Beauty and the Beach

Never do women feel more self-conscious about their appearance than when donning such micro-coverage as a bikini. HAMPTONS consulted everyone from plastic surgeons to models on how to find room for self-esteem in a bikini. The resounding answer always came down to attitude. You can get away with exactly what you think you can get away with.

Does it take liposuction to do justice to a bikini? "Absolutely not," says Dr. John Sherman, the 5th Avenue plastic surgeon who has never even considered altering his own admittedly large nose. "If you're confident in your appearance, a little extra weight can come off in several ways - including exercise and dieting." Further still, if you have no self-confidence, you may find yourself turned away from shrewd surgeons who realize that no physical results will compensate for a poor self-image. Dr. Sherman speaks of turning away several patients when he considered their problems to be less physical and more emotional. "A very fit young woman once came to me with the smallest pocket of fat on her legs. Once the fat was removed, she still was not satisfied, and it became clear that the tools I had at my disposal couldn't help her." Likewise, incredibly heavy people have come to Dr. Sherman for liposuction and he's advised them to go workout for a few months before considering liposuction. "My ideal patient is someone who is actively keeping fit with exercise and dieting, and who has localized fat pockets which we can treat."

The technological breakthroughs of late have brought Dr. Sherman a slew of new patients, and he's noticed a decidedly younger skew to the mix. "I'm getting patients well below thirty now, for procedures ranging from rhinoplasty to liposuction to laser surgery for wrinkles." One of the biggest breakthroughs has been in the liposuction "tumescent" procedure, a process of liquidating fat with saline injections and locally numbing the treated area with epidural anes-thetics. The process allows for a practically bloodless, bruiseless extraction of fat without the recuperation time associated with anesthesia. The procedure has revolutionized the industry and more people are now considering plastic surgery as a comfortable, realistic option (or augment) to dieting and exercise. But if the more dramatic procedures of a plastic surgeon aren't likely to be part of your summer beauty regime, then perhaps the following short list of self-esteem boosters could help pry you into an itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny.