Dr. Nathan Miller is a board certified cosmetic surgeon and owner of OKC Lipo in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Specializing in all forms of liposuction, Dr. Miller is a member of the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgeons, American Medical Association, Texas Medical Association, and a prospective member of the American College of Surgeons. In this article, he tells us which celebrities patients ask to look like the most, and what his advice is to patients who say they hope to look like their favorite star.
Patients frequently come in asking to look more like their favorite stars. It is really common in this cosmetic surgery industry. I see trends or waves of people wanting to look like whichever celebrity happens to be the flavor of the week in pop culture.
In general, though, the most common stars that people come in asking to look like are probably Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. The guys come in here at OKC Lipo saying they want to look more like Brad Pitt, while the girls are coming into the office saying they want to have lips that look like Angelina’s.
People read Star magazine, or whatever magazine is popular that week, and they tend to see a popular celebrity and think, “I need her breasts immediately.” That’s just an example, of course, because while the celebrities change from time to time, so do the specific body parts that men and women covet. So whatever the new “in” body part might be, a lot of patients see a celebrity looking good in a magazine and they come in and visit me to ask whether I can help them look the same way.
Something that is interesting is how many women I have coming in asking to have the “JLo” booty. I do what is called the Brazilian Butt Lift, and that’s what we commonly use when people—especially a lot of Latino gals—will come in and say they want to have a butt that looks like Jennifer Lopez’s. So what I will do in those situations where I’ve been asked to do a Brazilian Butt Lift is to suck the fat from somewhere else and inject it right into my patient’s butt, believe it or not. I like to jokingly say it’s like robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Oftentimes, photos can actually be pretty helpful in giving me a general idea of what direction the patient is hoping to go, which is why I always welcome people to come in with a photo if they already have something specific in mind. However, at the same time, it is important for doctors to emphasize to patients that there is only so much we can do—we are limited so much by a person’s anatomy and the genes that he was born with.
So just because Carmen Electra has breasts that look a certain way—if you weren’t born from the same parents, then there is only so much we can do to make your cleavage look more like hers. Maybe your breasts don’t start in the same place, for example, or your overall body type of different. People tend to forget the degree to which we are limited by anatomy as doctors, even when we are using advanced techniques like liposuction.
Overall body proportions and size are important, as well. If you bring in a picture of a popular celebrity like Kate Hudson and you start telling me you would like to look like her through liposuction—well, there could be some issues. Someone like Kate Hudson, who is 5′6″ and 120 lbs, has a different structure and frame than a patient who might be closer to 5′1″ and 210 lbs—just as an example. So a patient who comes in like this saying that she wants to look like her favorite star, she might be setting herself up with unrealistic expectation of just how much we can do. In situations like that, reaching this patients goal just might not be feasible or possible.
What I like to emphasize, instead, is that we are all limited by our anatomy and the parents that we were born with. We can’t make someone who is 5′2″ look like she is 5′11″ like Cindy Crawford. So finding a cosmetic surgeon who can give his or her patients those realistic expectations is really what is going to be important in situations like this.
And while I do encourage patients to bring in photos to give us a better idea of the outcome they are trying to attain, I am also honest and frank with my patients about how realistic their goals may or may not be. I think that honesty and realism is really what patients should be looking for in a physician who’s going to be performing any type of cosmetic procedure.
The information in the article is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.
