Louis Theroux: Under the Knife

OK. I'm gonna take you back, get your clothes changed

then you'll meet Dr Amron. He'll mark your body. OK.

He'll take photos. Yes.

You walk into the operating room. You're awake when you go in. Yes.

You're in great hands. Dr Amron does this all the time.

He's excellent at what he does.

It's like his forte!

I was in Beverly Hills, about to have a plastic surgery operation.

I've been meeting the people of southern California

for whom looking their best involves regular trips to the surgeon.

Wow! Look at that!

Amazing what you can do with a bit of skin.

You don't want to do the butt itself. Never do the butt.

They claim that by changing our outer appearance,

they can change our innermost feelings.

There are not many guys who are 50 who look that good!

And now I would be finding out first hand.

Lisa? Come on back, honey. How are you?

My journey began at the offices of Dr Stuart Linder,

a Board-certified plastic surgeon

whose life's work is creating perfect bodies for the women of America.

What brings you in? What are you thinking about?

I'm thinking about liposuction and boob implants.

What do you think your breast size is?

Probably a 36B.

What size are you hoping to go to?

Around a D. OK.

A double D.

That's quite big, isn't it? She's a tall lady.

What's made you decide to do this?

Um, I've always thought of it.

Now I'm gonna be 30. I figure you only live once. Why not? Yeah.

Let's take a look at you.

Excellent. OK.

Excellent.

I'm gonna look away. You have a bit of skin laxity here.

How are you feeling? Good. She's excited. She's gonna rock'n'roll.

We'll have fun. How do you feel? I'm ready to roll, man!

Come in. This is our consultants' office.

These are just examples of some of the patients I've operated on.

You operated on all the women in these pictures? Correct.

And they're models, many of them? Yes.

How do you feel looking at these beautiful women you've helped achieve augmented breasts?

I am a perfectionist with breasts.

Just as Picasso or Michelangelo, I'm a perfectionist. This is my life.

And I want absolute perfection.

So I go underneath the nipple, get the folds even, and the nipples in the correct position

and place the implants perfectly every time.

So it's not all God-given beauty.

Some of it's Linder given.

I do the best I can.

Dr Linder brings a touch of Hollywood glamour

to the everyday women who visit him.

They come hoping that an improved figure will boost their confidence

and maybe change their lives.

Look at the difference in the shape.

See the difference? Yeah. This is moderate. These would be outdated.

The young lady has quite saggy breasts. It's what we call Grade three ptosis.

This can only be corrected with a total breast lift.

We do over 1,000 implants a year.

That is my forte. OK?

She's got beautiful creasing.

One finger. Before they were really far out.

Now they look like this without a bra.

You're Adriana. I'm Adriana.

What do you do here? I run his front office.

I help him with the patients, as you saw before.

And I help with the dressings and all that.

I understand you recently had surgery on your tummy. A tummy tuck.

A tummy tuck and re-did the breasts. What does the tummy look like?

The tummy is now flat as a board.

I'm so, so happy.

I'm 26 years old. I had a little bulge going on right about here

and I couldn't get rid of it with sit-ups or a personal trainer.

He has magical hands and I've...

How long ago did you get the tummy done? It's about 11 weeks.

What is that mark down there?

This is a full scar.

Wow. It goes from hip to hip.

But I'm OK with it. You have to give something to get a little back.

It'll gradually go away? It takes about a year to heal.

Let me see your tummy now.

Does that mean he made you... He made a new belly button.

A new belly button! I have a new belly button.

Virgin again!

Where's the old belly button gone?

It came out with the skin. So he re-does the hole.

A new hole right here.

It's so smooth, isn't it? Yes. Do you want to touch?

I can touch it? Go ahead.

Wow! It's so smooth, Dr Linder.

Thank you so much.

It's so smooth I let him touch.

So far, so good.

Happy. She's doing well.

You made a new belly button?

What we do is make a new hole.

Same belly button goes through the new position, through a new hole.

That's considered standard in the United States.

And I had lipo on the inner and outer thighs. Suits you. Yes.

Is it a requirement of working here that you have a perfect body?

Absolutely not!

No. But it helps!

What can I tell you?

The area around Dr Linder's office

is home to some of America's wealthiest and most adventurous plastic surgeons.

If you're shopping for the perfect body,

this is where you come.

My next stop was with a specialist from Russia,

Dr Nicholas Chugay.

Well, hello!

Hello. Are you Dr Chugay? I am Dr Chugay.

How do you do? Nice to meet you. And you. What is your name? Louis.

Louis, it's a pleasure. Shall we come in? Please, come in.

This is my office. Yes.

This is where I do my best work. Is it?

Yes, talking to my patients.

So what is it you do, Dr Chugay, if I may ask?

Well, I do a lot of body-sculpting surgery.

I'd say that's my specialty. Yes.

Whether it's pectoral augmentation or gluteus enlargement,

or calf enlargement.

So for men that would be to give the impression of muscles here.

The Schwarzenegger look.

I would be curious. If I came to you and said I'd like to improve my appearance,

could you make any suggestions?

If you looked at me, what would you say?

Without fear of hurting my feelings in any way.

Probably I might reduce the nose, just a tiny bit.

The projection of the nose.

Even though you have a strong face,

still it's a pretty strong nose.

Just a tiny bit to reduce the projection of the nose.

You have a nice strong jaw line.

Your features are good features.

What is it about the work that you enjoy?

You could not like your nose, Have a big nose,

and spend three years on the psychiatrist's couch.

You'd come out maybe liking your nose better.

I can do that in one hour

and you'll like your nose better.

So that's the magic of plastic surgery.

A regular patient of Dr Chugay, named Steve Erhart,

had come in for a check-up.

Tell me a little about Steve.

Well, Steve and I have known each other for - how many years, Steve?

Um...

Probably 15. Probably 15 years now.

Steve has had quite a number of procedures done

that I've done for him.

We still see each other quite a bit.

Are you comfortable showing off your physique, Steve?

Certain parts!

DR CHUGAY LAUGHS

OK.

Pectoral implants,

biceps implants.

Has all the work been done by Dr Chugay?

Except for a couple of my very, very early surgeries, back in 1987.

May I ask your age, Steve?

I'm... I never talk about my age.

But I'm approaching a half a century old.

Quite remarkable.

In a way, is it fair to say that Steve is kind of a creation of yours, Dr Chugay?

That's right. It's a Pygmalion complex!

It's a collaboration.

It is. It truly is a collaboration.

Looking at Steve, are you pleased with the results? Yes.

Proud? Yes, I am. I think he's done well. He's aged well.

Does the roundedness here,

the slightly feminine cast of that, bother you at all?

Well, they're not perfect, but they're there.

Right? Right.

Why have you done it?

Small things bother me in a bigger way than they do most people.

If there were bags under my eyes, I don't feel I could live with it.

It would be difficult for me to live with it

so just remove them and get on with it.

My last appointment of the day was with Laura Noblin.

An office equipment lease administrator,

Laura had retained a 2,000-a-day image consultant named Eve Michaels.

On Eve's recommendation,

she was about to transform herself through a series of surgical procedures.

She'll feel a lot more confident to wear it afterwards. Right? Yeah.

Would you, Laura? Uh-huh.

Would you like to wear this? Yeah, I like this look and everything.

but right now, I'd have too much hanging out the bottom.

Not bad. Not bad, not bad.

But too tight like that.

When all this comes in, and this in here, and this is smaller, it will drop down differently.

Do you think you'll feel better after the surgery?

Will I? Oh, yeah. I can't wait for that. Surgery.

Why? I'll be able to wear all these clothes and they'll look perfect.

They're not gonna catch. That'll make you feel better about yourself? Mm-hmm.

Do you think? How do you know that?

Because I just know.

It's one of the reasons I want the brow lift

because she looks a little stern.

Have you noticed? A little quiet. Her energy's down.

And when we lift up the brow,