How Cultural Trends Are Shifting What People Want from Plastic Surgery

Published by Dr. Jay Lucas, MD, a board-certified surgeon with over 20 years of experience.

Since the start of The Lucas Center in 2004, our team has kept its finger on the pulse of shifting beauty standards to better understand and serve our patients. Of course, scores of beauty trends have come and gone in those two-plus decades, especially since Instagram’s inception in 2010. 

Since the rise of Instagram beauty culture, influencers, and social media filters, beauty trends spread and change even more rapidly – and, of course, many of them influence our patients’ hopes and expectations as they walk into our Knoxville office. 

A Dramatic Shift… Toward Subtlety

If you’ve spent time on Instagram or watched reality TV in the last 15 years, you can probably call to mind the dramatic, over-filled, ultra-contoured beauty trends that, for a time, seemed to show up everywhere. You know the look: large, pouty lips, heavy facial contouring, large breasts, and curvy backsides. And for people whose real bodies and faces didn’t match that “ideal,” social media filters offered plenty of help conveying the look. 

Interestingly, however, in more recent years, Instagram beauty culture and plastic surgeons are seeing a dramatic swing in the other direction. In the past, many women aspired for a look straight out of Keeping Up with the Kardashians or Love Island. Lately, however, most of our patients here at The Lucas Center are focused on achieving subtle facial balancing, refreshed results, and looking like themselves (just more rested or rejuvenated!). A lot of the language around what our patients want has changed from “make this bigger” to “I just want to look natural.”

Today’s Popular Natural-Looking Plastic Surgeries & Cosmetic Treatments

Cosmetic treatments and plastic surgeries remain quite popular, including some of the same procedures as before. It’s the approach to those procedures and the desired results that are different: many patients are opting for smaller changes and often beginning treatment at a younger age than we would have seen in the past. 

Here are some popular procedures for subtle aging prevention and treatment – so you still look like you: 

• Facial balancing via strategic fat grafting or a “mini face lift”
• Jawline definition through the use of methods like liposuction, chin implants, BOTOX, or fillers
• “Tweakments” – the very targeted use of non-invasive treatments to make small enhancements to your skin or features (think: subtle lip filler or the light use of BOTOX or fillers to smooth fine lines or sagging skin)

Expectations vs. Reality

Despite the growing trend of subtle, more natural-looking beauty treatments, social media and the filters that come with it still have complicated effects on people’s expectations as they go into a cosmetic treatment or plastic surgery. 

Filters that blur skin, slim facial features, or enhance symmetry can create unrealistic expectations, especially for younger generations. But there’s also growing awareness around “filter fatigue” and how distorted those standards can be. 

At The Lucas Center, we believe each person has unique attributes and beauty that, when accentuated, can help provide them with real, lasting confidence — no filter needed! With unfiltered before and after pictures, state-of-the-art technology like VECTRA 3D Imaging, and compassionate and frank consultations with Dr. Lucas, we help patients understand the difference between digital perfection and healthy, real-life balance. 

Get Expert & Timely Guidance — for Timeless Confidence!

For over two decades, Dr. Lucas and our team here at The Lucas Center have helped patients from Knoxville and across East Tennessee navigate trendy vs. timeless cosmetic and surgical choices, with expert care and realistic planning. And no matter what procedure or specific look may be hottest at any given moment, Dr. Lucas’s approach will always be about achieving each patient’s goals through the most natural-looking results possible.

Wherever you are in your confidence and beauty journey, and whatever type of improvement you’re considering, we’d love to help you envision true-to-life results, achieve healthy and realistic goals, and move forward with real, lasting confidence! Schedule your consultation or give us a call at (865) 218-6210 today!