The human Barbie doll can stop searching — it appears she’s found her perfect match.
As the New York Daily News reports, a British flight attendant named Rodrigo Alves has spent over 100,000 pounds (about $168,850) on cosmetic surgery procedures to become the human Ken doll: in other words, Barbie’s plastic mate. Alves has now undergone 20 different procedures, including a nose job, Botox injections, pectoral implants, abdominal implants, calf shaping and other various liposuction jobs, to become the living embodiment of the popular child’s play toy.
As he told the Daily News, “Of course I’d like to look like him. He’s perfect!” Alves then called the Ken doll the “ideal man.” He would know.
What’s shocking is that in his pursuit of becoming as ideal as the molded plastic figure that’s sold worldwide as the Ken doll, Alves almost lost his life. Earlier this year, a cosmetic surgeon injected Alves’ arms with a special gel, which caused him to acquire a bacterial infection. The illness left him in a Brazilian hospital for thee weeks, and doctors began talking about the possibility of amputation. Miraculously, he recovered.
Since then, Alves has seen an English therapist who’s informed him he likely has what’s called body dysmorphia, a psychological disorder that makes the person feel as if his own appearance isn’t good enough and leads to a general feeling of physical imperfection of the self. Alves hopes to work through his problems because his numerous surgeries and procedures are painful, he admits.
Though it tends to be much more common among females, plastic surgery procedures are also undergone by men all across the world. According to Business Insider, the top surgical choice among men is nose reshaping, with eyelid surgery and liposuction coming in at the number-two and number-three spots, respectively.
Another popular choice among men is the process of gynecomastia, also called the male mastectomy surgery, which corrects enlarged breast tissue. It’s a genetic condition that affects older men as well as pubescent adolescents and even newborns. Of course, a good cosmetic surgeon will only recommend what is necessary to be performed, not the procedures that border on excessive or those that are in any way unhealthy or hazardous to the body.
As always, no cosmetic procedures should be performed at all unless they’re performed by board-certified surgeons. For more information, it’s always best to go right to the source — your doctor.