Shove over, Cher! Make room, Melanie! Average Americans,
not only celebs or the super-rich, believing that looking good is a vital
part of aging well, are putting their money where their (collagen-enhanced)
mouths are. In 2001, 8.5 million procedures were performed in the U.S.,
up more than 300 perfect from 1997. "Nobody wants to look old,"
says businessman Tom DeBonis, 56. "Some people never do anything
about it—and some people go for it." Now he and others on the
following pages are nipped, tucked, and talking.
Barbara Bailey Getting her eyelids fixed helped a waitress lose the glowering look that kept people away
Ask Barbara Bailey what was so bad about living with droopy
eyelids and she'll rattle off a list. For starters, "people perceived
me as unapproachable," says Bailey, "because my eyelids made
it look like I was angry a lot." Wearing eye makeup was near impossible,
since the colors got smeared by her saggy skin, while looking in the mirror
only became bearable after Bailey "developed a habit of raising my
eyebrows," she says, "I was trying to see what I wanted to see,
as opposed to what was there."
In September 2000, Bailey decided to reconcile the two visions. Having heard through a friend about Beverly Hills facial plastic surgeon Dr.Paul Nassif, Bailey, then 33, booked a consultation. "I thought she was in her mid 40-s when I first saw her," says Dr. Nassif, who recommended a two-part approach.
First, he gave her an endoscopic
brow-lift, making three small incisions (later closed with staples) at Bailey's hairline so he could elevate her eyebrows.
About 11 weeks later, after the staples had been removed, Dr. Nassif snipped away the excess skin on her upper eyelids—a delicate procedure, since Bailey's right lid was fleshier than her left. "You have to be very precise," Dr. Nassif says, "Or she'd be uneven."
Not to worry: Bailey was delighted with her eye work, which left her with only a small amount of swelling and bruising that dissapeared within a week, thanks to a combination of anti-imflammatories and ice packs. The following month, Bailey returned to Dr. Nassif for a Botox injection between her eyebrows to smooth away a crease—and she plans to repeat the procedure when the effect (which lasts on average of three to six months) wears off, as a way of preventing future wrinkles from forming. "It's always nice not to line your face if you have tom" Bailey says.
Nine months later she went back for more, plumping up her lips with permanent implants of Atrium, a soft, rubbery material that permanenetly retains its shape. "It was a little more painful than I had anticipated," Bailey says of the procedure. "But the pain lasted just the first day."
The total tab for her surgeries was $10,000, which Bailey, 35, who works as a cocktail waitress at Las Vegas's Mandalay Bay casino, admits "was a strain on the budget." But the gamble is already paying off. "I'm not sure if it's directly related to the change in my appearance or in my personality," Bailey says. "But my tips have gone up!"
