Words by Andrew Mackay, a medical researcher and health expert at qunomedical.com. He covers a number of healthcare related topics and closely follows new trends within the industry.
2020 has been unprecedented. As we all worked hard to make it through lockdown, you may not have thought it would be the best time to undergo a plastic surgery procedure, but the truth is, plastic surgery demand soared during lockdown in the UK. And this was especially the case among celebrities, with Jimmy Carr and Katie Price just some of the names opening about their treatments.
Whether it be nose jobs, breast augmentations, or hair transplants, interest in cosmetic surgery is booming this year, which followed on from the increased demand throughout 2019. That being said, why did lockdown specifically bring about an even greater increase in the number of celebrities undergoing some kind of plastic surgery procedure? We’ve looked into a few of the main explanations behind this surprising surge.
Staying out of the spotlight
One of the main – and arguably most common – reasons that has contributed to the recent plastic surgery boom amongst celebrities is the nature of lockdown itself. With all of us stuck at home, media coverage, and general celebrity gossip, decreased. This in turn allowed celebrities who usually spend time in the spotlight to undergo treatments without having to face the usual media frenzy.
Any celebrity who underwent a cosmetic treatment was then able to spend time recovering and recuperating away from the glaring public eye. This can be especially important when it comes to plastic surgery as procedures such as a nose job or hair restoration surgery require the wearing of dressings and bandages during the initial recovery phase. More time on their hands to recover combined with a lack of peering public eyes could have been the encouraging factor that pushed many celebrities towards cosmetic surgery during this time.
Time on their hands
Lockdown meant that we all had to spend a lot more time at home and, for many of us, this meant that we had quite a bit of extra time to fill. For celebrities who had already been considering some kind of cosmetic surgery prior to the pandemic, this newly created free time gave them the opportunity to spend more hours both thinking about and researching the topic.
Undergoing a plastic surgery procedure is a significant decision. It’s certainly plausible that many had been thinking about it for a while, but hadn’t yet found the time to consider it carefully enough or to carry out the necessary research, especially with busy schedules which, thanks to lockdown, were freed up.
The ‘Zoom’ effect
The ‘Zoom’ Effect, covers the whole range of video-conferencing tools that took off during the times of lockdown. With real, face-to-face human contact out of the question, video-conferencing tools like Zoom became a daily part of our lives. While it’s your friends that are typically displayed as the big thumbnails, with your feed as a small one in the top corner of the screen, it’s hard not to keep looking up at your own face.
Celebrities weren’t exempt from this. The effects of frequently seeing themselves on camera at undesirable angles or lighting shades might have been what got a few celebrities thinking. It was even reported that people were beginning to notice lines that they’d never seen before, or facial features that sat at angles they weren’t happy with. This was certainly a strong contributing factor to the rise of plastic surgery amongst the general public and it stands to reason that celebrities would have been affected as well.
Notable cases
Now that we have some ideas that can be used to explain the recent plastic surgery celebrity boom, you might be wondering exactly who was involved in this. Well, there are a few prominent figures who were at the forefront of the cosmetic industry’s lockdown surge.
First on the list is the well-known comedian Jimmy Carr. He revealed that he had used his spare time during lockdown to have both a hair transplant and a teeth whitening treatment. Not someone you would consider to be shy, Jimmy Carr lived up to this reputation by revealing details of his cosmetic surgery journey live on TV.
A bit later in the year, Katie Price shocked the internet and social media by revealing her pre-veneer teeth as she was in the process of getting another set of veneers fitted. While it shocked many that Katie had used the lockdown time to arrange this cosmetic surgery, it also resulted in a spike of interest in the treatment.
Continued trends
As we’ve now moved out of lockdown in the UK (sort of), you might think that plastic surgery interest has faded slightly, however, this hasn’t happened. Google searches for all things cosmetic surgery-related are still on the up and we’re sure that it won’t be long before the next celebrity name comes out to reveal what lockdown treatment they had done.
