Before Anna Faris got breast implants more than a decade ago, at age 30, the actress needed to come to terms with her staunch stance against plastic surgery. To that point, she had been very public in her belief that it was an anti-feminist practice.
“I was always a negative-A cup, so when I was 30, I was getting a divorce, I had just finished House Bunny, and I’d sold another movie. All of these new things were happening to me, so I got my breasts done,” Faris, now 43, said in a recent cover story Women’s Health magazine. “I never, ever thought I’d do something like that. I always thought plastic surgery was caving in to ‘the man,” you know? But it came down to a really simple thing: I wanted to fill out a bikini. What would that feel like?”
Faris said she never had any regrets about her decision to go through with breast augmentation. But that doesn’t mean she’s not still surprised by her decision. “I kept thinking, Am I betraying my own gender by doing this?” she said. Faris knows now that she wasn’t. “I wish that we were more supportive of each other,” she said. “I think that people should be able to do whatever they want, whether it’s getting braces, bleaching their hair, getting extensions, getting a boob job, getting vaginal surgery, or getting a nose job.”
The decision
Breast augmentation has become the most popular cosmetic surgical procedure performed over the last decade, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. In 2018 alone, nearly 314,000 procedures were done, a 4% increase over the previous year and a 48% increase over 2000.
Before the surgery, you’ll consult with a board-certified plastic surgeon. (It’s a good idea to schedule consultations with multiple surgeons. And be prepared to continue looking if you don’t feel completely comfortable with any of them.) At the consultation, you’ll describe the size and shape you’re going for, and the surgeon will make their recommendations pertaining to implant type, positioning of the implant in relation to the muscle, and incision location.
There are two types of implants to consider, saline and silicone. But even after you pick the type of implant, there’s still the shape and size to consider. There are actually 3 different shapes of silicone implants: smooth round, textured round, and textured anatomical teardrop. The round implants give breasts a fuller look, while smooth implants feel softer.
Perhaps the most critical piece of this process is good communication between you and your surgeon. The surgeon needs to fully understand your desires and expectations, while you need to commit to fulfilling your role as the patient.
The recovery
The surgery itself is typically done as an outpatient procedure and takes a little over an hour. A long-acting anesthetic is often administered. It’ll make you feel virtually pain-free for 72 hours. You’ll spend about an hour in post-operation recovery before being sent home. Once the anesthetic wears off, most patients describe feeling chest tightness or soreness, not pain.
And most can return to work in 3 to 5 days, though you’ll need to avoid heavy lifting and upper-body exercise for two weeks. Often, patients feel so good after a week, we need to slow them down so that their body can fully heal.