Putting a Better Face on Surgery

Charlee and Susan want you to treat them like your best girlfriends and take their advice about cosmetic surgery, which both have undergone multiple times.

If you’ve already decided on a tummy tuck, liposuction, face lift or breast implants, this chatty book from the perky blond duo can help you select a surgeon, learn the limits of the procedures, understand the scarring, numbness and other trade-offs and handle the inevitable questions when you return to work with a new face or body.

That said, however, the girlfriends have written a blatant commercial for the procedures such as those performed by Susan’s plastic surgeon husband, Dr. Francis J. Collini, some of whose patients tell their stories here.

It’s somewhat appalling to hear the authors proclaim that cosmetic surgery may be just the self-esteem boost you need after your husband dumps you and that--if your ex isn’t paying, or you haven’t been able to press your loving husband’s guilt button--you should consider loading up your credit cards to turn yourself into the perfect woman.

The girlfriends also proclaim that face lifts are nearly painless--a blatant contradiction of first-person accounts presented in several recent books and magazines--and that “for most girlfriends, recovery from liposuction is a breeze. They are out hopping around in 48 hours.” Not so for my girlfriends, one of whom is very pleased with her now-shapely tummy and thighs but who says she never dreamed of the discomfort she’d endure--or the weeks of taking only geisha-like steps until she healed.