If you’ve noticed more, well, odd-looking plastic surgery-fixed faces out there, you’re not alone. A London-based plastic surgeon has taken to Instagram to warn of what he’s calling “alien face.”
To save some egos, Dr. Steven Harris used his sister with a split-screen image: one, her natural face, and the next her face modified with computer graphics to simulate the mistakes some surgeons make. If you live in New York, LA, or Miami, these will look sadly familiar.
The chart he added shows, “poorly placed filler and/or overfilling, both of which create alien features during the process of Filler Alienisation.”
“Some people present naturally with certain features…but the problem is creating these in others and making everyone look the same,” says Harris. Hence patients who ask for, say Angelina Jolie‘s lips, or Jennifer Aniston‘s eyes — and surgeons who tell their clients it can be done.
Spoiler alert: it usually never winds up looking like who it’s supposed to be.
“Alienisation is problematic because it is associated with greater risks to both the physical and psychological well-beings of our patients,” Dr. Harris says. “And as practitioners we have a duty of care to first, do no harm.”
Harris goes on: “It would appear that while for example our knowledge and understanding of anatomy is increasing exponentially, this is at the expense of artistry which is grossly lacking in our industry.” He adds, “he distortion of features often involves a More is More approach and so monetary gain or greed is an important factor to consider.”