22 Years Old and Had a Nose Job

Since recently undergoing a nose job, I have found that multiple people have expressed to me that they also want one. These are people who I previously had never even noticed anything irregular about their noses. From my whole experience of having a nose job, I have encountered many surprises like this, and experienced huge emotional changes, so I have decided to write down my experience. This is for the purpose of keeping it for myself to have a record of what happened, as well as to share with other people who may be interested. When I started to read into rhinoplasty, I read a blog which helped me massively, and I would like to be able to do the same for others.
First off, I would say that having a nose job has been a huge experience, mostly emotional but also physical, and it is absolutely not something to take lightly. If you are at all considering one, I would firstly read as many testimonials as you can. This helped me so much at the start, by learning that other people felt the same way as me, and preparing me for what going through the whole experience would be like. Everyone’s experience of a nose job is different, and nothing you read will be exactly what you feel like you go through, so reading multiple testimonials/watching online blogs, will give you a closer idea.
Why
The reason that people undergo a nose job, I assume, is generally to improve their nose, by making it more similar to a size or shape which is considered ‘normal’. For me, I wanted my nose to be slightly smaller and straighter. I have only had a handful of comments about my nose in my life, none of which were meant in a mean way, yet I can remember them all clearly. I am a tall girl (5’10”), I have big ears, a massive smile, and I probably have a big face, and am generally not considered ‘petit’. For this reason, I still wanted to have a nose that was on the larger side, I just wanted it to be on the larger side of what I considered a ‘normal’ range. In my family, my nose was quite similar to my two brothers and my dads. While this nose looks fine on them, I always felt it gave me a more masculine appearance. I wanted my result purely to look more feminine. From the front, I was happy with the way I looked, however I absolutely hated my side profile. In photos, I would always make sure that my face was front on. If ever there were events where candid photos were taken, I would be very conscious about my side profile. In the occasions where I did get caught off guard and photos were taken from side angles, I would have a sinking feeling in my stomach. Even in pictures where I was clearly very happy, I would concentrate on my nose and it would make me sad that I didn’t look the way I felt.
When I look at other girls who have larger noses, I definitely think that many girls pull it off really well and are often very beautiful, in a striking way which is often more beautiful than smaller noses. For a very long time, I wanted to consider myself to have a nose which was striking but also looked good. I had been thinking about my nose for probably about 9 years before I got my nose job at age 22. In all these years, I always had this sort of ‘internal battle’, as I describe it, going on in my head. On the one hand, I would tell myself that appearance doesn’t matter, I was a healthy, positive person and should be happy with the way I am. On the other hand, I would be honest with myself and say that I did hate my nose, and this is when my emotions would really come out and I would get upset about it. During this time, I only expressed my insecurities to a few people, like my mum and my long-term boyfriend, but even with these conversations, I didn’t fully let go and explain how much it affected me. Most the time I didn’t talk about it because I didn’t want people to notice it. I didn’t want people to look at my nose, and I didn’t want them to realise that I was such an insecure person.
What was stopping me
One of the reasons that getting a nose job was a really hard decision for me, was actually the reasons that I shouldn’t do it. I am a healthy young woman, with a large circle of close friends and family. I had been to uni, have got a good job, living with my friends, and am pretty confident in myself (aside from my nose). All in all, I was very happy, and this made me feel guilty for doing something so drastic to change myself. I felt like I should just accept how I am, accept that I have one thing that I hate about myself, because I have so much to be thankful for. But to be honest, why should anyone accept that they don’t like something about themselves? I hadn’t grown to like my nose in all the years that I’d be thinking about it, I couldn’t see myself ever accepting it. I think if you hate something about yourself, you have two options, work around it or try and change it. If you have the opportunity to change it, and you know it’s what you want, then go for it.
I am a physiotherapist, and I have worked with so many patients who have physical impairments, and who have so many physical and emotional challenges that I help them with. This also in a way made me question myself in doing something drastic and expensive when I already have a fully functioning body. However, I don’t think that this is something that is really comparable with having a nose job. It’s a completely different situation. The people I work with still care about what they look like.
Another reason I hadn’t got a nose job yet, was that I didn’t want to ‘give in’ to media, and become someone who was trying to fit in and not stand out from the crowd. Everyone talks about ‘natural’ beauty, yet why is it so accepted that if you have wonky teeth then its normal to get braces? Are people who have had braces considered ‘fake’? No. Or people who dye their hair? Or get tattoos? I completely agree that people should accept themselves, and I like to think of myself as someone who doesn’t judge others by their appearance. However, I know that I judge my own appearance, and I have learnt that people care much more about the way they look themselves than about how others look. People have all sorts of things that they care about, that others would never even notice. People look how they want to look, so really we should just accept that their appearance is how they want it to be. Aside from my nose, I wasn’t that bothered about the rest of my body. I know that I am in no way perfect, and I know that there are things about me that others would and would not find attractive, just like anyone. But I knew that I didn’t like the way my nose looked, and decided that I didn’t need to accept that I didn’t like myself, and I could make this change for myself and in no way should feel guilty about it.
Telling people you’re getting a nose job
When I finally seriously considered getting a nose job, and then had to tell my close family and friends, I realised how much I had bottled up inside me. This was really emotional, especially with the first few people I told, but the more people that I told, the stronger I got, and it helped me understand my thoughts about the whole thing. It was really interesting to hear different peoples reactions to my news. As this was a huge deal for me, I sort of expected people to have really extreme reactions. However, the most surprising thing was that everyone I told was actually much more chilled out about the idea of me getting a nose job than I thought they would be. The main consensus was really that if I have this huge insecurity, and have an opportunity to change it, why not do it? I think that, because other people didn’t have these issues with their own noses, it wasn’t something that they thought was a huge deal, like I did. I imagine it is like an overweight person telling me about their insecurities with their size – this is not something I am insecure about so to me it is not a big deal, but to them it could be something really difficult to talk about.
Everyone was surprised when I told them, because as I said, I never mentioned this insecurity I had. Most of the people I told were honest and said that they hadn’t really noticed a problem with my nose before, that they thought I was beautiful and I don’t need it (these were my close family and friends). They mostly said that if its something I want and is making me this unhappy, then I should do it. The reactions that I most appreciated, however, were the ones who said they didn’t think I needed it, but did understand why I was doing it. Very few people are able to be this straight and honest, but I didn’t find it offensive in the slightest, it made me feel like I wasn’t being completely stupid and that I’d made up this insecurity from nothing. Most people will also bring up their own insecurities when you tell them, which is eye-opening. Overall, in my whole nose job experience, telling people that I was getting a nose job was one of the most difficult things I had to do. However, it was definitely something that really helped me. From talking to people about it, I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. From going to not being able to even mention my nose, to now writing this for people to read, is a huge improvement for me. I felt completely at peace with having surgery - accepting that I wanted, and was going to get, a nose job.
Surgery and recovery
Firstly, make sure you have researched your surgeon, and you are completely confident that they understand what you want. The surgeon can’t promise that it is going to look exactly how you want it, so you have to be happy knowing that it could be a slight variation on what you want. Having the surgery, and going through the recovery process, was by far much easier than the emotional process before the surgery. Of course, you have to wear a splint on your face for a week, you have lots of painkillers which make you feel quite knocked off in your first few days, and the splint is uncomfortable. As well, you realise how much you take breathing through your nose for granted when you can’t do it for the first week or two. Not being able to do any sport for 4-6 weeks was also difficult for me as this is something I love, and I do to relieve stress. I would advise for anyone getting a nose job that they make sure they can recover somewhere there are people around to talk to. Even though it was something I absolutely knew I wanted to do, I still needed support in those first few days. I stayed with my parents, and was grateful to have my mum around. The first day when you’re tired, bruised, swollen, drugged up, and look pretty scary in a mirror with your splint on, its helpful to have happy people around you. It’s quite scary to look in the mirror the first time the splint’s off and see your face changed. During the first week when you get your splint off, I would also advise not to study your nose. It’s still swollen and changing. And anyway, you had a nose job so that you wouldn’t be studying your nose all the time, so just accept that it looks great and leave it alone!
After three weeks now, I am used to the way I look, and can’t really remember exactly what it was like before. I am also starting to forget that its happened when I see people, and I feel fine about telling people I’ve had my nose done if they ask. Although, most people don’t ask anyway. They probably notice I look a bit different but can't quite pin down what’s changed. A couple of people have asked if I had my teeth whitened, they thought something was different but couldn't work out what.
I can honestly say that I am extremely pleased with my new nose, and I am proud of myself for making a difficult change. My confidence has grown greatly. At the end of the day, you’re only doing it for yourself. It’s not going to affect anyone else. Remember, perfection is not a thing. No one is perfect. That’s not what you will achieve. It will simply be an improvement. Be prepared that you’re going to look different, you will get used to it, and be happy that you’ve done something positive for yourself.