The Dramatic Ways Plastic Surgery Has Changed Over the Past Century
Plastic surgery procedures have gone from being taboo to documented all over Instagram.
Haiken called the 1960s “the era of bralessness.” It’s only fitting, then, that in 1962, a woman named Timmie Jean Lindsey became the first person to get silicone breast implants. The Texan mother of six went to the Jefferson Davis Hospital in Houston to remove a tattoo on her breasts when the doctors asked if she would be a volunteer for the first-time operation. Timmie Jean said she’d rather get her ears pinned back to make them look smaller. “And they said, ‘Oh, we’ll do that too,’” she told the BBC. In two hours, Timmie Jean increased one cup size, from a B to a C cup. “They felt soft and just like real breasts,” she said. “I don’t think I got the full results of them until I went out in public and men on the street would whistle at me.”. Getty Images
Plastic surgery has changed dramatically since the age of paraffin fillers and facelifts that left expressions frozen. In fact, now you can go get non-surgical nose jobs during your lunch break and head right back to work. With the help of Elizabeth Haiken, the author of Venus Envy: A History of Cosmetic Surgery, we took a look back at some of the very first nips and tucks in the US. Getty Images 
In the early 1900s, one of the most pressing beauty concerns was how to fix a saddle nose, a collapsed bridge that usually came as a result of syphilis, Haiken wrote in Plastic Surgery and American Beauty at 1921. The solution? Paraffin wax injected into the bridge. Besides fixing noses, the wax was used to fill out fine lines and—allegedly—women’s breasts. However, by 1920, doctors stopped using it because they realized it could cause cancer. Paraffin was also much harder to remove than it was to inject, and removal led to severe scarring. Getty Images 
Jacques Joseph earned his title as the “Father of Modern Aesthetic Surgery” for his innovation in nose jobs. By the end of World War I in 1918, Joseph was known in Berlin as “Nasen-Joseph,” or Nose-Joseph. He used an open rhinoplasty technique, which means he cut into the flesh between his patient’s nostrils and made additional incisions inside the nose. This technique continues to be practiced today. He also developed new surgical tools you can still find in any surgeon’s office, such as the Joseph elevator, a curved blade that allows for maximum precision in nose jobs. Plus, Joseph was one of the first to advocate for plastic surgery as a means to boost patients’ self-esteem, not just as a medical necessity for reconstruction. Getty Images 
In 1924, Charles C. Miller republished his 1907 textbook, Cosmetic Surgery: The Correction of Featural Imperfections, and soon began writing his own medical journal. In his book, Miller introduced a technique to get rid of undereye bags and wrinkles by making a small incision on the lower lashline and cutting away at the tissue beneath the eye. Now, of course, surgeons take a much less invasive route to smoothing undereyes by injecting fillers in the cheeks or tear trough (the hollow area underneath the eyes). Getty Images 
Silent film star Mary Pickford was one of the first people to get a facelift, or a rhytidectomy, in the 1930s. With the onset of talkies, she hoped the procedure would make her look younger and open her up to more roles. Unfortunately, it left her unable to make any facial expression at all and out of work. Until the 1970s, facelifts were performed by making a small cut at the ear, pulling the skin back and trimming off the excess. This totally ignored the underlying muscle and fat, and made patients look like they were walking through a perennial wind tunnel. Getty Images 
In the 1940s and ‘50s, more celebrities started going under the knife to match European beauty ideals. The most notable examples were actress Rita Hayworth, whose father was from Spain, and Portuguese-born Brazillian singer Carmen Miranda. Rita underwent electrolysis hair removal to raise her hairline, dyed her dark hair red and bleached her tan skin. Carmen had rhinoplasty to make her nose look thinner. Both women changed their names to be more American too—Carmen was born Maria de Carmo Miranda de Cunho, and Rita’s real name was Margarita Carmen Cansino. Getty Images 
Haiken called the 1960s “the era of bralessness.” It’s only fitting, then, that in 1962, a woman named Timmie Jean Lindsey became the first person to get silicone breast implants. The Texan mother of six went to the Jefferson Davis Hospital in Houston to remove a tattoo on her breasts when the doctors asked if she would be a volunteer for the first-time operation. Timmie Jean said she’d rather get her ears pinned back to make them look smaller. “And they said, ‘Oh, we’ll do that too,’” she told the BBC. In two hours, Timmie Jean increased one cup size, from a B to a C cup. “They felt soft and just like real breasts,” she said. “I don’t think I got the full results of them until I went out in public and men on the street would whistle at me.” Getty Images 
In the early 1970s, French surgeon Paul Tessier, M.D., invented a new method for performing facelifts by working on the SMAS, or the superficial muscular aponeurotic system. Using this technique, Dr. Tessier cut away excess skin, fat and muscle to decrease sagging cheeks and jowls. The incision started at the hairline rather than the ears. The SMAS facelift helped patients achieve longer-lasting and more natural results than the rhytidectomy of the past. Getty Images 
By the 1980s, more people started getting plastic surgery below the neck for a “whole-body makeover,” Haiken said. This included liposuction, which was revolutionized in 1986 by California dermatologist Jeffrey Klein, M.D. Before Dr. Klein’s tumescent lidocaine anesthesia method, patients had to go under general anesthesia for liposuction. They lost a lot of blood, and the procedure required at least two weeks of downtime. TLA lipo uses epinephrine and lidocaine injections to reduce bruising and blood loss. And according to Dr. Klein’s website, patients are fully conscious during TLA lipo and can typically return to work in one or two days. Getty Images 
Botox was first approved to freeze the muscles that trigger crossed eyes and eye spasms in 1989. Soon, Vancouver-based ophthalmologist Jean Carruthers, M.D, and her dermatologist husband, Alistair Carruthers, realized the drug could be used in the same way to stop wrinkles from forming. By 1997, Botox was so popular, the US ran out of its supply completely. “We had patients calling up in a white-hot panic, saying, ‘Doc, can you set some aside for me for six months from now?’” New York dermatologist Bruce Katz, M.D., told The New York Times. Getty Images 
Do you remember the ultra low-rise jeans of the early 2000s? Between 2000 and 2009, tummy tucks went up by 84%, eclipsing nose jobs as one of the top five surgical procedures in the US. Breast implants also became significantly more popular, earning the No. 1 spot in top plastic surgery procedures from 2006 to 2018, according to the latest report from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Getty Images 
The instant gratification and hundreds of beautiful, seemingly identical faces we’ve seen since Instagram’s launch in October 2010 brought forth a surge of lip plumpers and butt implants. Butt augmentations increased in popularity by 28 percent from 2006 to 2015, mostly thanks to Kim Kardashian’s voluptuous figure. Lip implants and injectables have also risen steadily each year, with a 5 percent increase between 2017 and 2018, largely because of Kim’s little sister, Kylie Jenner. The latest trend in aesthetic procedures? Brow lifts, to achieve the narrow, lifted eye look shared by models Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner, another of Kim’s little sisters. Some young women are achieving a DIY version of the look with the #FoxEyeChallenge, which has garnered 7.6 million views on TikTok in a single week in February 2020. In the challenge, teens shave off the last quarter of the brow (the part that slopes down toward the outer eye) and draw a new tail straight across. It’s not permanent, but it is much more affordable. Getty Images
