Social media is a tricky thing. For a tool that provides so much entertainment, it can also reactivate those insecurities you swore you’d moved on from. As a Jamaican American whose nose clearly reflects my West African and Indian ancestry, the constant barrage of so-called perfect ski slope noses currently circulating my feed can teleport me back to my teenage years. My mother recently admitted that she used to gently pinch my nose as a baby with the aim of creating a more defined bridge – which she thought was beautiful.
While rhinoplasty is no longer in the top five elective plastic surgeries in the United States, rhinoplasty has not traveled far from the collective consciousness: About 350,000 surgical procedures are held every year across the country and approx 944,468 worldwide in 2022.
Plastic surgeon based in Dallas Rod J. RohrichMD, FACAS, and member of American Society of Plastic Surgeons, performs up to 300 rhinoplasty procedures each year. (That’s more than one a week for anyone counting.) While he notes that the surgery has increased interest among men, he’s also seen a decline in interest, which he attributes to people being more discerning about the cosmetic procedures they get. . “Rhinoplasty is one of the most challenging procedures we do in all plastic surgeries because it’s a surgery that goes down to the millimeter,” he says.
Surgery can be especially daunting when you consider that the change is permanent but beauty trends are not. But these days, more than ever, cultural pride is also a factor. Bella Hadid, who famously underwent the surgery at the age of 14 and is of Palestinian descent, he said Fashion last year, “I wish I had kept the nose of my ancestors…. I think I would have grown into it.” In a way, her regrets confirmed my decision to leave my nose as it is. As a child, I knew my nose wasn’t my mom’s or dad’s. it has a straight bridge that curves down to a bulbous tip that I used to dislike at certain angles. But in my 20s I realized she looked more like my great-grandmother—a woman born on a ship in the Caribbean, the daughter of Indian laborers.
For the most part, “excessive tip rhinoplasty is really gone now,” says Rohrich. Oren Tepper, MD, co-founder of Manhattan’s Greenwich Street Aesthetics, co-signs this shift away from what was previously fashionable. A study he helped publish concluded that “the ideal nasal profile varies across generations and ethnicities,” with Gen Z and millennials favoring longer, less turned-up noses. The study also noted that this preference for stronger noses “highlights a societal change and evolution of the beauty standard across generations, with an emphasis on a more natural profile.”
Correcting perceived flaws while maintaining a natural appearance is one of the main reasons social media influencers and entrepreneurs Jessica CromartieMavri finally took the plunge and got her nose done last July. “I tried liquid rhinoplasty” — when fillers are injected into the nose, usually to reshape the bridge — “about seven or eight years ago because I’ve always been afraid of nose surgery,” says Cromartie. “I never really thought about it, especially being a woman of color. Sometimes it’s harder to look more natural.”
For Cromartie, the rhinoplasty wasn’t about being bullied or thinking she wasn’t pretty. She just ended up feeling like the proportions didn’t quite match the rest of her features. “I’ve always been very confident and I don’t remember anyone saying anything about my nose growing up,” she notes. When she opened up about her process to her 151,000 Instagram followers, she faced mixed responses. Some praised her natural-looking nose that they didn’t even realize had been altered, while others accused her of trying to erase her ethnic features.
“That’s why I went to my particular doctor,” he says. “I felt it kept the national integrity of my nose. But there was definitely a lot of discussion about my videos and a lot of people were saying that I did it because I didn’t want to look black. I’m bisexual, but I still identify as a black woman.”
Cromartie’s story, like mine, proves that the road to rhinoplasty is no longer one-size-fits-all. I grew up with the idea that a nose job (or any cosmetic surgery) meant looking in the mirror and not recognizing myself. For me, now I don’t just see myself — I also see my great-grandmother. But for others it could actually mean the moment to look in the mirror and finally see yourself. And ultimately that should apply to every beauty decision – Instagram-inspired or otherwise.
This article was originally published on Vogue.com
