3. Beauty Hacks: Becoming Barbie, a Lizard, or Whatever You Want to Be

You are ugly. How do we know? Because you say so. Or at least you think thoughts like that. You might not use the word ugly in your head. It might be something such as: I’m fat, or saggy, or tired, old, wrinkly, or ... I’m young and cute, but there’s that thing about my ... well, you get the idea.

Most people say harsh things about their own looks to themselves every day, even if it’s only internally.

Look in a full-length mirror. Chances are your eyes fall on one or more particular flaws you dislike (or, in some cases, hate) about yourself. And your critical gaze lingers there as you think through what you can do to fix, hide, or change it somehow.

If you are female, studies show you are much more likely to be dissatisfied with what you see in the mirror than men. The consensus is the obsession with self-image is driven by the media. Open any magazine and idealized, impossible bodies (typically hyperimproved by Photoshop) stare back at you.

Studies at Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts revealed that 70 percent of college women feel worse about their looks after reading women’s magazines. A 2006 study published in the journal of Psychology of Men and Masculinity said prime-time television and music videos make men uncomfortable with themselves.

In her summary of body image studies, Dr. Kate Fox, an anthropologist at the Social Issues Research Centre (SIRC) in the UK, said up to eight out of ten women are dissatisfied with their bodies, and more than half see a distorted image of how they really look. Although that work was published in 1997, nothing much has changed for women.

It’s different for men. Fox’s 1997 report said “men are more likely to be either pleased with what they see or indifferent.”

Yet, according to a 2011 study of 394 British men conducted by Dr. Phillippa Diedrichs at the University of the West of England, men are now showing more concern with the way they look. More than four in five men (80.7 percent) talk in ways that promote anxiety about their body images.

Insofar as female beauty is concerned, SIRC’s Fox reported that standards have become progressively more unrealistic over time.

In 1917, the physically ideal woman was about 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed in at almost 140 pounds. In the 1970s, fashion models and beauty queens weighed 8 percent less than the average woman. In 1997, they weighed 23 percent less. Today, that number hasn’t changed much, though some suggest it’s higher.

This culturally rampant dissatisfaction with our looks, and the human need to look better, is fueled by evidence that beauty provides real life advantages.

In his book Beauty Pays, economist Daniel Hamermesh says the best looking people earn an extra $250,000, on average, during their work life, compared to their less-attractive colleagues. They are also more likely to remain employed, be promoted, and—when they apply to borrow money—successfully secure bank loans. Sounds crazy, right?

In a 2010 Newsweek survey, 57 percent of hiring managers reported that qualified but unattractive applicants will have a tougher time winning the job they want. More than half of the managers suggested that job seekers should spend equal time and money on improving their looks as on writing and perfecting their resumes.

Not the most practical advice.

In addition, 61 percent of surveyed managers reported that it helps for a woman to show off her figure at work. Of course most of those surveyed were men, probably the creepy kind.

“... 61 percent of surveyed managers reported that it helps for a woman to show off her figure at work.”...

Managers also placed looks above education when asked to rank nine character traits. Experience ranked first. Confidence was next. Ranking third? You guessed it, appearance. Appearance trumped the candidate’s alma mater, which came in fourth.

This suggests if you are the hottie at your community college campus, you are better off job hunting than if you are a frumpy Harvard grad. Is that fair? Not at all. In an ideal world, your qualifications are always more important than how cute or sexy random people find you.

We think you’re awesome, dear reader, no matter what you look like. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that all the knuckle-dragging power mongers got the memo.

There’s good news, though. If you don’t like what you see in the mirror, it can be changed. And thanks to science and technology, and the accelerating rate of advancements, an ever-increasing suite of beauty-enhancing procedures are coming fast and furiously down the timeline toward the present.

It will be easier, faster, and less painful to become more beautiful in the next decade. Or at the very least, you’ll have new tools to adjust those self-critical areas you frown at in the mirror.

The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) reports that almost 13 million cosmetic surgical and nonsurgical procedures were performed by board-certified surgeons in the United States in 2015. (This was the latest data available as we wrote this book, however this data is updated each year in March on http://www.surgery.org).

Between the years 1997 and 2015, there was a 680 percent increase in surgical and nonsurgical cosmetic procedures performed on Americans. Nonsurgical procedures increased by a whopping 1369 percent. Surgical procedures also grew by 112 percent in that time.

According to ASAPS, the top surgical procedure for both men and women in 2015 was liposuction, or fat removal. The five most popular surgeries on their list for both genders are:

1. Liposuction

2. Breast augmentation

3. Tummy tuck

4. Eyelid surgery

5. Nose surgery

The five most popular surgeries on their list for women are:

1. Liposuction

2. Breast augmentation

3. Tummy tuck

4. Breast lift

5. Eyelid surgery

The procedures that trended up in 2015, and saw the biggest increases since 2012, were below the belt. That is at least insofar as women are concerned, who want cosmetic enhancements “down there.” We’re talking buttock enhancements, labiaplasty, and vaginal rejuvenation.

Buttock augmentation procedures increased by 20.7 percent between 2014 and 2015, but that pales with the bump of 58 percent in 2013 over 2012. In 2015, more than 20,000 buttock augmentations with fat grafting were done.

Labiaplasty procedures increased by 16.1 percent during 2015. Labiaplasty is the surgical alteration of the genital lips in women, which is designed to make them more aesthetically pleasing. Pornography is going pop culture with its stars walking on the mainstream red carpets, so the trend is giving every woman the social permission to have her parts enhanced for aesthetic purposes. That, as well as the trend toward complete removal of pubic hair, is exposing everything to be seen.

Vaginoplasty—the tightening of genital muscles—is also a popular surgery with women. This procedure is popular with mothers who want to reverse the stretching effects of childbirth or aging bellies. The idea is to reverse the impact of aging “down there,” and to tighten-up age-related droop.

If you want improvements above the belt, more mainstream cosmetic procedures include liposuction (aka fat removal). As we pointed out earlier in this chapter, liposuction is the number one procedure for both men and women. Although women from all walks of life account for the majority of customers for cosmetic surgeons, men are less inclined to go under the knife, accounting for only 9.5 percent of all procedures performed in 2015. When men do elect for cosmetic surgeries, the top five choices are:

1. Liposuction

2. Nose surgery

3. Eyelid surgery

4. Male breast reduction

5. Facelift

What if you wanted to look like a lizard? You might think we’re kidding, but we promise you, we are not. We spoke to a man who chose this very look.

His name is Erik Sprague. One day in 1997, he opened the Yellow Pages, ran his finger down the listings for cosmetic surgeons and placed a quick call to one of the doctors.

A few weeks later he was in an operating room receiving a transformational surgery that would dramatically change his appearance, and how people related to him for the rest of his life.

Sprague asked his surgeon for a bifurcated tongue, that is to say a tongue split into two. To do this, a surgeon makes an incision centrally from the tip to the underside base of the tongue. This splitting technique allows for a superior control of movement where both sides of the tongue can operate as distinct entities. A drop of sugar on one side and a drop of salt on the other side can both be distinguished separately.

Through a series of additional medically unnecessary body modifications, he has taken on the aesthetic of a reptile (see Figure 3.1).

After a stop-and-start progression of 700 hours under a tattoo artist’s needle, Sprague’s skin now has a green scaly appearance. At the time of this writing, Erik’s tattoo is still in the works with 100 hours left to go.

In addition to the bifurcated tongue, he has had innumerable piercings. Five Teflon horns have been surgically implanted under each eyebrow, and four of his teeth have been filed into fangs. Most recently he had his lips inked green.

And none of this happened over a weekend.

“People seem to think that one day it just happened, but there was a long development and a progression,” he explained.

He said it probably all started when he was a kid. “Some kids draw on paper; some kids draw on the table or the walls; and some kids draw on themselves. I think you can guess which one I was,” he said.

The body modifications started in college when he got into piercings. Then he got his first tattoo in 1993 during his senior year. It all followed from there.

The idea of a lizard sprung from a notion of challenging aesthetic norms. Sprague’s aim was to redefine what we know as human. Prior to his surgeries, he was constantly working on the transformation of self through body art and the spaces in his environment.

“It was aligned with my work as an artist with costuming and body painting, by transforming myself and spaces. It was a bringing together of a lot of different elements which became a project,” he explained.

Why a lizard? Sprague said, “The reptilian aspect came out of a personal aesthetic choice and a symbolic choice. It is hard to go anywhere in the world without seeing the reptile being depicted as a powerful image. The reptile plays a strong role in the use of technology, so I made use of this as an artist, as well. Also, if you are featured on a TV show and 40 million people start to call you ‘Lizardman’ you don’t really argue with that.”

Sprague makes his living doing public appearances, performing as a comedian and front man in the band Lizard Skynard.

He said his loved ones have been very supportive throughout the process. “My mom actually said that by the time I got around to tattooing my face it would have been weirder if I hadn’t.”

We spent almost an hour on the phone with Sprague, who holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy, exploring everything from his reptilian look, his family, his philosophy about the world. We left the conversation feeling quite inspired. And, we can confidently say, he is quite sane.

And although his look is extreme (see a video here: http://superyou.link/lizardman), he might be the future of cosmetic surgery, at least in the sense that if you want to look a certain way, it’s entirely possible. Also, your transformation likely will happen with more precision and with less effort than Sprague has had to endure.

More philosophically, he is an example of how human beings can use technologies at their disposal to transform their looks into whatever they desire.

In the 1990s, he looked at research that used luminescent proteins from jellyfish as marker cells in cancer patients. “It would be cool to get those into me and have my skin be bioluminescent,” he said.

What about a robotic tail? The logarithmic acceleration of technology suggests that robotics will improve drastically in the next decade and beyond, making something like a robotic appendage within the realm of possibility. Limb regrowth technology, which we will talk about later, will also make that possible.

“If I could get a tail, I would be really tempted,” Sprague said. “My biggest concern would be to get one that would not interfere with my quality of life. I wouldn’t want to have to work around a tail when I wanted to sit or lie down.”

He also said he’d be interested in finding a way to have octopus-like skin. “Being able to change the color and the texture. That would be cool!”

“Don’t believe any stories about me having rib-removing surgeries—they aren’t true,” she told The Daily Beast website. “The only surgery I had was breast surgery. My mother’s waist is as narrow as mine—I inherited that from her.”

The rest of her body has been sculpted, she claims, with a simple regime of strict diet and exercise. She also uses blue contact lenses to cover her naturally green eyes. (See Valeria do her Barbie makeup here: http://superyou.link/barbiemakeup.)

As an aside, she makes a living teaching people how to connect with their spiritual selves through a process known as astral travel. She also says she communicates with aliens. Enough said.

He has undergone 149 cosmetic procedures, of which 19 were full-on cosmetic surgeries, to attain his sculpted look. They include pectoral implants, tricep and bicep implants, and a myriad of facial surgeries (see http://superyou.link/justinsbiceps). His first surgery was a nose job, 3 days after his 18th birthday.

The married, gay model didn’t aspire to look like Barbie’s plastic male counterpart. He says the inspiration for his look is from Japanese comics known as manga (or their animated equivalent, known as anime). Oh, and surprise, Joan Rivers and Michael Jackson are his idols.

Jedlica didn’t walk into a doctor’s office with a Ken doll and ask to look like the toy, he explained. It was a media label. “I don’t even know if I look like a Ken Doll, but if other people want to say I do, it’s flattering. As a kid, you play with Ken Dolls and kind of assume that is what a handsome guy is supposed to look like,” he added in an interview with The Daily Beast website.

The TV show, Inside Edition, brought him and human Barbie Valeria Lukyanova together for a photo shoot, but it didn’t go well. They reportedly “hated the sight of each other,” according to the UK’s Sun newspaper, and traded insults separately through the media.

She has titanium implants under the skin in her forehead that appear to look like horns. More than 90 percent of her body is tattooed and she has multiple piercings and four dental implants that look like fangs. What’s next? More horns in the back of her head, she said.

In a Huffington Post interview, Cristerna said, “It’s my dream to be immortal.” Speaking of immortality, be sure to read Chapter 8, “Hyper Longevity: How to Make Death Obsolete.”

Patricia Krentcil was labeled “tanning mom” by the media (see video: http://superyou.link/tanningmom). That’s thanks to her excessively tanned appearance.

She garnered media attention in 2012 when the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services charged her with second degree child endangerment (it was later revoked) following a visit to a tanning salon with her five-year-old daughter.

Her most famous assets are surely her boobs which went progressively from 32AA breasts to LLL. She even had a procedure where an internal corset was inserted to support her chest and flatten her stomach.

Each breast weighs 21 pounds, so Wildd needs to prop pillows under them when she drives and only uses the back burners of her stove to avoid roasting them when cooking. You can’t make this stuff up.

She says she wants one more breast enlargement to double her existing size to QQQ which would render her breasts the size of car tires, though doctors say it will destroy her chest. She has yet to find a surgeon willing to do the job.

In a 2014 interview on the Bethenny Frankel show, Wildd admitted that her obsession is fueled by her need to support her six children. She said if someone paid her $1 million to stop, she might take the offer. So far there have been no takers.

Actually, makeup use goes way, way back. There’s evidence that tribes from Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia used body paint as far back as the Prehistoric era. Lawrence Barham of the University of Bristol, in England, excavated a pigment deposit from Zambia dating back 400,000 years.

And while the “paint” has arguably been refined, it’s still used today by cover girls and your sister, mostly on their faces.

No really, it’s no joke. It is an emerging billion-dollar industry that is evolving at a makeup counter near you.

Elle Magazine describes cosmeceuticals as “products that tread the line between cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.”

A cosmeceutical cream is more than just a moisturizer. Its makers claim it can improve the skin’s health and appearance because of ingredients with biologically active capabilities. These additives are not quite drugs. Think of sugar. It’s an ingredient in food. It tastes good. It perks you up. But no one is putting it behind the counter at the pharmacy.

Cosmeceuticals have properties that act on the skin, presumably to enhance beauty and thwart the effects of aging.

If you use products that contain retinol or peptides, then you’re using a cosmeceutical. Retinol is essentially Vitamin A, which can be used to improve skin health and vision. In high doses, it is also toxic. (Weird fact: Avoid polar bear liver stew, it contains toxic levels of retinol. Might be good on your face, though.)

Peptides applied topically to the skin can influence the formation of collagen, a protein in skin which promotes thickness and suppleness. When collagen breaks down in the skin, wrinkles form. So apply peptides, the thinking goes, and you will have more youthful skin.

Whereas cosmeceutical products can sometimes be more about marketing hype than function, there is an element of usefulness and function that holds some promise.

Companies continue to look for active compounds that might help repair skin, protect it from further aging processes, make it look or feel healthier, and as a result look younger.

The American Academy of Dermatology cautions, however, that cosmeceuticals are not subject to approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Companies promote the ingredients as inactive to avoid scrutiny. A product is either regulated as a cosmetic or as a drug. If a cosmetic company sells a product it claims to affect the structure or function of the body, the FDA considers it to be a new drug and that would require clinical research trials (studies on animals and humans) to prove its effectiveness and safety. If the claims can be shown to be true through research. and the product works as advertised, then the regulatory body will approve it—but as a pharmaceutical, not a cosmeceutical.

It’s called Botox, a synthesized neurotoxin. It comes from a bacteria that can be sourced from nature and is found in soil and the digestive tracts of some fish and animals.

In high concentrations, the botulinum toxin can result in botulism, a severe, life-threatening illness. Left untreated, botulism can cause respiratory failure (lungs stop working) and death (everything stops working).

Here’s how Botox works as a wrinkle therapy: Your doctor injects it into the muscles of your face so that they are paralyzed for up to four months. The toxed-up muscles relax and your wrinkles go away for several months.

In the early 1990s, when it was first introduced as a cosmetic procedure into the marketplace, Botox probably sounded far-fetched: a therapy only a suicidal nutjob would ask for. And yet here’s the thing: More than 4 million of you out there in Super You Land had the procedure done in 2015.

It is also used as a pain control treatment for people with migraines and severe muscle pain, though word has it, it can have mixed results.

Now some of us are afraid of needles, including one of the authors who isn’t Andy or Sean. You might be, too. The awesome news on the Botox front is you will soon be able to take Botox in pill form. A company called Revance Therapeutics is developing a needle-free application of Botox that can be applied directly onto the skin.

It’s currently undergoing testing, and researchers say it can reduce the appearance of crow’s feet, (the wrinkles on each side of your eyes) without any unwanted side effects such as, you know, death.

Ok, so maybe this will never be overheard in the men’s locker room anytime soon, but men’s cosmetics are an industry unto themselves.

A 2012 report from Time magazine claimed that male cosmetics are among the fastest-growing segments in the beauty industry. During that year, men’s cosmetic sales grossed an astounding $2.6 billion on its way to a projected $3.2 billion by 2016.

Now before you get your jockstrap in a knot, know that it’s not lipstick and rouge being sold to dudes by the vat load. But men are increasingly interested in skincare and manly smelling balms, soaps, and toner. “Double-action face wash” gents?

“... it’s not lipstick and rouge being sold to dudes by the vat load.”

It’s no surprise that popular makeup brands such as Sephora, Clinique, and MAC have capitalized on what Investor’s Business Daily reported to be an “underdeveloped” market with “great potential.”

It’s not just about soaps, cologne, and aftershave anymore. The time has come for classic brands such as your grandfather’s Old Spice to make room for male makeup.

John Stapleton from a men’s grooming video on the MAC website, sells it like this: “The world has come to a different place when it comes to men taking care of themselves ... men spend more time in the mirror than women do,” he says in the promo video as he applies eyeliner.

Sorry John, we don’t think so. Still, there’s no denying there are some men interested in exfoliating.

He says, “A tinted moisturizer reduces redness in the face. A greyish-beige powder adds masculine structure to the brow or fills in patches where hair growth falls short. A little eyeliner creates an edgy look that makes a man look tired in a hot sexy way.”

We think the copywriting needs work.

Still, socially acceptable makeup for men has a solid history. Egyptian men were known to moisturize, Roman men wore coverup, and the men of Louis XVI’s court had their powder and wigs.

“In the 1980s, new wave bands gave men permission to wear eyeliner—guyliner!—at the clubs.”

In the 1980s, new wave bands gave men permission to wear eyeliner—guyliner!—at the clubs. Adam Ant. Robert Smith. Billy Idol. Boy George. Andy Walker.

Then there’s more recent evidence of dudes that fix their faces. Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean and Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards have both made it okay for manly men to at least consider making their eyes pop, if only when their football buddies aren’t around.

Today’s men dabble with concealer and skin bronzer and they use discrete anti-aging skin lotions. Will guyshadow and mickstick be next?

Her focus is a host of wearable computer products that are integrated into cosmetics. A set of nails doubles as a wireless personal identification system using magnets, radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, and conductive polish. (See Katia here: http://www.superyou.link/katiavega.)

Open a car without a set of keys. Go on a shopping spree without a credit card. Perform a piece of music without touching an instrument—all thanks to beauty technology.

Vega’s project, AquaDJ, allows a nail-wearing disc jockey to mix tracks by gliding his hands over water. Project Abrete Sesamo (Open Sesame!) uses the same technology to open a door with a sequence of finger movements.

Conductive makeup, such as eye shadow and false eyelashes, stick to the skin and connect sensors to actuators. Actions such as blinking can be used as control mechanisms. (Anyone remember Barbara Eden’s character in I Dream of Jeannie?) Vega’s project Superhero, uses a combination of conductive eyelashes and blinking to levitate miniature flying drones.

As technology brings further miniaturization, you can imagine what Vega might invent next. Blink and the laundry gets done? We hope so.

MC10, a company founded by stretchable electronics inventor John Rogers, intends to bring some objectivity to this with what it calls “cosmetic stickers.” These “epidermal electronics” don’t bring color, tone, or shape to your skin, but can alert you to skin health and hydration. The wearable technology is called the Biostamp. When applied, it’s like a skin sticker that can stretch and flex with the skin as the body moves.

The Biostamp can measure all kinds of physiological functions. In cosmetic applications, it measures your skin’s properties while you sleep and even recommends the perfect moisturizer. Or it alerts your smartphone when you need to apply sunscreen.

The electronic sticker is made of circuits that act as a sensor. Besides skin health monitoring, it can also collect data from the brain, muscles, and the heart.

MC10 suggests that besides those concerned with their beauty, the stickers can also be used for all kinds of health and performance applications by athletes, pregnant women and new moms, as well as the elderly. Distance runners can use them to monitor hydration and other performance indicators. The rest of us can use the technology to know when to put on sunscreen.

The first product to use MC10’s technology is the Reebok CHECKLIGHT (see it in this video: http://superyou.link/checklight). It’s a skull cap integrated with MC10’s electronics platform and monitors impact during sports.

By one account, 45 million Americans have at least one tattoo. According to a 2013 survey by the PEW Research Center, 17 percent of Americans say they regret their tattoo, and 11 percent eventually get them removed. There’s now a burgeoning business in tattoo removal.

The cost to get a tattoo in the United States ranges from $45 for a small tattoo to $150 per hour for a larger piece of skin art. However, it costs $250 to $1,000 per laser session to remove it. In a removal session, a laser is used to break down the ink particles and the waste is washed away by the body’s natural processes over time.

The tattoo removal business is brisk. In the United States, it is expected to generate more than $83 million by 2018, according to IBISWorld, a market research company.

In January 2009, a team of scientists from Harvard University, Brown University, and Duke University, created a tattoo ink that can be erased. Freedom-2 ink was launched in select areas of the United States. The ink is both permanent and removable. The dye which makes up the art is stored in microscopic capsules, which are inserted into the skin for life. If you change your mind, they can easily be zapped away.

The major benefits?

• The removal process is less painful and less costly than the removal of a traditional tattoo.

• There is greater health and safety with this type of ink. It’s stored in capsule form, which protects you from the leakage of toxins into the skin.

Initially, it was only available in black and red ink when it was released for sale. Since then, the product and its associated technology has been acquired by a another company, Nuvilex. When we first started writing, it was unclear whether Freedom-2-Ink would be further developed. We called Nuvilex, and the person who answered sounded like a woman on a cell phone. She promised to have someone call us back. They didn’t. The company has since changed their name to PharmaCyte Biotech Inc., and there doesn’t seem to be any mention of the technology on their site. Too bad.

With that said, although the ink is invisible without UV light, the scarring on the skin isn’t. The other drawback is that the ink in the tattoo might lose its ability to glow in black light over time, just like those star stickers you put on your bedroom ceiling as a kid.

Another option is to go with a white tattoo, which uses white ink and forgoes the black outlines on the inked art. The effect is a ghostly image on the skin. (See the white tattoos here: http://superyou.link/whiteink.)

The problem with the white tattoos is that they can fade. They can also turn yellow and potentially look like a scar or an odd skin infection over time.

The plate is built on thin films of silk, which eventually dissolve over time, allowing the body to accept the chip.

The LED device can turn people into walking billboards that display flashing, animated skin art (see video: http:// http://superyou.link/ledtatts). However, they are not just used for aesthetic purposes. Litt sees a future use for his technology in the medical world. People with diabetes could use the device implanted in their arm to show alerts about blood sugar levels.

So far the technology has been tested on mice successfully. And no, the display did not read, “Minnie 4ever.”

The tattoo looks like any other tattoo except that the metallic particles in the ink can be magnetized. It can be made to vibrate when your smartphone rings. You are then able to feel a phone call or message alert or other notification. Three short tingles means your battery is low, perhaps? Or constant buzzing can mean your mother-in-law is trying to reach you?

With the patent filing, it seems the technology will be available soon. Some experts think it won’t be commercialized for a decade, however. We figure it might show up faster if Nokia finds more than just recreational uses for it.

And, have you ever noticed that an ordinary person with a new hair style can suddenly turn heads? It’s equally true if someone you know gets a new style that is unflattering or strikingly different from what they had before.

Hair is a defining element of beauty and a sign of youth and vitality for both men and women. The hair business is a billion-dollar industry, and science is working harder than ever to give you the hair you want, or remove the hair you don’t want.

“The hair business is a billion-dollar industry, and science is working harder than ever to give you the hair you want.”

The body of knowledge and the advancements dealing with hair regrowth and a cure for baldness far outweighs the science around hair removal. So we’ll deal with baldness shortly. First, let’s look at a few developments around hair removal.

Surprisingly, electrolysis has been around for 135 years. It’s used to remove all types of hair, even very small and fair follicles (something laser hair removal can’t claim; more on that shortly). Electrolysis delivers electricity through a very tiny probe, straight to the hair follicle. This dose of electricity causes localized damage to the areas where applied, permanently stopping hair growth.

Physicians use one of three methods:

• Galvanic—Up to 3 amps of electricity destroy the hair-growth mechanism by causing a chemical reaction in the follicle.

• Thermolysis—Heat is applied to the tissue that supports hair growth and destroys it.

• Blend—A combination of galvanic and thermolysis are used to kill the hair-growth mechanism.

The time frame and price of treatment varies with each patient as well as the amount of hair being removed. Each session lasts from 15 minutes to an hour. The procedure is relatively painless. A tingling sensation can be felt and a topical anesthetic is usually applied to prevent discomfort.

To test it as a hair reduction therapy, the researchers added the drug to a rub-on gel. Sixteen men, with the ability to grow dense beards, were recruited for the study. The group tested two concentrations of the gel—some men used a 1 percent solution and some used a 3 percent solution—on just one side of their faces. The men used a dummy gel on the other side, then shaved both areas as normal. In order to measure the amount of hair that had grown back, they were asked to stop shaving 48 hours before the assessment.

The results of the study were published in the Archives of Dermatology. The findings showed that the men who used the 3 percent topical agent had a significant reduction in hair growth. They were able to stop shaving for six weeks before their facial hair grew back.

According to a 2012 report by Glamour magazine, a product such as this can save us all a lot of time and money. On average, a woman will spend 7,718 hours shaving and $10,000 on shaving products in her lifetime.

A survey on Askmen.com reports that men spend six months of their life shaving. This is based on a daily routine that starts at the age of 15 and goes until the age of 75.

(That’s true of fat, too, don’t you think?)

Let’s face it, hair loss is not a pretty thing to endure. One day you’re teasing a set of luscious locks to create your Duran Duran hairdo and, then, in a seeming blink of an eye, you are middle-aged, and have a George Costanza cut.

The medical term for hair loss is alopecia. It’s happening right now as you middle-aged men read this book. And it’s a problem not limited to men. A large proportion of women suffer from alopecia, too. Women often start to notice hair loss in their 50s and 60s (though some suffer hair loss much earlier).

A 2013 study from the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery, reports that 35 million men and 21 million women in the United States deal with alopecia each year.

Currently there is no cure for hair loss, however, science aims to change that.

So, people such as King Louis XIII of France, who lost his hair at the age of 23, had to take matters into their own hands. He used a white powdered wig to conceal his problem, which consequently became a major French fashion statement.

It was not until 1868 that the link between baldness and genetics was published in The New York Times and it still took many years for a medical procedure to be developed to solve the problem.

In 1959, New York dermatologist Norman Orentreich discovered that he could surgically implant hair grafts from the back of the head to the front.

Since then, there have been a variety of efforts to magically stop hair loss or regrow hair. Laser hair therapy—also known as light therapy—is one technique that is supposed to stimulate hair growth. Some doctors argue it can be effective for some, others are more skeptical. Either way, bald men are not lining up for the solution.

Topical creams have thus far been the cheapest and some of the most effective ways to remedy hair loss. Here’s a summary, plus several more techniques that folliclely challenged men are turning to these days.

Rogaine works best for men with early-stage hair loss in small amounts. It’s an over-the-counter medication and costs about $30 at the local drugstore. Approximately one third of men who take Rogaine see results.

Hair follicles are taken from a “donor” site (on the patient’s own head) and grafted to a “recipient” site. Each hair graft is composed of strands and skin taken from parts of the body genetically resistant to balding.

There are two popular methods for the removal technique of the grafts, which is the crucial step in the procedure. Hair follicles grow on a slight angle to the skin’s surface, so the transplant tissue must be removed in one of the following ways:

• Strip harvesting: A strip of skin of about 0.5 inches by 6 inches (1 centimeter to 1.5. centimeters by 15 centimeters to 20 centimeters), is removed from an area of good hair growth on the scalp. Hair follicles are removed in bunches, and are inserted in puncture points at the recipient site. This method leaves a small scar, usually at the base of the head (at the donor site).

• Follicular unit extraction: Individual units of one to four hairs are removed and inserted at the recipient site. It is a more time-consuming procedure and not everyone is a good candidate. Hair transplantation is an outpatient procedure requiring mild sedation and local anesthetic. The cost ranges from $4,000 to $15,000. The price varies with the amount of hair transplanted.

The most immediate potential risks with these hair transplant procedures are bleeding and infection. In some cases, patients suffer a disease called folliculitis which involves inflammation on the head at the site of new hair growth. The good news is that folliculitis is easily relieved with antibiotics. Another potential risk is shock loss, where the new hair falls out.

The anti-retroviral treatment and access to services system (ARTAS), which uses high-resolution digital imaging, is a robotic hair transplant device used by a doctor to identify and harvest hair follicles from the back and sides of the head. The follicles are then relocated by the doctor to where they are needed. The procedure produces no scarring.

The process involves three steps:

1. A small strip of skin and hair is removed from the back of the head.

2. Cells from the sample are extracted and grown upside down in a petri dish.

3. The patient receives hundreds of small injections of these cells into the bald area.

The method has proven successful in mice studies. Human hair cells were removed and grafted on the backs of mice. The hair produced was white, although it is suggested that with more testing it could become the same color as the hair extracted from the donor’s head. There’s no word on whether the mice were happy with the results.

In a 2013 journal article published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Durham researcher Dr. Colin Jahoda, said, “There are still a lot of technical hurdles to cross before using this as a cosmetic treatment, but this is a very important step forward.”

The step forward Jahoda refers to is the process of growing the cells upside down, which helps the cells clump together and multiply.

Human trials are next with hopes that both men and women will benefit from the future therapy. It’s expected to range in price from $10,000 to $13,500.

Xu’s team found a way to artificially grow a group of epithelial stem cells that are necessary for hair growth. These cells are found near the root of the hair follicle, in an area medically termed the “bulge.” When tissue at the root of the hair follicle is damaged, the epithelial cells help it heal. When they are absent, hair growth is impossible.

The scientific magic used in this breakthrough was to employ a specific type of stem cell known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). In basic terms, iPSCs have the ability to morph into any type of cell in the body.

Using gene therapy, Xu’s team turned human skin cells into the iPSC variant of stem cells. Then they used the iPSCs to create epithelial stem cells, which were implanted onto a mouse. The result was a patch of human hair growth on the mouse. What you just read is a simplified explanation of the process. As you might imagine, the actual science is much more complex.

The bottom line (Xu said in an interview with the Penn Current, the university newspaper) is that while the achievement is a step forward in the cure for hair loss, we may be still ten years away from a solution that can be used to restore hair loss in humans.

Two-thirds of all Americans are classified as either fat or obese. We spend $40 billion on dieting on average each year, which suggests that most of us have been chubby at one time or another. Perhaps you tried The Atkins Diet in which you ate a hefty plate of carb-free eggs and bacon, and a daily steak. Maybe you tried the famed ultra-low calorie Cabbage Soup Diet and slurped up gallons of soup. Or perhaps you’ve been to Weight Watchers, tried the South Beach Diet, or replaced meals with chocolate shakes using Slimfast products.

Unfortunately, it’s likely that none of those diets have produced any permanent results for you. However, the scientists and technologists are furiously working away to find a permanent slimming solution. Here are a few pioneers we discovered along the way.

“... there is a product on the market today called Soylent, and it might be able to make you thin.”

Of course, the future of thin is not cannibalism. However, there is a product on the market today called Soylent, and it might be able to make you thin.

Its inventor is Rob Rhinehart, an entrepreneur who developed the food-replacement product while he was living as a starving college student (see Figure 3.2).

He calls it a “pretty unremarkable” and an “off white, brownish” shake that tastes “kind of bland.” Not to worry though, there are no human remains in this concoction.

The FDA-approved meal replacement is a combination of powder and oil that when mixed with water contains all the essential nutrients the human body needs to survive. The oil component is made from canola and fish oil, whereas the powder component contains a list of 33 ingredients in total. But, it’s not as scary as it sounds. It’s a simple list of recognizable vitamins and minerals—ingredients you can pronounce.

Rhinehart created Soylent thanks to a personal dilemma. He was studying engineering at the time, and as a bachelor, he was broke, busy, and eating very poorly. His habits were affecting his health, but, he admits, the truth is that he didn’t want to take the time to prepare nutritious meals.

To create Soylent, he used the same process he used on hardware in engineering, a process of optimizing and breaking down machines to see how efficiently and simple he could make them run. “I took the same approach to food. What is the most basic essential thing you could live on?” he explained.

To find out what humans need to survive, he looked at what humans are made of and assessed all the components of the human body. Then he did a bit of self-education in nutritional biochemistry. The result was a nutritionally balanced simple, elemental shake.

There was a lot of testing involved to make sure he engineered the correct balance of nutrients. Then he used himself as a test subject and lived on his invention for 30 days.

Rhinehart says his health improved. He felt a dramatic increase in energy and he woke up feeling more refreshed and with more stamina. He also says that he felt sharper, his mental performance improved by 20 percent—results he obtained from measurable tests. His muscle to fat ratio improved as did his blood levels.

It took some work to get the formula right. The testing phase, he admits, was a fascinating process: “It was kind of cool to see. As I would change something in the formula, it would affect my body. With different levels of potassium I would get heart arrhythmia.” (His heart beat irregularly.)

“Adjusting the ratios of fatty acids would affect my skin, Rhinehart said. “If I dropped sodium levels I became mentally foggy.”

It took 15 tweaks for him to arrive at the final product, a refinement process that helped him find the most effective combination (see Figure 3.3).

Today, Rhinehart’s diet is 80 percent to 90 percent Soylent. Now regular food, he said, is more for fun and enjoyment. Food tastes better because he eats less of it and he craves fresh, healthy ingredients. He chooses sushi instead of pizza, for example, when he goes out with friends.

Soylent also saves him time and money. The effort required to make Soylent is minimal—simply stir powder and oil with water. Each meal costs $4.

Though he admits living without the pleasure of food is hardly romantic, it provides a practical solution to real world problems. It can help with famine in underdeveloped countries. For those who lead hectic lifestyles, it provides a healthy meal in a few minutes.

Soylent’s initial audience has been young male urbanites. “People who can’t be bothered with cooking all the time or can’t afford take-out all the time,” explained Rhinehart. “Then again everybody eats. And everyone has some difficulty with food. I would really like it to be a commodity, a utility.”

Truck drivers have also shown curiosity about the product. It’s a market that caught Rhinehart by surprise. Truckers sit for long hours with no exercise, have poor food options on the road, and sometimes can work more efficiently if they don’t stop.

Rhinehart has also had an inquiry call from NASA, which sees Soylent as a way to feed astronauts on missions. He’s also been called by non-government organizations (NGOs) who want to use Soylent to fight famine. Soylent could also help fight global waste. Food and its associated packaging accounts for up to 50 percent of household garbage.

In the future, Rhinehart suggests that food could be designed for the experience of eating. He suggests that we won’t have to worry about our health because we will be able to modify food for its nutrition. He also thinks food will be unrecognizable, although it will have similar traits: “If you love really fresh fruits because they’re crunchy, colorful, and sweet we will have things like that, but without the issues of having to grow it, having it spoil and having it be expensive. Food will be designed for pleasure and it will be as practical and efficient as possible.”

A Starbucks white chocolate mocha with all the health benefits of a piece of wild salmon? That sounds good to us.

The lap band was originally approved for people suffering from extreme weight gain—those who doctors consider morbidly obese. In 2011, it was further approved for generically fat people. Those people who tip the scales at a 30 to 40 rating on the body mass index (BMI).

The band is opened and closed using a syringe. A port under the skin, located under the ribcage or lower on the torso closer to the hip, is accessed with a needle. A doctor or nurse adds saline solution and the band gets tighter. Or removes saline, and the band gets looser. This impacts how much food you can eat.

The band does not guarantee you’ll lose and keep off the weight, but it’s a tool to stop you from overeating. After all, you can melt chocolate into a liquid, drink it all day, and gain weight regardless of the band’s design to restrict food.

We know all this because Andy, one of the authors, had one installed in 2010 and lost 60 pounds with it. He still has the band today. Insider tip: If you go on a cruise, avoid the all-you-can-drink milkshake bar. The band is not going to stop you from gaining 10 pounds on a cruise.

Gastric band surgery costs on average about $15,000.

There are several surgical techniques that can be used, but all of them divide the stomach into two pouches, a small thumb-sized top pouch and large lower pouch. The two sections are either partitioned or divided completely into two separate compartments. Then, the small intestine gets rerouted so that it connects to each of the newly created stomachs.

Food enters the small pouch when it is eaten, and then bypasses the main stomach into the small intestine. The larger stomach pouch never receives any food but continues to flow digestive juices into the small intestine. (See a picture at http://superyou.link/gb.)

The small pouch is now a stomach that is 90 percent less than its original size. Patients can only eat one quarter to one half cup of food at a time, at first. By the end of the first year, they can eat one cup of food. When the patient eats, the wall of the small pouch gets stretched, sending a message to the brain that triggers a feeling of being full.

If the patient tries to consume more than they are physically capable of, they immediately throw up. Over time, the stomach stretches slightly, but only after subsequent weight loss is achieved.

After gastric bypass surgery, patients no longer have the ability to eat large quantities of food. They lose 65 percent to 80 percent of their body weight. Conditions such as type II diabetes, hypertension, and sleep apnea improve greatly, or in some cases, are eliminated.

It’s a pricey procedure, costing $15,000 to $35,000. But, then again, it’s a surgery that can save your life.

While it’s been described by some media as a microchip, Fussenegger said the device is completely bio-based. He describes it as a group of “tiny, caviar-like capsules, 400 micrometers in diameter, which have been fused together as a synthetic network.” This network is small enough to be injected into the body with a syringe.

The balls, what he refers to as “designer cells,” are sensitive to a wide variety of fatty acids and fatty acid mixtures. This allows the balls to constantly monitor the body’s blood fat levels. When blood fat levels rise—a process which happens naturally after we eat a meal—the designer cells release a hormone that sends a signal to the brain to stop eating.

To fully understand the real magic of these little miracles, it’s important to know how blood sugar works in the body.

When blood sugar levels rise, the body produces a hormone called insulin, which converts blood sugar into the energy the body requires to run. A surge in insulin tells the body there is enough energy, which makes the body start storing fat instead of burning it.

For example, if you are starving and eat a sugary food (such as a chocolate bar) your blood sugar levels spike and your body pumps insulin into the blood stream. This sends a message to your metabolism to store energy as fat, instead of burning it. Because a chocolate bar won’t be enough to satiate you, chances are you will keep eating and everything you eat at that point turns into fat.

Now, imagine you have Fussenegger’s implant in your arm. If you eat a chocolate bar your blood sugar levels will still spike, but you will stop eating because you won’t be hungry, which means less fat is stored. Note to investors: Sell Hershey stock now.

Mice who received the treatment lost a healthy amount of body weight. They did not starve or die, which means that Fussenegger’s capsules are far more effective than a time-release drug, which releases a drug in intervals but doesn’t actually react to changes in the body.

One of the next steps is human testing. Candidates will receive a port-like implant just under the skin, which will need refueling every three to four months to prevent the blood from clotting. However, as Fussenegger suggests, it will take up to ten years before we see this technology come to market. Of course, if you talk to futurist Ray Kurzweil, he’d likely shorten that prediction. The algorithmic improvement of technology always suggests that any technological prediction is shorter than we think it is.

When this technology does come to market, it’s likely to be a huge help for anyone struggling with their weight. He says “the metabolism will be treated at the molecular level right where the problem occurs.”

He also sees this system being used to treat illnesses affecting blood levels, such as diabetes and immune disorders. Treating different illnesses will require different sensors, which is something Fussenegger’s team continues to explore.

Zerona is a cold laser that perforates fat cells and makes their contents leak, but leaves blood vessels and other cells in the same area intact. The contents of the damaged fat cells are eliminated by the body’s normal detoxification process. What’s left of the fat cell shrinks. And you do, too.

The procedure is noninvasive and completely painless. Most importantly, the process doesn’t destroy the entire fat cell, which can otherwise affect endocrine function.

The time requirement for Zerona treatments is no more than your average workout regime with a major bonus—less effort! For 40 minutes, three times a week, all you have to do is lie in a chamber. Then about three weeks later you could see a reduction of up to 3.5 inches (a little more than 9 centimeters) on your waist, hips, or thighs.

Zerona treatments cost between $2,000 to $4,000, a price that varies with the number of treatments needed.

A very small group of studies suggest that most patients lose inches off their frames. A 2012 article published on Shape.com, explains that results vary based on your current size, diet, and exercise regime. It is best used to enhance an already healthy program of diet and fitness. It typically works especially well once your body has reached a plateau, where weight loss is much harder than it was when you started.

Shape.com writer, Charlotte Hilton Andersen, underwent the Zerona treatments so she could accurately write about them for the magazine. She says one of the most surprising results for her was a major increase in energy. And, she says, it wasn’t as simple as lying in a chamber: “I was cautioned to eat very clean, work out moderately, wear compression undergarments, and drink so much water that if peeing were an Olympic sport I’d win gold.” However, the cleansing effect led her to an unexpected side effect—crazy energy.

Although there are accounts of people losing up to 3.5 inches, Andersen only lost one-quarter inch on each thigh and 1 inch on her waist.

Andersen might have proven that Zerona does work, but perhaps not as well as advertised.

It uses a technique called high-intensity focused ultrasound. Ultrasound technology is used to fire high frequency sound waves at unwanted fat cells, which are destroyed leaving surrounding cells and tissue unscathed.

Liposonix targets and eliminates fat cells from the treatment area and are released from the body by its natural elimination process. This process takes 8-to-12 weeks.

Candidates must have a BMI of 30 or less, and be able to “pinch an inch” of fat in the area receiving treatment.

The company claims a 91.3 percent success rate, saying that “subjects responded that the flatness of their abdomen had improved after just one treatment.”

We took a look through their before and after photo gallery and while there are some results, they seem very minor. Once again the promise seems intriguing and actual results may vary.

Makeup, as we discussed earlier, has been around for a long time, and has perhaps been the most accessible adornment for those that want to improve their looks or enhance their beauty.

The concept of rearranging human flesh surgically into new shapes to enhance or repair one’s looks is something that has been available for centuries from self-appointed surgeons (and sometimes questionable barbers). However, it’s not something that has been safely or readily available to the mass market until fairly recently.

The ancient Egyptians performed plastic surgery on their dead royalty to ensure they looked good in the afterlife. Cheeks were stuffed with cotton and noses were enhanced, but these procedures were reserved for the dead. They figured you’d need to be recognizable and kinda sexy in the afterlife.

One of the first references to reconstructive plastic surgery on the living is found in ancient India. Sanskrit texts from 600 b.c.e. describe procedures that repaired noses or ears lost in battle or as punishment for crimes committed.

The Romans in the first century are said to have practiced plastic surgery extensively on the face, and particularly on the nose, eyes, and lips. There’s even evidence of circumcision reversal, male breast reduction, and blepharoplasty (correcting droopy eyelids). But one of the most common procedures was scar removal from the back. Scars on the back suggested a soldier turned away from battle, so evidence of back injuries was shameful for the soldier.

Of course, all this was rather painful without the availability of general anesthesia. Antipain potions that used ingredients such as cannabis, opium, and alcohol were variously used through the centuries for pain control, but by most accounts early surgeries were horrendously painful. General anesthesia wasn’t discovered and adopted until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

In the late fifteenth century, Italian Gasparo Tagliacozzi wrote the first plastic surgery textbook: De Curtorum Chirugiau (1597). Later dubbed the father of plastic surgery, Tagliacozzi saw the need for plastic surgery to correct injuries from fights and skirmishes in the street, but perhaps more notably to repair noses, which were destroyed by syphilis.

It took the wars of the 1900s to bring new technologies and techniques into play to allow surgeons to repair looks with surgery. It started with plastic surgery in the early 1900s, where surgeons developed techniques to repair the devastating injuries suffered by soldiers of World War I. Trench warfare made heads and necks particularly vulnerable to injury. Popping up to have a quick look at the enemy could result in a face full of disfiguring lead.

Airplane crash victims also produced candidates for the repair of serious face injuries. And the arrival of the automobile and its glass windshields also required surgeries to repair cuts to the face when glass windshields would shatter in accidents.

The knowledge of aesthetic restructuring came as a byproduct of World War I. As is often the cause, the heartbreak of war drives technology innovation.

“As is often the cause, the heartbreak of war drives technology innovation.”

During that time, Sir Harold Gillies, later dubbed the “father of modern plastic surgery,” developed techniques to treat soldiers with disfiguring impairments. It included skin grafting, the process of transferring skin flaps from one part of the body to another for the reconstruction of injuries such as burns and disfiguring facial injuries.

The need for procedures to repair injuries sustained by soldiers was a driver for new technologies including the invention of the dermatome instrument in the 1930s. It’s a knife-like device that gave surgeons a tool to harvest long thin slices of skin of a consistent thickness for use in skin grafting, which helped produce better results when treating burns or repairing traumatic damage.

Patients might need a rhinoplasty because they have a working issue with their nose, such as nasal trauma or injury, congenital defects, or respiratory impediments. Others just want to look and feel better.

Caution: It’s among the most difficult cosmetic surgeries, so pick your surgeon wisely.

Candidates for the procedure are not overweight and lead active and healthy lifestyles. Having good skin elasticity also helps so that the skin shrinks to fit the new, trimmer, you.

This surgery is for people with bags under their eyes or drooping eyelids.

Good candidates for this surgery have loose or sagging skin around the belly as a result of dramatic weight loss or pregnancy.

It’s used to treat people with severe scars from accidents or surgery. It’s also used to remove acne scars and to refine wrinkles.

It should not be confused with the term “microdermabrasion,” which is a nonsurgical procedure that removes the top layer of mostly dead skin, and is typically performed by beauty salon personnel or via self application of creams or lotions.

• Adding materials to your teeth, such as porcelain veneers and crowns.

• Removal of materials, such as enameloplasty, which is the reshaping of teeth by removing a small amount of enamel.

• Orthodontic procedures that involve straightening the teeth.

• Teeth whitening.

Anyone looking for a set of perfect pearly whites can have these procedures done.

Claims have been made that a tightened vagina leads to increased sexual pleasure, but the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) say it is purely an aesthetic treatment.

Both the ACOG and ASPS do not endorse this procedure and say it requires more scientific exploration.

In clinical terms, it’s called mammaplasty, and it’s been rated the second-most common cosmetic surgery procedure in the United States in 2015. Because of this reason, we include a deeper exploration next.

It’s a great option for women who have lost breast volume due to weight loss or pregnancy, or breast tissue due to cancer.

Breast reduction surgery is a procedure to make large breasts smaller. It involves the removal of excess fat, skin, and tissue. The areola may also be reduced if it has been stretched. The surgery results in a smaller and perkier bust. Pain caused by large breasts in the back, shoulder, and neck is also eliminated.

In the 1940s, Japanese prostitutes injected their breasts with sponges and silicone stolen from the docks of Yokohama to attract the attention of American servicemen who were happily distracted by buxom pinup girls, such as Betty Grable and Jane Russell.

Unfortunately, the ladies often suffered a nasty side-effect known as “silicone rot” where gangrene set in around the injection site.

Post-war America was obsessed with the female breast. Pop culture teamed with images of tight sweaters, low necklines, and bullet bras. It was the decade of Marilyn Monroe and the first Playboy centerfold. And in 1959, the first buxom-molded Barbie was created.

When the first silicone breast prosthetic hit the market in 1962, it made perfect sense. Previously, silicone had been used as an injectable by cosmetic surgeons, but it caused problems. Women suffered inflammatory reactions and hard breasts.

Thomas Cronin and Frank Gerow, two American plastic surgeons, solved the problem by putting the silicone in a bag. They called it the Cronin-Gerow implant, a product which they had manufactured by the Dow Corning Corporation.

Their first patient was Texas housewife Timmie Jean Lindsey, who was visiting Jefferson Davidson Hospital in Houston to have a large tattoo removed from her chest. At the hospital she met Dr. Gerow, who was seeking a candidate to perform a breast implant trial. He asked her to participate, and she said yes. Today, at 82, she still has the implants.

In 2012, Lindsey was featured in a New York Daily News article on the fiftieth anniversary of the silicone implant. The paper labeled her a “perky grandma.” In the article she reports that her implants never leaked or ruptured although they have calcified somewhat.

“I’m so proud that it’s available to so many women,” she told the paper. “It’s not vanity getting reconstruction. I think it’s necessary. It puts them back whole again.”

Although Perky Grandma kept her pioneering chest a secret for 20 years, she says she has no regrets when it comes to, what she calls, “her minor role” in the history of breast surgery.

The ASPS cautions that breast implants are not guaranteed to last a lifetime. Developmental changes in the course of a woman’s life, such as pregnancy, weight loss, and menopause, can lead to changes in surrounding tissue, which can augment the appearance of the augmented breasts.

As with any cosmetic procedure, there are risks to consider, such as infection, bleeding, reduced sensation in the nipple, scarring, or implant rupture. Capsular contracture—the formation of scar tissue which hardens the breast—is another risk to consider. An experienced surgeon can minimize all the risks. They will evaluate which implant suits the patient best and they know how to choose the best insertion points from a selection of five possible areas (see Figure 3.4).

Here are the three most common insertion points:

• Inframammary (IMF)—An incision is made in the inframammary fold located directly under the breast. It is the most popular option for silicone implants. Entry through the IMF allows for the most precise positioning of the implant, although it tends to leave the most visible scars.

• Periareolar—A 5-centimeter incision is made and the implant gets fed through the nipple. Scars are left on the inferior half of the areola’s circumference where they are not easily visible. It can affect the milk ducts and the nerves to the nipple resulting in problems later with breastfeeding.

• Transaxillary—This approach involves entry through the armpit (the axilla) where the implant is pushed across and positioned in the chest, leaving no visible scars. Unlike the other incision points, the muscle does not get cut and remains strong, pushing the implants upward. This means that following surgery the patient usually wears a stabilizer band—a “bando”—to push the breasts in place. One of the authors, Kay Walker, has saline breast implants and thinks that this is the best option if you are worried about scars.

The preceding three insertion points are the most common. However, here are two more that can be used, although they are less popular and require precision placement for success.

• Transumbilical—The implant gets channeled upward from an insertion point in the navel. This procedure is for saline users only. Silicone implants are too large to insert and maneuver into place without rupture. This technique is complex and not as popular.

• Transabdominal—A two-in-one operation. The implants are inserted through the abdomen following a tummy tuck procedure.

A physician will also choose the best placement for the implants into one of two pocket options (see Figure 3.5).

• Submuscular—Under the pectoral muscle.

• Subglandular—Over the pectoral muscle and behind the breast tissue.

The best placement is discretionary and based on a combination of implant type, desired size, and body type.

Recycled fat? Oh, yes. Except it’s yours. And it’s moved from a place on your body you don’t want it to a place you do. Yes, ladies, hips get skinnier and boobs get bigger. Why couldn’t nature do that for us? Life’s not fair.

The fat redistribution procedure involves a three-step process:

Step 1—Fat removal: Fat is removed carefully by hand with a cannula (a special collection tube) connected to a syringe.

Step 2—Fat cleaning: The harvested fat is processed using a machine called a centrifuge, which separates it from unwanted biological components.

Step 3—Fat distribution: The fat is injected into tiny incision points.

A cosmetic surgeon might also use a tissue expansion system before the operation, which makes the body grow additional skin to support the new growth.

Because the method uses fat from your own body, it is a popular option for women looking for a completely natural breast augmentation alternative. There is no need for implants and the rippling that can occur is also not an issue. Scarring is also minimal.

The cost? About the same as implants. In some cases, it might be about $1,000 more if your surgery is done in the United States.

But the majority of women are still opting for implants. The fat transfer procedure is not for women who want big Pamela Anderson breasts. The best candidates are women who want moderate adjustments such as contouring or a slight size increase of one cup size.

There is another major downside. The injected fat can get reabsorbed by the body resulting in a significant loss of the size increase, up to 50 percent to 60 percent. This usually happens six months after the procedure. Our question is, does the fat migrate back to your butt? If so, boy is nature a bitch.

The implant is a marriage of the silicone look using the saline fill. Externally, it resembles your average saline implant, but inside it is very different. The saltwater solution is contained by shells that are nested together providing structure to the liquid. The result is an increased control of movement, less bouncing and wrinkling, and less chance of possible collapse. The edges of the implant have also been lowered to better contour to the chest wall.

A group of 500 women were chosen for clinical trials in 2010. They have signed a 10-year follow-up agreement so that information can be gathered to monitor the long-term safety of the Ideal implant.

While we are on the subject of boobs, we will talk for a moment about sex reassignment surgery.

There are many theories around the cause of GD. They range from behavioral causes to biological causes, as well as hormone abnormalities that occur during prenatal development.

The treatment for GD is twofold: A psychological component and a biological component. They are most effective when paired with one another, although some individuals choose to work with only one method.

The first record of sex reassignment surgery dates as far back as 1921. Dora R. castrated himself as a child and was finally given a procedure in 1930 to reconstruct his genitals, changing them from penis to vagina.

Christine Jorgensen was the first American to get a series of sex transitioning surgeries. She received treatment in Copenhagen shortly after World War II, which made headlines in The New York Times. When she returned home, she became the first advocate for transgendered people in America.

As defined by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, sex reassignment covers a wide spectrum of surgical procedures, such as:

• Hysterectomy—Removal of female sex organs

• Mastectomy—Removal of breasts

• Phalloplasty—Construction or reconstruction of the penis

• Chest reconstruction—Breast implants

Hormone treatments are also administered because they are necessary for small physical changes, such as growth of hair and tone of voice, which can’t be altered surgically.

There are some exciting advances in the future for sex reassignment, such as lab-grown vaginas. Also see the future of breast enhancement later in this chapter.

One promising development around sex reassignment might be the discovery of what’s being called the “sex change gene.”

A research team, led by David Zarkower and Vivian Bardwell of the University of Minnesota’s Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development, have discovered that an important male development gene called Dmrt1, causes male cells in mouse testes (on the street, we’d call them mouse balls) to become female cells.

The study determined that in mammals, sex chromosomes—XX in females and XY in males—determine the future gender of an unborn animal while it is still an embryo. However the researchers found that when Dmrt1 is lost in mouse testes—even in adults—many male cells become female cells, and the testes show signs of becoming more like ovaries, the organ in females that produce eggs.

Earlier research revealed that taking away the Foxl2 gene from the ovaries of a mouse caused female cells to become male cells. The removal also resulted in the ovaries becoming more like testes.

The implication for transgender and intersex humans is that sex determination could be changed in mammals. Understanding these processes might lead to new therapies. Scientists might be able to learn how to reprogram cells to take on different identities, which might also mean that one day soon, a therapy could be developed to allow an adult female body to be reprogrammed to become male (or vice versa).

According to the website The Daily Beast, 37 surgeries were performed between January 2011 and May 2013 at the Shonan Beauty Clinic in Tokyo.

Men and women in their 30s are the most common buyers of this cosmetic surgery. Men are in search of emperor line modification to increase business success and finance, while women, on the other hand, seek to better their odds of marriage by modifying their romance lines.

The procedure takes about 10 to 15 minutes to perform and about a month for the wounds to heal. Clients can have up to five lines modified in a session.

The surgery modifies the crease that mimics the Caucasian crease of the eye that most Asian women do not naturally have. Dr. Seo, a surgeon from Seo Jae Don Plastic Clinic, sees this trend predominantly in Korean women. His clinic is one of the most successful in a city dubbed the “plastic surgery capital of Asia.”

The artificial iris is a thin, nontoxic prosthesis made of the same silicone used in artificial lenses for cataract surgery.

The surgery has become so popular that BrightOcular has taken advantage of this business opportunity. The company describes the procedure as rapid and minimally invasive. It takes 15 minutes per eye, so if you feel like changing your eye color on your next lunch break it is certainly doable! And don’t worry, if you are not happy with the result it can be as easily reversed.

NYC Footcare is part of a growing trend, an area of cosmetics which is considered a $45 million industry.

Perhaps the reason for its costly nature is the highly invasive surgery in which the leg bone is broken. A telescopic rod is used to slowly pull the bone apart at a rate of roughly 1 millimeter per day. Arteries, tissue, and skin regenerate as new bone grows around the rod and repairs the break.

Of course, with the advent of stem cell therapies, as well as gene therapies, discussed later in this book, this barbaric procedure should become obsolete. These therapies, as you will soon see, will allow you to look any way you want. Just hang on for a decade or two.

We talk more about what stem cells are, the different types, and the controversy around them, in Chapter 7 “In Hacks We Trust? The Political and Religious Backlash Against the Future.” For the purposes of this discussion, we will take a quick look at stem cells here.

So what is a stem cell? Simply put, it is an undefined cell that can form into any kind of cell. Stem cells are the foundation for every organ and tissue in your body. They are found in all parts of the human body.

They are special because they have the ability to replicate themselves into additional stem cells, or transform into any specialized cell, such as nerve or blood cells. This makes them incredibly powerful because they can be involved in most medical treatments, including cosmetic and plastic surgery.

Dr. Robert Murphy, former president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, says stem cells are critical to the future of cosmetic surgery. In an interview for this book, he explained, “What makes this exceptionally interesting technology is that if you can isolate stem cells and put them in the appropriate environment, you can essentially grow tissue.”

These cells, when isolated in the lab, can morph into whatever a doctor needs, so they can use them in any therapy.

For a cardiologist, that could be “cardiac tissue for people with heart damage,” said Murphy. “In the cosmetic realm, they can morph into tissue that can potentially either enhance damaged tissue—for people who have had radiation injury when treated for breast cancer—or cosmetically, to augment breasts.”

Murphy went on to explain, “There are some studies and some trials (being done) to see if we can enhance or actually grow breasts using stem cell therapy.”

That means no more implants. Stem cell science, when it matures, will allow doctors to inject stem cells into their patients to help them grow a new set of breasts sourced from their very own body.

The developing technology is so profoundly useful that it can be used to make our bodies malleable. For example, it could be used to rejuvenate your face. “We could use it to give you a much younger more youthful appearance by filling both volume and improving the quality of your skin,” said Murphy.

These tools will be available to cosmetic surgeons soon, Murphy explained. “In the next 3 to 5 years we are talking about being able to extract stem cells, process them in a laboratory and re-implant them.”

Thereafter, perhaps closer to five years out (perhaps later in this decade), things get exciting. “Once we get the science down, it’s almost gene therapy, in that you can recruit stem cells in the body and get them to replace tissue or regrow tissue like a starfish that can regenerate a bud,” Murphy said.

Murphy cautioned that a lot of research still needs to be done to make this possible in the next decade and beyond (see Chapter 4 “Lifesaving Hacks: Whirring Hearts, Printed Organs, and Miraculous Medicine”), but it will very likely be a reality very soon.

As evidence of the progress, he pointed to the number of research papers published about adipose stems cells. Those are stem cells isolated and derived from human fat. While still only theoretically possible, adipose stem cell therapies have been demonstrated in the lab, but have yet to be brought into mainstream therapies.

In 2002, there were 12 research papers published on adipose stem cells. In 2012 there were 699. Checking again for 2015 there were 1,400. You can bet that a closer look at this knowledge would show a logarithmic growth in knowledge and understanding. This is why people such as Dr. Murphy can confidently predict therapeutic cosmetic uses for stem cells derived from human fat by the end of this decade.

At this point, you might be asking, can I get the nose that I want using stem cell technologies? Or the bum? Or the belly? Can you grow me nice pectorals and biceps? Can you remold someone’s face to look like Scarlett Johanssen? Or her body to look like Megan Fox? With stem cells, all these things could be entirely possible one day soon.

The science behind extracting stem cells from fat and the ability to refine them for use in therapies is being refined now. Murphy said certain clinical trials in places such as the University of Pittsburgh are showing promise. Outside the United States, such as in Germany and France, adipose stem cells are being aggressively studied. He said what we need now is “scientific rigor.”

“We need to develop techniques that have defined applications and accepted risks, benefits and outcomes, Murphy said. “Expect that in the next 5 years.”

Remember, stem cells can turn into any kind of cell—skin, blood, bone, and everything else that gives us our appearance. Scientists just need to figure out how to source them safely, coax them into place, and have them grow into the right shapes.

“If you Google “stem cell facelift” you will get 100,000 hits right now,” Murphy said, “but in fact, there is no true stem cell facelift now. In the future, you could put small amounts of fat in areas and have a withered sagging face grow into a youthful appearance, with a more rounded face, with a much better skin texture.”

What about fixing a deformity? Could you take someone born with an ear deformity and inject it with stem cell and mold an ear? “Very possible,” said Murphy. “Stem cells have tremendous implications because they are such a malleable type of cell. If we can learn how to mold to the appropriate environment, it has unlimited applicability.”

There you have it. This technology is not a one day, some day possibility. It’s right there, almost ready for you and I, to fend off the ugly we so desperately want to conquer.