I had a bulbous tipped nose. I was often teased.

I decided to post this review after responding to another users post about Dr. Rod Rohrich. She apparently had a great experience with him. I voiced my opinion on his work and how unsatisfied I am with the results. Someone asked for me to post the photos. I thought long and hard about it and decided it may help others with their decision. Real Self asks for proof of service, which I did not think I had because the surgery was in 2006, but low and behold tucked away in the back of my file cabinet was documentation from the hospital and his office. I had a bulbous tipped nose. When I was a child, and even into adulthood, I was often teased and called ugly to my face because of how big my nose was. So, I decided to have Rhinoplasty done. This was not an easy decision in part because as an African American nose jobs are taboo. While Black people will demean one another over things that make us inherently sub–Saharan African we will also condemn those who choose to alter ourselves to look more like what is praised by the greater society and subsequently our community. I am not saying that every Black person that choses to have plastic surgery done is doing so to look like the “ideal beauty” standard (I wasn’t doing that), but that is how it is perceived.

I told only a couple of people that I was going to have the surgery. One friend was equally plastic surgery obsessed and even went with me out of state for a consultation. I started researching surgeons and scheduled a couple of consultations locally but did not trust those small-town doctors. I saw one prominent surgeon who told me he would not do the surgery because he was not used to working on Black noses and he would rather pass on the job and save his reputation than take the job just for money. I had sent my photos off to another prominent surgeon in LA and he too said no but recommended Dr. Rohrich. I contacted Dr. Rohrich and sent him my photos.

I am a bit fuzzy on whether I scheduled the consultation or the surgery for late summer/early fall, but they ended up having an opening in late July for surgery. I do not live in Texas and we had only communicated via email. So, I flew to Texas for the consultation/surgery. The consultation happened a day or two before the surgery. I figured if I did not mesh with him that I could cancel the surgery and probably just pay a fee. This goes without saying but he and his staff are very professional, and his offices are beautiful. He told me that he wrote the book on ethnic noses; that he is an expert and knows what he is doing. For the consultation he had the photos that I had sent and had made markings on them and explained what he wanted to do. I told him specifically that I did NOT want to end up looking like MJ or LK. That what I wanted was for the tip to be refined. We discussed the bridge of my nose and I remember saying that Blacks have flat undefined bridges. He said no we do not. That should have been my clue to leave. We discussed it further and I felt that he understood what I wanted. He clearly did not. 

I had the bandages removed a few days later I can say I was in shock at how bad my nose looked. It was so bad that the nurse who removed the bandages recoiled. She put fresh bandages over my nose so I could go back to the hotel and for the flight home. I looked like one of the pig people from The Twilight Zone Episode Eye of the Beholder. My nose is pointy like a triangle and the Septum is crooked. Even my mother commented on it. The tip eventually dropped some but as you can see from the photos not a lot. From what I understand of this procedure if the Depressor muscles are cut then the nose will no longer point down and gives the impression of a longer upper lip, which is why some people end up getting a Lip Lift. This has created the drastic angle that you see between my nose and upper lip, which is distinctly Caucasian. Caucasian people have the largest Nasolabial angle of any group of people. So he clearly created a Caucasian nose on my face! The bridge is pronounced now and protrudes. He does not know sub–Saharan African facial features, but he is not the only one. I have seen a couple of Black women on social media that had Rhinoplasty and had the same results. Someone asked me if I am considering a revision. While I do think about it from time-to-time…NO! I do not believe these doctors understand the Black face and what we want from the surgery. They cannot give me back what is lost, and I am afraid that I will end up with even worse results. If you are a Black person who is considering this surgery maybe take time to really think about what you want and how to best convey it to the surgeon. Also look through their photos to see if they have examples of their work on Black people. If they don’t have a lot of photos that may be an indicator that they don’t do a lot of work on Blacks. It is like they assume we are chasing whiteness and we want to look Caucasian. Maybe some do but a lot of us do not. We just want a better version of our African features.

Dr. Rohrich performed my rhinoplasty several years ago. The tip of my nose was initially so upturned that you could see directly up my nostrils. There is an episode of the original Twilight Zone called Eye of the Beholder, where there are these characters that look like pigs. Their nostrils are large and wide open. That's exactly what my nose looked like when the bandages initially came off. I felt like I looked like a monster. The results were so bad that his nurse suggested that I wear the bandages back to the hotel. I was kicking my self for having the surgery done because the results were worse than my actual nose. The tip did drop but not enough so that you can't see up my nose. The septum is crooked, and the bridge also protrudes more. It's awful! If you are a person of color you my not want to see this doctor especially if you do not want to eradicate your ethnic nose but just want to make improvements.