When it comes to celebrities that openly talk about their surgeries, Kathy Griffin’s plastic surgery confessions are probably some of the most honest.
In a league with Wendy Williams when it comes to plastic surgery honesty (see also Dolly Parton), Griffin has stirred almost as much press for her operations as for her work as a comedienne. While she’s been referred to as a D-list celebrity, Griffin has worked constantly and regularly, and her face is a familiar one to many people out there.
When it comes to what plastic surgeries Kathy Griffin has had done, it’s a pretty inclusive list.
Not as inclusive as Jocelyn Wildenstein’s exagerrated alterations or Heidi Montag’s 10 surgeries she had done in one operation, but it’s still fairly long.
According to Kathy Griffin she’s had her nose restructured with a rhinoplasty, she’s had several liposuction procedures (the first from an inexperienced doctor, and later procedures from specialists), a brow lift, chemical skin peels, cosmetic dental implants and she’s even had her hair straightened.
Now if that sounds like a lot of work, especially for someone that mostly plays the small screen, that’s because it is. But that didn’t stop her from getting it done.
And why did she do it?
Well in Kathy Griffin’s own words, “that’s the tragedy about female comedians. We still want to be pretty and girls.” Griffin went on to say that, while she did want to change the way she looked, it was also a necessity for her career and the field she worked in.
Stars that aren’t nipped and tucked, she said, tend to get cast as great grandmothers next to a younger, brighter cast with all of their plastic surgery points in order.
Kathy Griffin’s Before and After Pictures
Whether you think she’s one of the worst plastic surgery celebrities ever, or you think that she’s just trying to get attention, Kathy Griffin has aged very well with the aid of her cosmetic surgery choices.
Nearly into her 40s she’s managed to maintain that indeterminate age that’s mature without looking older which is common to middle aged celebrities that have had a little bit of surgical assistance in fighting off the sands of time a little bit longer.
The recuperation period can also be draining as well as painful as your body tries to adjust to what it went through and you have to learn to deal with the results of your plastic surgery.
While she says that she’d do it all again (though she might skip the inexpert first doctors if she had the choice to do so), Kathy Griffin is far from a plastic surgery role model; except, that is, for the fact that she doesn’t play coy about what she’s done.
But what do you think? Check out our gallery below and leave a comment to let us know.
Comedian Kathy Griffin isn’t a good role model when it comes to plastic surgery, except perhaps in her openness on the subject.
From her own experience, she says plastic surgery is painful, yet necessary in her line of work. It’s sometimes successful, sometimes a flop, and sometimes life-threatening, she says.
Most recently, when Redbook magazine asked her for its July 1 issue, “How do you deal with missteps on the way to fame?” she answered:
Admit what you’ve done. Did I have plastic surgery five years ago? Yes, obviously! Just be honest.
But that honesty is of limited use as a guide to others, since it reflects Griffin’s confusion and inconsistency.
Currently starring in the Emmy-winning “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List” on the Bravo network, she suffered serious side effects from liposuction in 1999.
At the time, she spoke against plastic surgery but reversed course four years later and signed up for a raft of cosmetic operations, including a nose job, brow lift, Botox injections, dental veneers, chemical hair straightening, a chemical peel – and more liposuction!
And she expects to do more in the future.
Here’s how she described the problematic 1999 operation to People magazine:
I had lipo from my waist down — my stomach, thighs and the inside of my knees. The idea was to look like Jennifer Aniston. It didn’t work out at all. When I woke up I was not able to pee. I got toxicity and had to go to the emergency room and wear a catheter for a week. It was life-threatening, and the results were nonexistent. …
Back then I swore I would never get lipo again. … But I work in an industry where if you don’t get a little nip and tuck, a lady of my age is going to end up playing Katie Holmes’s great-grandmother in the Dawson’s Creek reunion.
At least she chose more experienced doctors for the second round of operations in 2003. She told EW.com:
The doctor who did my lipo the first time was a total idiot. He was really an eye guy, and that was the problem. But the doctors who did me this time around were good. And honestly, I didn’t do as much as I did the first time around. I know it sounds like a lot, but it really boils down to a brow lift and teeth veneers. I did get a skin peel that was really major, but it’s not like it hurts to get my hair straightened.
In contrast to that description, the interview she gave to People magazine in 2003 made clear that the procedures were painful and extensive – and that she’s still conflicted:
I had my nose done because it was a little big. Unfortunately I think it looks exactly the same. …
I’m Irish, and I have the bad Irish teeth. So I went to a dentist and asked for soap-opera teeth. While they’re making your new teeth, they have to whittle your own down to pegs. I looked like a turn–of-the-century prostitute. He gave me some temporary teeth, but one fell out when I was on the Jimmy Kimmel show. I gave it to Jimmy. That was brutal.
A few days later I had lipo on my upper arms and flanks, which is kind of your kidney area. I don’t know why I did it, because it’s not like I’m running around in those Britney Spears pants — my flanks are pretty much covered all day. But my arms were total car-pool-mom arms, and I wanted Angelina Jolie arms. I thought about going to awards shows in a beautiful, strappy dress.
I went to a doctor who for safety reasons refuses to do lipo with general anesthesia. So you’re awake and shaking while they poke a big knitting needle in you. It’s horrible. But everything is covered so you can’t look over and say, “Get that vacuum out of me!”
Later that day I got the brow lift so I wouldn’t have skin hanging over my eyelids, and the facial peel, where they use acid to smooth your lines. Those were under anesthesia. …
By the third day I was so swollen my eyebrows were basically at my hairline. Then the peel kicked in. It was like the worst sunburn I ever had. I cried constantly. The burns were so itchy it felt like bugs crawling on my face. There was nothing about me that wasn’t disgusting. … You have to buy into the fact that you’re going to look really scary and it’s going to be painful. You’ve got a week of hell coming no matter how you slice it. …
The lipo’s painful. I couldn’t lift my arm all the way up for three weeks. As for my flanks, if there’s a difference, I can notice it only when I’m naked. I wouldn’t do it again.
Comedian Kathy Griffin is almost recognisable as a 17-year-old in these astonishing pictures from her high school yearbook.
The outspoken redhead - who has made no secret of her numerous plastic surgery procedures - has changed dramatically from the geeky teenager you can see in the book.
However, 'Kathleen' was a performer even back then, having made the cheerleading squad, where she is seen in the 1976 book perched proudly on the hands of her friends, despite her gawky looks.
The way she was: Kathy Griffin is almost unrecognisable in her 1976 yearbook, from how she looks today
But that early confidence didn't stop Griffin, now 51 , trying to alter her appearance for years.
'What I can't figure out is why I wasted time worrying about my looks. I am a comedian. I'm not on the runway in Milan,' said Griffin in her book Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin.
Before continuing: 'Believe it or not, people don't come to see me really thinking I'm going to look like Jennifer Aniston.'
Trying to secure an agent in Hollywood, the Illinois native decided to get a nose job at the age of 26.