Number of black women getting cosmetic surgery on the rise

Thursday March 29, 2007 ins: Cosmetic Surgery News Tag(s):

According to the statistics provided by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), African Americans accounted for more than 760,000 cosmetic surgery procedures performed in 2005. The report also emphasized the most commonly requested procedures by African-Americans. And these are rhinoplasty (nose reshaping), liposuction, and breast reduction.

Many think that the motive behind these makeovers is to erase the broader noses and curvier silhouettes, attributes that associated with their ethnicities.

Louisiana Weekly gives more details on this.

Yet some believe that the Caucasian standard of beauty still influences African American women today. Dr. Julia Hare, psychologist and founder of the Black Think Tank, said that cosmetic surgery is the alternative to skin bleaching creams and hair straightening products that plagued African-American women throughout the 1960s who were desperate for a more Nordic look.

"Many Black women are trying to achieve the white standard of beauty because many go to get the nose pointed. Whose standard is that?" Hare said. "The person getting it may see it as a self-improvement, but when you really sit down with a therapist, then you find out where the self-hatred comes in."

According to the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the number of cosmetic and reconstructive surgery quadrupled among African Americans between 1991 and 2001. This reflects the increase in disposable income and the gradual acceptance of cosmetic surgery in the African American community.

"African American women are at a different socioeconomic status than in the past and they want to look good," Dr. Sheila Bond, a New Jersey plastic surgeon said. "They are living longer and don't want to look old if they don't have to."

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