Plastic surgery for blacks used to mean making your features whiter (see every single member of of the Jackson family’s before and after nose pictures), but there is a growing trend of cosmetic surgery treatments for ethnic woman and men that have nothing to do with making them look less like their race.

At the black-owned, DC-based Cultura Medical Spa, which specializes in “ethnic plastic surgery,” two-thirds of the patients are non-white. Clinics like Cultura cater to the special needs of minority patients, most notably concerns about scarring and hyperpigmenation. Despite these concerns, the number of minority plastic surgery patients is growing. According to the Washington Post, in 2002, 16 percent of plastic surgery patients were minorities. By 2006, that number had jumped to 23 percent.

Surgeons say that minority women request many of the same procedures as whites, but there are some differences. Surgery to create a crease in the eyelid to give the eye a more open look is popular among Asian American women, while breast reduction, virtually the only cosmetic procedure that may be covered by insurance because it is usually considered functional, is popular among African Americans.
…Equal parts glossy retail cosmetics counter, candle-scented day spa and white-coated medical practice with a stable of 30 lasers, Cultura treats about 85 patients six days a week.

They include former Miss America Ericka Dunlap, who flies in from Nashville for treatments of acne flare-ups and other skin care; tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams; and basketball stars Patrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning. Some patients have come from as far as Turkey, Iran and Brazil.

“This place is a mini-U.N.,” Battle said, referring to its clientele and staff.

The growing acceptance of cosmetic procedures reflects a change in attitude, particularly in the black community, surgeons say.

I’m all for a black-owned business, but I’m not sure what a growing trend in altering one’s face and body is doing for the minority community. Dermatological treatments and breast reductions, which are often very necessary, are one thing, but a trend in minority nose jobs is kind of an odd thing to celebrate or marvel at.

As our country’s celebrity culture makes normal people less and less comfortable with being, well, normal, this sort of thing is to be expected. I wouldn’t call myself anti-plastic surgery, but I think it’s something that people can definitely go too far with. And if normal people are trying to emulate celebs like Janet Jackson or Vivica Fox, then they’re setting themselves up to look like clowns. As ridiculous as those two may look on the red carpet with rock hard boobs and/or balloon lips, you will look even more ridiculous rolling your cart down the produce aisle.

[WP, Racialicious]