Plastic surgeons note that major cosmetic procedures are often accompanied by subtle, hard-to-place changes in appearance.
These can show up as refined facial features, like a slimmer nose or stretched earlobes, or even in indirect ways, such as a noticeably different hairstyle or a newly grown-out beard.
Experts divulged how one can identify whether a co-worker is a natural beauty or not, sharing the most egregious celebrity examples along the way.
Highlights
- Subtle changes like stretched earlobes, hidden scars, or grown-out facial hair can hint at procedures like face and neck lifts.
- Surgeons pointed out Nicole Kidman, Demi Moore, Tom Brady, and Anne Hathaway as some of the most notorious examples.
- While experts outlined telltale signs, netizens remained divided on whether noticing and pointing out a co-worker’s appearance enhancement is appropriate.
“You could always ask them instead of staring to find something out,” a netizen said, while another asked, “Why do all these people skirt away from saying they’ve had work done?”
Plastic surgeons have revealed what signs point towards a face and neck lift
Image credits: Nancy Pelosi/Wikimedia / Michael Tullberg/Getty Images
According to Dr. Norman Rowe, a plastic surgeon at Rowe Plastic Surgery in New Jersey, a detail known as a pixie or bat ear is a telltale sign that someone went under the knife.
The condition refers to the earlobes appearing unnaturally stretched, and is usually a “result of a facelift, neck lift, or both,” as surgeons put excessive pressure on the body part when making an incision, which can make it elongated, the expert told Daily Mail.
Image credits: David Crotty/Getty Images
Other surgeons who spoke with the publication speculated that Nicole Kidman could have had a facelift due to her pixie ears.
Similarly, Demi Moore was named as another celebrity with pixie ears despite the actress having denied plastic surgery rumors.
About 131,000 Americans get a facelift every year, surgeons told the outlet.
Image credits: Michael Owens/Getty Images
Neck lifts, meanwhile, are performed 160,000 times per year.
Dr. Sean McNally, a plastic surgeon at the Oregon Clinic in Portland, Oregon, claimed scarring near the ear could also reveal who has had these procedures.
“For facelifts, the incisions typically run around the ear. The ones in front of the ear can heal so well it’s hard to tell, but the ones behind the ear are usually more visible,” he said.
According to Dr. Rowe, if your co-worker is suddenly wearing her hair down for the first time in months, she may be hiding these very scars.
“I see it all the time with my patients if they’re one, two, or three weeks post-op,” he said, adding that men try to hide the incisions by growing out their facial hair.
Image credits: Pixel-Shot/Adobe Stock (Not the actual photo)
A sign of them having had a facelift or a neck lift is also the one-inch gap between the end of their sideburns and beard closing up, per Dr. Christopher Costa, founder of Platinum Plastic Surgery in Las Vegas.
A person’s skin being pulled back would naturally contribute to the beard moving upwards, he underlined.
Actor Tom Brady was singled out as an example of this among male Hollywood celebrities.
Flawless skin is often the result of more than just skincare
Image credits: alexandralouise__/Instagram
A 10-step skincare routine is considered standard practice in contemporary beauty culture.
While it might help a person fight signs of aging and damage caused by recurring acne or any other complications, it cannot make the skin appear porcelain, experts claim.
According to Dr. Christopher Costa, “glass skin” is likely a combination of laser resurfacing, chemical peels, and Botox.
Image credits: alexandralouise__/Instagram
In laser resurfacing, a light beam is used to destroy the outer layer of skin and heat the underlying layer. This stimulates collagen, a protein that is responsible for skin firmness.
Love Island UK star Alexandra Cane confirmed she got this done in 2019.
A chemical peel, meanwhile, uses chemical solutions rather than lasers to remove the top layer of the skin.
Depending on what method one opts for, these efforts can help one get rid of wrinkles, uneven skin tone, dryness, and more, thus contributing to more youthful-looking skin.
While some nose jobs are pretty obvious, sometimes one has to look a little closer for subtle signs
Also known as rhinoplasty, the operation changes the size and shape of the nose.
The surgery typically involves making the nose smaller by removing some of the cartilage and bone, or making it larger by adding cartilage from the ears and sometimes bone from the hips, elbow, or skull.
Dr. Costa explained that a narrow nose is often a sign of a recent procedure.
Image credits: Lee jeong woo
“You see it go from a slightly more plunging bulbous tip with a wider bridge to having a much more defined contour and thinner bridge. That’s the leading sign of rhinoplasty,” he said.
Botox can also subtly show up around the nose.
Bunny lines, the creases that form along the sides of the nose when someone laughs or squints, are often treated with injections, which means a noticeable softening or lack of presence of them confirms Botox use.
Netizen reactions to plastic surgeons sharing how to detect procedures in co-workers were divided
“Whoever is concerned with their co-workers’ personal preferences needs to do more than just get a life,” one said.
“People are free to spend their money and do what they want to do,” argued another.
“It is no one else’s business what people do as long as they don’t hurt anybody,” asserted a third.
A critic of plastic surgery, meanwhile, claimed that spotting “alien-looking” individuals in offices is enough to tell they’ve had work done.
Another voiced they don’t support enhanced appearances, as they “often contribute to a person’s annoying personality.”
A third labeled those who opt for plastic surgery “shallow narcissists.”
One even took offense at people having “veneer teeth.”
Social media users kept debating the pros and cons of plastic surgeries
