Plastic Surgery of the Soap Stars

[Sylph]

Is it... Repairable? And in what measure?

[DaytimeFan]

No, it is not repairable.

Once that melanin (the chemical in your skin that leads to pigmentation) has been obliterated and altered, it's not coming back.

[Sylph]

I figured.

[SFK]

*Deep sigh* This is pure speculation on my part, but what I find most saddening is that it appears as if she'd requested (or maybe it was the doctor's/aesthetician's doing) that chemical be put on her lips to eliminate the fine lines and smooth them out (and on top of that, they've been injected). I haven't seen her lately, but in that picture for example you can see that they've lost their natural definition and they look almost painful. She is also fond of wearing a nude lip when some color would look so much better. My fear guess is that her lips can no longer hold lipstick well and she'd be a smeary red mess.

She obviously had her nose done back in the '70s, but I didn't have an eye for cosmetic surgery when Knots was on the air. The first time I really noticed it was when she did a guest spot on Touched By An Angel. Then I saw her in person and it looked like she'd had even more and it oddly affected the corners of her mouth. The thing is, with the right makeup and lighting she can look really good, I mean, the work is obvious but compared to these candids she looked really good on the Knots reunion and Nip/Tuck.

[DaytimeFan]

You've pinpointed her big issue, those lips are atrocious and I really would like to know just how they got that bad. Either she's injected them to the point that the natural lipline has been destroyed or she had a chemical peeling procedure around her mouth and it went awry and burned around her lips to the point that, again, the natural lipline has been destroyed.

Her penchant for nude lipgloss doesn't help matters because it all just blends into her skin and looks so unnatural.

[SFK]

Check out this cute little time capsule of two Joans who are no strangers to the scalpel. I love how Van Ark mishears Rivers' first joke and how Rivers cracks on Van Ark for living in the Valley.

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[DaytimeFan]

Joan Van Ark must have been cheap as hell, not to mention a bit shortsighted, if she didn't invest some of her Knots Landing pennies into a big spread in Beverly Hills and a house by the ocean in Malibu or Montecito. In the 80s high end LA real estate was screamingly cheap. The Valley...really? Lovely area, but it's for daytime soap stars, not primetime soap divas.

[EricMontreal22]

I don't get how she went out in public with that bizarre makeup job--NO lip colour, the pale makeup on her face (I assume at least SOME of that is makeup and it's not just all from bad surgery) etc?? I mean... Doesn't she at least have someone in herlife who would have stopped her from leaving her house like that? It's verging on Michael Jackson territory (OK very very slightly verging, but nonetheless...)

In the top pic, her hands don't look much better, though...

[SFK]

I think she'd quite recently had a peel and all of the dead skin hadn't sloughed off yet AND she was wearing heavy cream foundation to conceal the dryness and perhaps the redness AND she was snapped with flash bulbs (you know, the kind that show women's bras through their dresses), and the combination was just disastrous. I bet she didn't look so ghastly in person though.

I have often wondered what her husband, daughter, and sister think or say but I have a feeling that Joan is gonna do Joan regardless. If she layed off for a few years I think her face just might settle in nicely. Hell, maybe she'll even blink again.

[DaytimeFan]

You certainly could be right about the flashbulb/chemical peel/cream foundation triple threat leading her to look like hell.

But I have to say, the part of your post that I just loved was "but I have a feeling that Joan is gonna do Joan regardless"...BAHAHAHAH. Hilarious.

And you're right, if she layed off her face and just did forehead Botox for a couple of years she'd look MUCH nicer.

[Juliajms]

Don't doctors have some obligation to put on the brakes when someone has gone too far and is making a mess of their face? Or is it a situation where, as long as what the person wants isn't physically dangerous the doctor can ethically let them keep going.

[DaytimeFan]

That's a great question and one that I think is the major buzz in this area of medicine. The issue with cosmetic work is that it's elective, nobody needs cosmetic dermatology or plastic surgery so the ethical lines do get blurred a bit because in the cosmetic field we, as professionals, are there to help the patient realize their goals even if we sometimes don't agree with them so long as they are physically safe.

That said, the difference between the average cosmetic doctor and a good one, in my opinion, is whether or not the doctor will act in your best interest and tell you 'No'.

I say 'No' several times a week, that's just how I roll. I rarely inject lips because I think it looks terrible on most people. I don't do dermabrasion because I don't feel it's effective. I don't use lasers on people who like to tan.

My patients are my calling card, if they don't look great, neither do I.

[Juliajms]

Thanks so much for answering DaytimeFan. That's something I've always wondered about. I can imagine it's not easy to say no, especially when one is dealing with a high powered patient. If nothing else, I wish someone had been able to slow some of these people (such as Hunter Tylo) down a bit.

[EricMontreal22]

I'm glad you said lip injections rarely look good. Both me and my twin sister have very full lips (which I hated growing up but like now--), so I speak from some knowledge but MAN, the injectedlips NEVER look natural to me. Ever--it's one of the few cosmetic surgeries I can spot a mile off.

[Mr. Vixen]

By the look of Joan van Ark, I think she is going to be on GH soon playing Stefan, who we will find out Luke has been holding in a freezer somewhere....It will be similar to the Stavros s/l of 2001...Except this time they won't have to use any make up to make her look frozen....I mean JESUS with that skin!