Thanks to selfies, business is booming for plastic surgeons, makeup artists

(Image credit: iStock)

last updated 10 January 2015

It's called the "selfie economy," and it's making plastic surgeons and makeup artists very rich.

The American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery polled 2,700 of its members; 1 in 3 reported an uptick in requests for procedures by patients wanting to improve their image on social media. The survey found a 10 percent rise in rhinoplasty (aka nose jobs) in 2013 over 2012, 7 percent increase in hair transplants, and 6 percent jump in eyelid surgery.

Dr. Sam Rizk told Reuters that more and more people are coming to him asking for plastic surgery, but that he often refuses, because selfies distort actual images and the patients usually don't need the requested procedures. "We all will have something wrong with us on a selfie image," he said. "Too many selfies indicate a self-obsession and a certain level of insecurity that most teenagers have....Now they can see themselves in 100 images a day on Facebook and Instagram."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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