Cosmetic Surgery for African-Americans

Here in Los Angeles, we have a wide diversity of ethnic groups who come to see us for cosmetic surgery. At least a third of our patients have darker skin types. Why does your ethnicity and skin type matter when choosing a cosmetic surgeon? The formation of scar tissue and other characteristics of healing mean that it is extremely important for a cosmetic surgeon to have experience with surgery on many different skin tones.

We’ve also learned to recognize different body types. Every individual body is different, and Dr. Yoho always considers each individual’s body when consulting with his patients. But he is also sensitive to the fact that ethnicity does play a role. There are cultural differences that mean that patients have different standards of beauty, which a surgeon must understand. There are also body-type characteristics that tend to be predominant in different ethnic backgrounds.

African-American body types (or black body types) generally have a very narrow waist and are wider-hipped, having very full buttocks areas. We gauge our surgery to accentuate or improve these features. Other darker skin types, such as Native American skin types in the Unites States typically have thicker waists. Patients with these ethnic body types often ask that we try to improve their “figure 8” or curves with buttock fat transplants (of course this is also requested by some patients with darker skin who feel that they would like to reduce a larger body size).

The many skin types result in a big spectrum of response to incisions. The very lightest skin types do probably the best with scarring. Because they are so light the light-colored types of scars don’t show much compared to the light surrounding skin. On the other hand, the darkest skin types don’t experience the cosmetic concern of the visible darkening effect that some other healing scars have, because the surrounding skin is also dark. These skin types can often show keloid issues, which is a tendency of scar tissue to thicken and lift above the surrounding skin. We commonly inject these scars after surgery and we follow these patients for months, to be sure that they don’t have raised scars. Some of the mixed skin types, with tan-colored skin or a little darker, can develop darkened scars which can be treated with varieties of fade cream, and also sometimes they need injections if their scars are elevated.

Judy Yoho has written a special section of Dr. Yoho’s book A New Body in One Day that further discusses some of the concerns of African Americans and cosmetic surgery. So please consider us if you have an African-American background or if you have another darker skin type, because our experience is tremendous. We’ve performed over 20,000 cases on all varieties of ethnicity. Although there is no way to guarantee a certain kind of recovery, we can usually predict with great accuracy how you are going to improve.