Plastic Surgery Hides Bride’s Face from Family

Plastic surgery is not uncommon among brides-to-be who want to look their best for the big day. A bride in India went a few extra steps by using cosmetic surgery to conceal her identity and secretly marry her fiance.

A woman in India recently went to the extreme of having plastic surgery to change her appearance so she could secretly marry her fiance.

The 25-year-old bride-to-be, who remains anonymous, arrived in Mumbai in December and underwent two facial surgeries to change her appearance. She received a rhinoplasty and then additional surgeries on her dimples, jaw line and forehead in a surgery that lasted eight hours. Reportedly, the majority  of the procedures the woman underwent are reversible – allowing her to return to her old appearance, more or less, at any time.

But why such a change?

According to the Hindustan Times, the families of the prospective bride and groom have been in a feud for 20 years, and a marriage – or at least the traditional ceremony they had hoped for – would not have been permitted in their culture.

These plastic surgeries, however, which made the bride unrecognizable to both families, has now made their marriage possible.

Mohan Thomas, the cosmetic surgeon who performed the operations, told the Hindustan Times, “They had decided to change (her) looks to ensure that the man’s family accepts her.”

He added that this request was the first of its kind during his 25 years in practice, and that his first response to their request was to refer the couple to a psychiatrist. “Their reason for opting for cosmetic surgery was so astonishing that I thought they required counseling,” he said.

In fact, the bride and groom each spent two sessions with a psychiatrist – who eventually reported that they were “sane, mentally sound and completely prepared for the consequences.”

Plastic surgery is common among brides-to-be who want to look better than usual during their big day. But this case, where a bride takes pains to look almost completely different, is either highly rare or a first altogether.