Many young people who in their early twenties or highschool have opted to have the trendy stretched ear lobe look. Now those very same individuals are having regret over that decision and are turning to plastic surgeons to fix their ear lobe size. Below is more information from Sophia Harris:
Stretched-earlobe regret fuels surge in cosmetic surgery
People who ‘gauged’ their earlobes in youth are flocking to fix-it surgery in adulthood
Dr. Julie Khanna inspects Kurt Barnett’s earlobes. Both have big holes surrounded by droopy, thinned flesh.
“We’re going to cut a piece here, cut a piece here, close the opening here,” the plastic surgeon informs her patient at her Oakville, Ont.-based clinic.
Twenty-five-year-old Barnett is about to undergo surgery to patch up his holes, a procedure growing in popularity with those afflicted with earlobe-stretching regret.
Leanna Richard’s ears before and after ear fix-it surgery. (Submitted by Leanna Richard)
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When he was 19, Barnett picked up on a growing fashion trend. He pierced his ears and then began the long, painful process of stretching the tiny holes. He stopped two years later when his gauged ears were 4.4 centimetres in diameter — big enough to accommodate large round jewelry or spacers.
Kurt Barnett wearing his spacers after he stretched his earlobes to 4.4 centimetres in diameter. (Kurt Barnett)
The body modification, sometimes called earlobe gauging, became trendy about a decade ago. But now some who bought into the look, like Barnett, have grown up, entered the workforce, and want to repair a folly of the past.
“I’m actually very excited just to have my ears back to normal, instead of these big open holes in my ears,” says Barnett, who lives in Aurora, Ont.
Sometimes, surgery is the only solution to fix a stretched ear, especially if the holes are big. Not only must they be stitched up, the surgeon has to reshape the lobe — often by slicing off excess stretched skin.
“I’ve seen patients who are really surprised you don’t just take the spacer out and it goes back to normal,” Dr. Khanna says.
Doing it for the job
The surgeon says she’s seen a surge in patients requesting the procedure. It’s one of many fuelling the booming cosmetic surgery industry, where a growing number of Canadians are opting to alter their looks.
“As you change, as you enter the workforce, you may not want to have that permanently,” Dr. Khanna says, “and that’s when people start thinking about how can I correct it?”
Barnett says he was once happy with his gauged ears. “I loved the way it looked, the attention, everything like that.”
‘Every time I look in the mirror, I just see it and shake my head.’– Kurt Barnett, surgery patient
But he stopped wearing his spacers soon after he landed a job doing spray-foam installation. The holes were so large, Barnett couldn’t properly fit a required respiratory mask over his head when wearing jewelry.
So he removed his spacers when at work and then decided to permanently leave them out. “I just kind of got used to not having them in and didn’t really see a point of putting them back in if they were going to interfere with my work.”
He adds, “You could say I fell out of love with them.”
But soon he had a new problem. Without the aid of jewelry, Barnett’s earlobes sagged and he went from a look he loved to one he found embarrassing. So he signed up for surgery.
“I don’t really want to have these big huge holes in my ears because it just looks horrible. Every time I look in the mirror, I just see it and shake my head,” he says.
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