2 weeks ago
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Denise Richards has blown away the internet by revealing – in a joint post with her plastic surgeon – the results of her recent facelift.
Few can believe how much the ‘after’ picture looks as though Richards time-traveled to the early 2000s and returned with her own face in Scary Movie 3 as a souvenir.
More interesting than the attention the post is generally getting is the huge number of people specifically hailing it as a feminist victory.
‘At last, a famous woman has admitted that looking improbably youthful at 55 is not simply a matter of green juice, Pilates, and reading Glennon Doyle books,’ everyone seems to be screaming in unison from beneath their Amazon red light masks as they drip snail mucin onto their keyboards.
And that faction has had plenty to rejoice about lately. As Mr Adrian Richards, renowned Plastic Surgeon at iQonic Aesthetics told Metro: ‘There has definitely been a shift in how celebrities and influencers discuss their plastic surgery or tweakments in recent years.
‘20 years ago, it would have been nearly unheard of for celebrities to discuss exactly what they have had done, nevermind telling their online following who their surgeon was or their exact specifications, like what we’ve recently seen with Kylie Jenner posting about her breast augmentation procedure.’
But calling this a victory for transparency feels a little too flattering, not least because celebrity candour about cosmetic surgery now so often arrives wrapped in branding and with just a whiff of wealth signalling.
Transparency is often framed as the antidote to beauty culture’s deceptions: if celebrities would just admit what they have had done, women would no longer be misled into comparing themselves to a fantasy. There is some truth in that.
But transparency under current conditions is not a public service announcement but rather, increasingly, a luxury marketing strategy and, even, a brand new level of difficulty in the relentless competition between women to become – and remain – as youthful and desirable as possible.
It used to be that, at a certain age or stage of self-development, a woman could throw her hands up and say, ‘I’ve tried as long as I can! I quit! No more bleaching, plucking, dewrinkling, curling, cutting, coloring, plumping, firming. I will now simply…be.’ and she could take herself out of the competition, realising her available options had simply been exhausted, and no amount of money could buy her more beauty or youth.
In an unfair, patriarchal society, did this often mean suddenly becoming invisible in the specific way aging women are subjected to? Yes. Did it also come with some measure of relief and the opportunity to finally water other parts of her proverbial garden? Also yes.
But now, it seems a woman is only limited by money, meaning that access to endless youth and beauty is yet another thing separating the ultra-rich from the rest of us, and women are no longer ever truly out of options.
Many sources have estimated that a procedure as comprehensive as the one the Wild Things actress had done could cost as much as $250,000 (£186,773).
Dr Paul Banwell, an aesthetics doctor and consultant plastic surgeon, is clear that what the public is looking at is not some modest tweak.
He says: ‘In terms of cost, a face and neck lift in the US might sit anywhere between $30,000 and $250,000 depending on the experience and location of the surgeon and the level of complexity.’
Mr Adrian Richards, renowned Plastic Surgeon at iQonic Aesthetics, has an even more costly estimate.
‘Based on social media posts and looking at before and after imagery, she most likely had a deep plane facelift, facial rejuvenation techniques such as PRP (PHAT Skin™️technique was reported in the surgeon’s social media post), possibly alongside a temporal brow lift, upper blepharoplasty, and Botox.
‘Because she has had a comprehensive mix of procedures that are not public knowledge, what exact procedures she has had and pricing can only be speculation. From my understanding, top surgeons in the US may charge over $500,000 per facelift, so I would imagine it would be over this.’
Richards may have told the truth, but the truth she has helped circulate is still selling something hugely inaccessible to the average person.
One user on Reddit, reeling at the possible price tag for a procedure like Richards,’ wrote: ‘Guess I have to hope my retinol comes thru for me.’
In response, another user pointed out an underdiscussed aspect of the rise in plastic surgery ‘transparency.’ They wrote in the thread: ‘It’s very likely she didn’t pay that much. This is a newer surgical technique and surgeons will often deeply discount if you agree to take and share before/afters for their portfolios. And she’s a celeb so I bet she got an even bigger discount.’
Amish Patel, BEM, Leading Aesthetics Trainer, Award-Winning Aesthetics Practitioner & Skincare Expert at Intrigue Cosmetic Clinic told Metro that this is very possible: ‘Free treatments usually come with the expectation that the celebrity will promote the brand/practitioner/clinic.’
While we don’t know if Richards was given a discounted rate for the procedure (She told Allure, ‘I went back and forth about whether I was going to say anything about my facelift…But I would want to know what other women are doing.’), it’s certainly happening across the internet, with many influencers being open about the transaction.
And if you had any doubts that – like most things – plastic surgery is about money, just look at the reverent sales pitch accompanying the photos of Richards’ facelift.
Her surgeon, Ben Talei, did not merely present a medical procedure when he posted the before-and-after pictures on Instagram; he unveiled a luxury refurbishment, complete with a caption so breathless and full of buzz words it read like a love letter written by a marketing department collectively trying Adderall for the first time.
Richards was described not as a woman who had chosen surgery, but as a masterpiece restored to its rightful glory, down to the reorganisation of eyebrow hairs and the improved condition of her earlobes. She was written about as if she were a piece of antique furniture.
He said, in part: ‘It was an incredible pleasure and honor to be trusted with her restoration and more importantly, the preservation of her character and beauty.’
Aging is being treated less and less as a neutral fact of life, or even as a personal insecurity, but as a kind of aesthetic disrepair. Richards, in this telling, has not simply had work done; she has been corrected.
Essentially, we have not escaped artifice but simply made it more expensive and more discreet, and in masquerading advertising as ‘transparency’, we have allowed adherence to unfair beauty standards and rampant ageism to hide behind a facade of ‘empowerment.’
And there it is: the thing that punctures the fantasy of democratised beauty. Posts like Richards’ are not honesty that levels the playing field, but honesty that reminds everyone exactly where the boundaries lie when it comes to who has access to extreme transformations and the privilege to retain their cultural value a little longer through extreme surgeries.
We are no longer being sold the lie that stars wake up like this; instead, we are being sold the equally distorting truth that it’s possible to buy your way back to youthful perfection.
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