver hair.”
The artificial look that can result from surgery may be the greatest deterrent. Beauty specialist Kathryn Klinger, president of the Georgette Klinger skin care salons, says that few women retain the determining signs of youth after surgery. “When the skin is pulled taut, the natural fat pads that plump young people’s skin are missing. Their chins get very severe, again because there’s no padding. And, of course, the character lines that soften an aging woman’s look are gone.” Klinger, 41, says she has no intention of having surgery. “People do it way too soon and way too often; I find the whole look very annoying.”
Some women who don’t get surgery rely on facials to keep their skin looking fresh. At the Ole Henriksen facial salon on Sunset Boulevard, Henriksen notes that 80% of his clients have not had surgery. “That’s not because a facial is a substitute for surgery; it isn’t. But if a person doesn’t want surgery, they want their skin to look its best, whether or not it has age lines, so they keep it clean and stimulated.”
At Vera’s Retreat in the Glen in Bel-Air, many facial clients pay $45 for weekly treatments in which a machine cleanses and exfoliates and stimulates the facial circulation with concentrated electrical energy.
Actress Connie Stevens entered the cosmetics business two years ago selling skin-care products and a hand-held battery-powered facial toning machine. More than 200,000 have been sold via mail-order.
To date, the Food and Drug Administration has not approved any form of electrical muscle stimulation machines for use as wrinkle reducers. “As far as the FDA is concerned, they don’t work,” says Susan Chuzan, a spokesperson in the agency’s office in Rockville, Md.
Other alternatives to surgery include deep-muscle massage facials, like those administered at Louise Bianco Skin Care in Westwood, and acupuncture “face lifts,” a procedure in which needles are placed in the face to stimulate the muscles and blood flow.
Every year at least 100 women head for Columbia Stage and Screen Cosmetics in Hollywood, where they pay $8, $29 or $40 for “instant” face lifts instead of $5,000 to $20,000 for the surgical version. The contraptions used there include tabs that glue to the face in front of the ear and attach to elastic bands that are strapped across the top of the head and hidden in the hair. The face is pulled up, and some women wear it every day. But for most, “it’s just for special occasions,” says Doris Butler, owner of the shop.
Most women who are saying no to surgery find these alternative procedures unnecessary too. A cleansing facial, yes. But elastic bands, acupuncture needles or electric stimulation? Most, like Dr. Jesse Hanley, say ‘no way.’
“I want to enjoy and nurture the beauty of my aging,” says Hanley, a Malibu family practitioner. At 43, Hanley admits she sometimes contemplates surgery. “But no, I won’t do it. I believe that if you’re at peace with yourself, you’ll grow old with a peaceful face.”
