More minorities opt for surgery

After having her second child, Yipsy Saez decided she didn't like what she saw in the mirror.

So she decided in December to become the first in her extended family of Cuban-Americans to get plastic surgery, specifically a breast lift and tummy tuck.

"My husband is so athletic, a black belt in karate, and with me, everything was hanging," said Saez, a 38-year-old nurse in Lutz who says she feels 28 inside. "You do see all these famous women who exercise all the time and look so good, but that's not real life for most people."

Non-Caucasian women such as Saez represent a small but fast-growing part of an otherwise dismal plastic surgery market - and plastic surgeons say new patients such as Saez are coming with different agendas that mix influences from pop culture with expectations from their community backgrounds.

According to data from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons:

Among black women, a top procedure is breast reduction.

Among Hispanic women, it's breast enlargement.

Among Asian-American women, it's nose reshaping.

As women in each demographic become more affluent or more integrated into American culture, they tend to focus more on how their bodies compare with a physical ideal in America.

"My family is from Cuba," Saez said. "And there, men tend to appreciate a woman with a big behind, and they do not care about breasts as much. But here, men look at the breasts and it's a whole different thing."

More advanced surgeries that minimize scarring are helping attract women in demographic groups with darker skin who held off surgery, said Joshua Halpern, a plastic surgeon in Tampa who did work on Saez. That's one reason sales to Hispanic women rose 18 percent in 2008. Sales to Asian women rose 5 percent, and sales to black women rose 10 percent.

"As each new generation here gets more capital in their pocket, they're thinking about surgery to help make them feel better," Halpern said. "They're thinking this isn't just for movie stars."