Why so many people, including the Kardashians, have plastic surgery regret

For all the things the Kardashian family has spruiked over the years – and there have been a lot – the narrative that not a single one of Kris Jenner’s prolifically famous daughters has ever had plastic surgery is surely among their hardest sells.

Despite sporting markedly different faces and bodies to those that first emerged into our collective consciousness 15 years ago with the first season of their reality show Keeping Up with the Kardashians, the five sisters have repeatedly sworn over the years that their shifting shapes are simply the work of optical makeup illusions, gym workouts and, in the instance of Kylie Jenner, temporary lip filler.

Kylie Jenner has declared it. Facial fillers are over.Credit: Dionne Gain

But as beauty ideals shift away from the once-coveted curvaceous Kardashian look, the sisters of Calabasas are now facing yet another round of questioning about recent changes to their physical appearances that appear to be more in line with the return of the heroin-chic aesthetic.

Stepping out at the Met Gala on Tuesday, photos of Kim Kardashian’s gown were quickly compared with her famous 2007 Playboy shoot where the most noticeable differences between the two images weren’t how she’s aged (or rather hasn’t aged) but the vastly noticeable difference in her facial features.

So have major surgeries become just another fashion trend for the rich and famous?

Dr Gemma Sharp, an associate professor and clinical psychologist at Monash University who specialises in researching body image, says there’s a social currency in denying the truth and gaslighting people into believing what they’re seeing isn’t totally real.

“Celebrities want to keep their status and if they tell you their secrets, how do they then differentiate themselves from other people? The Kardashians are the classic example of this, they really don’t tell us much,” she says, adding that the growing number of celebrities undergoing surgery but putting it down to makeup or going through puberty is having an eroding impact on people’s self-esteem.

“The ‘before and after’ photo phenomenon is something every patient I’ve ever interviewed has talked about; they are extremely powerful in people’s decision-making,” she says. “Everyone has been through puberty and of course, we don’t have those kinds of transformations that someone like Ariana Grande has when she said she went through puberty, but if you were expecting it to happen to you and it doesn’t, you’re still going to still want your own glow-up and will then do what is needed to get it.”

Dr Tim Edwards, President of the Australasian Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, agrees, saying that while the link between trending beauty aesthetics and plastic surgery is nothing new (think 1970s Charlie’s Angels-era button noses and the early 2000s overt breast augmentations a la Victoria Beckham), social media and our direct access to celebrities has turbo-charged the situation.

“What has made plastic surgeries more accessible is undoubtedly social media,” he says, cautioning that while lesser procedures like botox and fillers, which were responsible for the recent ‘trout pout’ trend, are temporary, “a surgical procedure is permanent and once you’ve had that done you can rarely go back.”

In addition to the high cost of plastic surgery, there are also the recovery time and long-term risks associated with any surgery to consider. If you’re a billionaire or multi-millionaire as Kourtney, Kim, Khloe, Kendall or Kylie are, taking a few weeks out to rest while a bevvy of nannies, cleaners, cooks and personal assistants keep things running is completely viable. For everyone else, though, this new norm poses alarming risks.

“A lot of people can now quite easily get major work done but in a way that they perceive to be quite a minor thing because normalisation around cosmetic procedures has increased so dramatically,” Sharp says, adding that another rarely talked-about risk is post-operative disappointment.

“What I hear most commonly when speaking with people after their plastic surgery is unmet expectations. They thought this was going to mean that they’d be more comfortable in their skin or attract a partner or improve their job prospects and those expectations haven’t been met.”

This kind of buyer’s remorse of body modification is something set to feature on season three of The Kardashians, with a teaser released this week showing Kylie Jenner admitting, “I wish I never touched anything to begin with.”

In the same trailer, Kylie tells her older sisters: “All of us just need to have a bigger conversation about the beauty standards that we’re setting,” before adding, “I don’t want my daughter to do the things I did.”

Kim Kardashian, Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner at the Met Gala.Credit: Getty

The sentiment is shared by Kylie’s close friend and A-list model Bella Hadid, who has gone on the record admitting she regrets having rhinoplasty at age 14 to fit in with Western beauty standards.

“I wish I had kept the nose of my ancestors,” the Dutch-Palestinian model told Vogue in 2022, adding, “I think I would have grown into it.”

Having practised for 30 years, Edwards says people need to “think long and hard about what it is they want to achieve” when it comes to undergoing any cosmetic surgery. “The vast majority of people have positive experiences and achieve their desired outcomes through surgery. But if people are thinking of getting surgery to fit in with what is a very transient trend I would argue against it.”

This far down the line, though, and with the rise in social media accounts like Celeb Face that exist solely to compare before and after images of famous faces, would celebrities finally conceding to having work done actually stem the surgery tide?

Sharp says while disclosures might not allow us fully reverse course, more honesty would allow people to make more informed decisions when it comes to their own surgeries.

“For celebrities, there’s always the fear that they will be judged and trolled if they do admit to having surgery. But at a community level, it can be really reassuring to know they have had some kind of cosmetic intervention.”

As the age of the Brazilian Butt Lift ends and the buccal fat removal and chin sculpting era begins, maybe now is the time to draw a close to keeping up with the Kardashians.

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