WASHINGTON (INA) — Observed a leading Democratic speaker at a fund-raising dinner in Wisconsin, “The last time I was here in Milwaukee, Gaylord (Sen. Gaylord Nelson) had hair, and Bill (Sen. William Proxmire) didn’t. Now Gaylord is balding, and Bill has hair.”
Obviously, several years had passed since his last visit. A Senate veteran of 18 years, Nelson, like so many men at 64, is balding. Proxmire, a young-looking 65, hasn’t turned back the clock; he was one of the first in the U.S. Senate to seek hair transplants.
When Abraham Lincoln ran for president, only a handful of people ever saw him. Today, TV plays a crucial role in political campaigns. So does modern technology; jet aircraft shuttle candidates to several cities in a single day allowing them to personally greet masses of voters at each. Such mobility was impossible years ago.
A candidate’s looks influences voters. We don’t want someone who represents us in Congress or in the White House to look dissipated or tired — after all, none of us want to look that way. Our culture is youth-oriented; people want to look as young as they can for as long as they can.
“You’ve got to be kidding — you’d vote for Ronald Reagan? He’s going to be 70!” The comment is often heard in this year’s presidential campaign.
Politicians want to look younger and better — for personal reasons and for their constituents – – and they feel the competition with younger opponents and colleagues.
Many politicians have turned to cosmetic surgery.
“One evening, I looked in the mirror and I realized I .looked like I did when I woke up that morning. Then I knew it was time,” says Rep. Barry Goldwater Jr., R-Calif. Shortly after his· 40th birthday he had his eyelids lifted surgically. His eyelids had blurred his sight, but that was only part of the reason for the surgery. “I’m interested in looking good for political reasons as well as personal reasons,” says the bachelor congressman.
Another bachelor, Rep. G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery, D-Miss., also had an eyelift. “I feel more comfortable now. It makes me look younger and more attractive … I want to look neat for the people I represent in Washington,” he says.
“We form our impressions of what we think of people by just looking at them,” says Dr. Clyde Litton, a Washington, D.C., plastic surgeon. Dr. Litton has nipped and tucked many politicians, their wives, and other high government officials before they faced the cameras.
“The better-looking we are, the more we’re going to be liked by a bigger volume of people,” says Litton. “If you see somebody who’s unattractive, they have to overcome a barrier before you like them.”
Regardless of what a politican has to say, if he is physically unattractive, he has to sell a little bit harder. The nature of campaigning has changed. It’s no longer just a matter of stumping.
“Politicians are really actors. They are on a big stage, up there on the Hill, and they have to look good,” says Litton.
Litton says one in every six of his patients are men. Men, he says, most frequently seek eyelid surgery (removal of skin that droops over the eyelid) and hair transplants.
Aside from performing surgery on many candidates themselves, Litton has done cosmetic surgery, ranging from eyelifts to tummy tucks, on wives of presidential and senatorial candidates.
The results are not just physical, notes plastic surgeon Dr. Diane Colgan, a former Navy commander now in private practice in suburban Washington.
She says, “It’s a great mental uplift, an ego builder, to come in and say, ‘Look, I don’t like these jowls. I don’t like this turkey neck. I don’t feel as old as I look, and I’d rather not look that way. I want to look better,”‘
Dr. Colgan performed Rep. Montgomery’s eyelift, recently removed a growth on Liz Taylor’s face and has treated other Washington VIP’s. One reason she left the service, she says, is that “the Navy and the U.S. government view plastic surgery as a peacetime luxury that they probably could do without.”
“Considering the cost of plastic surgery, it probably is a luxury,” she admits. An eyelift in the Washington area generally costs from $1,200 and $1,500; a facelift, from $1,200 to $2,000. Hair transplants cost about $15 a plug and several hundred plugs may be needed. However, insurance often covers the cost of the upper eyelids if the vision is partially obstructed.
She says many — particularly vote-needy politicians — consider good appearance essential to professional survival. Others see their face “as one’s passport to just continue their lifestyle and do the things that they have always done.”
“I’ve got four children, and the youngest is 4 years old,” says Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., 77. “I’m older along in life, but actually, I’m pretty young, so hair transplants add to my physical appearance.” He had 250 plugs transplanted over a six-month period in 1970 by Dr. Ronald Cameron, who also did Sen. Proxmire’s transplants.
“I think most (politicians) do it for personal reasons,” says Dr. Cameron. “I think these same people, if they were in business situations or legal situations, would come to the same personal decision that they want to look their best. They don’t want to look tired. They don’t want to look aged. They feel good. They feel competitive, and they want to project that image.”
“The level of vanity is the same whether it’s someone in the public eye, Congress, the military, or a housewife,” says Dr. Colgan. A housewife may not be highly visible publicly, says Dr. Colgan, but,”If she doesn’t like what she sees in the mirror, then she seeks out some way to improve that. If that makes her feel better, that’s the whole name of the game.
“We’re all vain or we wouldn’t get up in the morning and comb our hair or brush our teeth or put on clean clothes,” she adds. “I’m not sure it’s justified to say that people who have had face lifts or eyelif ts are more vain.”
Aided by the media and such public figures as former First Lady Betty Ford who have gone public with their f acelifts, attitudes are changing. Cosmetic surgery is becoming more acceptable to the general public.
Initially, cosmetic surgery was restricted to the rich and celebrities, later to politicians·, because they could afford it and were always being caught by the camera.
Many, such as Sen. Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson, D-Wash., are reluctant to discuss their cosmetic surgery openly, but some will.
“I’m not embarrassed,” says Thurmond. “You buy a new suit of clothes to improve your appearance. I think this adds to your appearance as wen · as protects your scalp from the weather. Now I don’t have to wear a hat as often.”
The best eye lift is a subtle one. “I had terribly baggy eyes,” says Rep. Bob Badham, R-Calif.” At the suggestion of my wife and mirror, I had an eyelift.” This type of surgery is common in the Newport Beach, Calif., area in which Badham represents, but it went unnoticed by his constituents. The scar is almost invisible — just a thin line across the fold of the upper lid and another under the lash line. Badham had the surgery performed in Washington during the congressional recess, then wore dark glasses on the House floor for two weeks to cover his black eyes until they healed.
Eyelifts often go unnoticed. But many congressmen and senators who wear dark glasses and have no intention of telling people about their surgery, forget, while making a point during speech, and unconsciously take the glasses off. Then colleagues notice and ask the origin of their black eyes.
Hair transplants are not so easily concealed; it takes a whole year for the hair to grow out to the desired length.
The three plastic surgeons interviewed handle most of the politicians who seek cosmetic surgery in Washington. They say that more and more politicians, and people in all walks of life, will seek these procedures in the future. But, with any surgical procedure, there is an element of risk. No one can wave a magic wand and have beautiful results a few days later.
How much cosmetic surgery helps a politician on the campaign trail is still to be determined but, says Cameron, “Most people are going to find it’s going to be a tremendous advantage … even if it just makes them feel better about themselves. That’s what you really want.”
He adds, “I want them to come out just feeling better because of the way they look. If that happens, then they’re going to project a better image to other people. If the individual himself feels good, then he’s going to get the results that he wants.”
That result might just be a ticket to Washington.