Could Kylie Jenner’s ‘obsession’ with surgery bring back ‘obvious’ breast enlargements?

During an appearance on the Better Half podcast, Kylie shared that she hopes to undergo a second breast augmentation, following her first surgery at 19. “I do want them bigger,” Kylie told the hosts. “I say it every day. I’m like, ‘They need to be bigger and more out there’. I want [them] to walk in before I do.”

Anastasia ‘Stassie’ Karanikolaou, host of the pod, went on to joke that her friend has “an obsession with big [expletive]” and that they’ve been hearing about her wanting to go up in size “for the past year”.

Dolly Parton’s beauty legacy

Kylie’s openness about surgery is a breath of fresh air, especially since this week’s passing of Dolly Parton, who paved the way for a whole generation of women to be more open about the work they’ve had done.

While many celebrities remain tight-lipped about the surgical procedures they’ve opted for, Dolly spoke candidly and humorously, famously saying: “If I see something saggin’, baggin’ or draggin’, I’m gonna have it nipped, tucked or sucked!”

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While Kylie is unlikely to have the same lasting legacy as our beloved Dolly, I do wonder if her frank, open approach to surgery – and her desire to hark back to early 2000s beauty ideals, where large breasts were the ‘must-have’ – will change the way women think about breast augmentation.

Kylie Jenner’s influence on surgery

Last year, Kylie was unexpectedly candid about the exact augmentation she had at 19, sharing that she had 445cc moderate-profile silicone implants, placed partially under the muscle, after fans repeatedly wanted to emulate her look.

I wonder if her latest comments will have the same impact, turning the tide on subtle breast augmentation back to the previous desire for bigger breasts.

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Yes, according to Dr. Omar Tillo, Plastic Surgeon and Medical Director at CREO Clinic. He says there are early signs that tastes could be beginning to shift towards bigger implants.

“Over the last decade or so, the popular trend in breast augmentation has been towards natural-looking results. Patients have generally wanted breasts that are proportionate to their frame, with a softer upper slope and an implant that blends as seamlessly as possible with their natural tissue.

“Kylie saying she wants to go ‘bigger and more out there’ is interesting because it is almost the opposite of the language we have become accustomed to hearing from patients.

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“For years, the aspiration has often been: ‘I want them to look good, but I don’t want anyone to know I’ve had them done.’ Now there are signs that some women are becoming more comfortable with the idea that an augmentation can actually look like an augmentation.”

He continues that beauty trends are often cyclical, and celebrities can have an “enormous influence” on the aesthetic people are exposed to. “We saw very round, prominent breasts become a defining look of the 1990s and early 2000s before the pendulum swung heavily towards subtlety. Kylie’s comments raise an interesting question about whether that pendulum could eventually begin to move back.”

Setting the trend

In the same way that questionable celebrity aesthetics work can put whole generations off certain procedures, Dr. Tillo notes that he often sees celebrity trends filter into consultations.

“It’s not unusual for patients to bring photographs, mention particular celebrities and increasingly arrive having researched specific procedures, techniques and implant sizes they’ve seen discussed online,” he says.

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“Kylie is particularly influential because she has actually told people the specifications of her existing implants. That level of disclosure inevitably generates interest, although the important thing to understand is that putting exactly the same implant into another patient’s body will not recreate Kylie’s result. Breast width, chest shape, existing tissue, skin quality and overall proportions are different in every patient.”

In summary? “A celebrity with Kylie’s influence openly saying that she wants to go bigger could certainly accelerate that. I don’t think the natural-looking augmentation is disappearing, but we may be moving towards a period where there isn’t one dominant idea of what a ‘good boob job’ is supposed to look like.”