Vanity Insanity (2017 - 2017)

Transformation is ingrained in the human soul. And sometimes, the need to become someone other than ourselves is so profound that we will pay any price to get there.

Kacey Long got breast implants when she was 19 years old. Almost immediately, she began to suffer from symptoms that doctors were at a loss to diagnose. Eventually, she was able to determine that her implants were attacking her body.

Buff Bagwell, a larger-than-life former male dancer, now world-class wrestler, had calf implants that exploded within 72 hours. Little wonder in his line of work. Buff explains that he originally had them done for “symmetry.”

Bruce Nadler, a bodybuilder specializing in male surgery, defines his work as “body sculpting” or “body contouring.” Liposuction is called “blind subcutaneous sculpturing.” But these terms mask physically brutal procedures.

Miami is a Mecca for a new breed of drug dealers: pushers catering to the oldest addiction on earth – vanity. Officer Enriques Torres has seen it all.

No longer is it only important to look young; now you have to sound young too. Meet the “Surgeon of Seville,” Dr. Sataloff, a voice lift surgeon and the only otolaryngologist in the U.S.

Julie Rubinzer went in for a “routine” breast augmentation upgrade from which she never woke up because her doctor decided to do the anesthesia himself. She went into cardiac arrest and died after three months in a coma.

Today, Jeanine seems like a typical teenager. But for Jeanine, “growing up” has been a long and painful journey.

Leslie Trimino, a vivacious young wife and mother, underwent what was supposed to be a routine facial treatment to “take years off” her life. Unfortunately, Leslie’s “routine” procedure turned into a nightmare when she awoke from the chemical peel.

As with any lucrative enterprise, cosmetic surgery also has its share of fringe practitioners - men and women who lack board certification (or, in some cases, even medical training).

Welcome to the world of top models, where “downhill” can sometimes start at the age of twenty. Surveys show over and over that, after skimming through the latest fashion magazines, more than eighty percent of women report a lower sense of self-esteem.

Famous for its beautiful beaches and people, Carnival is where flesh meets fantasy in a dazzling display of Brazil’s finest! Is it the climate? Is it genetics? Or is it the plastic surgeons that make Brazil a hot bed of hot bods!

Hong Vuu went to a beauty salon in her community to prepare for her upcoming engagement party by having a mole removed. She was “upsold” by the shop owner into getting breast augmentation, who told her it was the “American” way.

The trouble with using an eyebrow pencil is that they are made for people who actually have eyebrows. Those with alopecia, a condition that causes total hair loss, do not.

After a lifetime of ridicule and childhood taunts, Diana knew what others thought of her… “Lots of times I don’t eat as much as you do. But still, I never order dessert in a restaurant.

Boys are now feeling the pressure to conform to an ideal of beauty. Meet Taylor Hooten, a good-looking kid who, like many others, as they grew through puberty, found his looks becoming more and more important to his self-esteem.

When Botox was developed by researchers seeking a way to control a rare type of rapid eye twitch at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Dr. Jean Carruthers’ patients reported that the injections also made them look younger.

Walking the streets of Dallas, New York, there are scores of beautiful women who ply their trade outside beauty parlors. Trained in the art of starting up a cold conversation, these girls instantly size up their marks.

Greg White, 43, has felt “inadequate” his whole life. He had trouble in high school, the classic “locker room syndrome,” and was dismayed by the absence of a bulge in his Levis.

Plastic surgery has now become popular entertainment. The premise, to take ugly ducklings and transform them into swans, says a lot about society’s fixation on looks and what we value in people.

Is it possible, or even right, to be considered “hot” at seventy-two? Mamie thinks so. In the nineteen fifties, a teenager named Joan Olander was discovered and signed to a Hollywood contract.

More and more, young Asian women are opting to have a simple operation that changes the way they look at the world and perhaps the way the world looks at them.

With custom-made fangs and blood-red eyes, Wayne likes to play vampire and test the theory that the eyes are the window to the soul.