Cosmetic surgery business sags as purse strings tighten

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

April 5, 2008

It used to be a high point of Goldy Anthony’s life. Every six weeks or so, as a kind of personal morale booster, she and a group of girlfriends would make appointments to see a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon for little touch-ups — getting lips plumped and frown lines on the forehead smoothed out. He was “an artist” with Botox and Juvederm, she said.

Afterward, in a carefree mood, the ladies would dine at a popular restaurant on the Sunset Strip.

No more. The sub-prime loan crisis, the housing slump and the general decline of the economy have claimed another covey of victims. Anthony is in the real estate business, and under current conditions, the cosmetic treatments — at $1,800 or more a pop — can no longer be squeezed into her budget. It’s the same with others in the group.

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Corra doesn’t have to run a background check to safely say the downturn in cosmetic surgeries was one of the concerns during the Great Depression of the thirties. In fact, not only was most lifting, augmentation, implant, injection, collagen stuff around, concerns for the more visceral things like eating far outweighed the more narcissistic consideration.

But times change and so do priorities. Then it was eating and keeping roof over your head. Now it is gasoline that is driving us crazy. And, with the sub-prime catastrophe, we can also add keeping a roof over your head.

So back to the basics, meaning butts and bust lines. I suppose they will have to wait awhile, left to fend in their current states of suspension, with fewer implants and injections burning up the media and posing as possible health risks. I suppose, with the ever-rising cost of food and the hellish increase in gasoline prices, if you do less eating and more walking at least part of your appearance will take care of itself. For the rest of it, well people will have to take you as your are.

If you play your cards right, you will still find a date. Maybe you’ll even find that rich mate who will pick up the tab on your cosmetic surgery. Maybe. Even in tough times. But best to check him out fire. Run a background check and see if he really has the bucks he says he has.

Otherwise, smile for the world. Despite your lack of cosmetic attention, God loves you. Or not.