What’s In (and Out) for Body Cosmetic Surgery in 2026

Announcer (00:02):
You are listening to Alabama the Beautiful with cosmetic surgeon, Dr. James Koehler and Kirstin Jarvis.

Kirstin (00:10):
Hey, Dr. Gardner.

Dr. Gardner (00:12):
Hey, how are you, Kirstin?

Kirstin (00:14):
Good. You want to know what we're talking about today?

Dr. Gardner (00:16):
What are we talking about today?

Kirstin (00:17):
Well, we got Dr. Koehler's facial predictions for 2026, and today we're going to pick your brain about your predictions for cosmetic body surgery in 2026.

Dr. Gardner (00:29):
All right.

Kirstin (00:31):
Last year I had Dr. Koehler share his predictions for 2025, and now that you're here with us focusing on body procedures, I've got some 2026 predictions for body cosmetic surgery to run by you.

Dr. Koehler (00:45):
And just for the record, I was a hundred percent accurate on all of those last year, so just no pressure.

Kirstin (00:51):
I think you missed one.

Dr. Koehler (00:54):
Okay. All right.

Dr. Gardner (00:55):
Lay it on me.

Kirstin (00:56):
Okay, we're going to agree or disagree. Recent data reveals a 54% annual growth in aesthetic procedures among GLP one users. Do you feel like that's true?

Dr. Gardner (01:10):
I think that's true.

Kirstin (01:12):
Why is that?

Dr. Gardner (01:14):
I just think that you have people that probably never thought that they were a candidate for any kind of cosmetic surgery, and now they've lost a hundred, 150, sometimes 200. I've even had patients lose 250 pounds. And so a couple things. One, you've had somebody who never even thought about cosmetic surgery and all of a sudden they've lost all this weight and now they have a new problem. They have a skin problem, an excess skin problem, and so they're seeking out different avenues to try to take care of this. They're tired of wearing two Spanx under their gym clothes. They're tired of chafing or rubbing and sagging skin can cause lots of problems. And two, they feel better physically, but when they look in the mirror, they don't feel better because they see all this excess skin. And I have plenty of people that say, I still see a big person because of the extra skin. So I think you're going to continue to see a rise. As long as we're seeing people lose weight, I think you're going to see a continued rise in cosmetic procedures.

Kirstin (02:25):
Perfect. Alright, so we are going to talk about whether you agree or disagree that 360 body lifts in tummy tucks will be more popular than ever before in 2026.

Dr. Gardner (02:38):
I agree. I think they will for the same reasons. People don't realize when you lose that amount of weight, what it does to your butt. We talk about ozempic butt, and it can happen with bariatric surgery or medicines, medical weight loss doesn't matter when you lose that kind of weight, your butt sags. And so for a circumferential body lift, that's basically a buttock lift combined with a tummy tuck. And so I think you're going to see a rise in both because we have obviously an obesity epidemic, and as more and more people look to either surgery or GLP ones, especially with some of the newer GLP ones coming out that not only affect two, but now three different areas. So I think you're going to see more and more of that because people are going to be looking for it as they lose weight.

Kirstin (03:34):
So along that line, our number two question is, do you think that we're going to start coining the term GLP one makeover as opposed to mommy makeover and that those are going to start becoming pretty common this year?

Dr. Gardner (03:47):
Yeah, I don't know if we'd call it a GLP one makeover. I would just call it a massive weight loss makeover because we don't discriminate. We don't care how you lose your weight, but we can still help. And I think that's the key is that for us, as long as you're healthy, and again, what do I mean by that? Well, we want to operate on people that are healthy because we want them to have good outcomes. And I've had a couple people that literally starved themselves to lose weight. Those are very unhealthy people and your complication risk goes up, so we don't care how you lose the weight. But yeah, you can call it a GLP one makeover if you want, but I tend to call it a massive weight loss makeover.

Kirstin (04:27):
Perfect. How about liposuction will be more popular as more people lose weight or will it be less popular? What's really happening?

Dr. Gardner (04:37):
I know that's interesting because there are a lot of people that by the time I see them, they're skin only, meaning that there really isn't much to lipo. I guess you could always tweak an area with liposuction, but I see plenty of people that have lost so much weight that they actually don't need liposuction. Having said that, we still see a lot of patients that have lost quite a bit of weight, but they still would benefit from liposuction. So I'm going to say that it will probably continue to rise even though there's plenty of people that don't need it because they've lost all their weight.

Dr. Koehler (05:11):
I don't know. The one thing I would say is since the GLP ones, I see fewer people that came into my office that were basically obese patients seeking liposuction to lose weight. The misconception that, oh, liposuction is a weight loss procedure and I can get the doctor to suck off my fat. And now that these GLP ones are pretty effective in having people lose weight, I think we're seeing a shift in some of those people looking to that approach versus just coming to see if somebody can suck it off, which not a good idea anyhow.

Dr. Gardner (05:48):
Yeah, yeah, that's a good point.

Kirstin (05:51):
We already talked about, and we have heard of ozempic face, ozempic butt, finger, body, arms, even private parts. So every body part that you can think of has pretty much been a headline. What do you think the next body part will be?

Dr. Gardner (06:09):
Ozempic hair.

Kirstin (06:10):
Oh,

Dr. Gardner (06:11):
Or ozempic. Well, you said finger. Let's do ozempic toe.

Kirstin (06:16):
Okay. Are there any new aesthetic procedures that you think are going to emerge as a result of weight loss meds?

Dr. Gardner (06:24):
Well, I don't know if there's any new ones that will emerge. I think like you talked earlier, I think you're going to see an uptick thigh lifts brachioplasties, because those are specific to patients that are massive weight loss patients and not necessarily somebody that's had a baby. Right? We talk about a mommy makeover and those patients, typically it's breast and abdomen and could be labia other things for a mommy makeover, but typically it's breast and abdomen, whereas massive weight loss patients, it's every part of their body. And so I think that's the big difference there. But I don't necessarily foresee anything new as far as procedures go.

Kirstin (07:06):
Okay. Finally, we're going to get a breast prediction from you. This is the year of shape, over size, smaller breast implants, explan with lifts, auto augmentation. Do you think more women are going to keep trending towards smaller breast implants?

Dr. Gardner (07:24):
I do in the short term, but I think it's all cyclical. And I think that five years from now, 10 years from now, we're going to be back to bigger implants, bigger breasts, who knows. But just like with remodeling trends for your house, what was out 10 years ago is going to come back around. So I think we may see that recycle, but for now, I definitely think it's going to be smaller and more natural. And again, I will just say that's in the eye of the beholder because I see plenty of patients that come in and they want a natural look, but they say, I want everything up high. Well, clearly that's an augmented look. So it depends on what you, and what I always say is, is that augmented is the new natural when it comes to young people. So it'll be interesting to see what happens.

Kirstin (08:14):
Will breast implant removal stay popular as social media makes more women worry about implants?

Dr. Gardner (08:21):
I don't know. Great question. I will probably just say yes, because again, I think that trend has been there. Maybe it's waxed a little bit in the last year or two, but we still see those patients. We see plenty of patients that are concerned have some sort of autoimmune issue. But I don't know. That's a good question. And I'm waffling.

Dr. Koehler (08:47):
Well, whether people want to follow the science or not. There's more and more publications coming out that are really showing there's no difference in the capsules and patients who have implants with no systemic effects and those patients that are symptomatic. And so I feel like as the more and more data comes out, there's not this conclusive like, oh, even if for instance, even if taking the implants out is the key to making somebody better, the necessity of doing these aggressive cap ectomies, complete cap ectomies is maybe not necessary. So my thought is if people are really following what the research is bearing out, I'm sure there'll still be people taking their implants out, but maybe not seeking out as aggressive a treatment as what was proposed without any data whatsoever. So we'll see.

Dr. Gardner (09:40):
Yeah, and you had the story about the patient that had lupus and then got implants, and the concern was, well, if I'd gotten the lupus after the implants, I would've blamed the implants. And I have a similar story of a patient who came to me and had implants for several years, developed some autoimmune conditions and felt like it was her implants, took the implants out and no improvement. And three years later, she came back and we put her implants back in because none of her symptoms resolved. So I think you can find, obviously, people on both side of that issue, and they're extremely vocal and extremely, I guess, behind their cause. But I would just say that I agree. It's one of those things that's not conclusive, and depending on what you're reading and what camp you're in, you're going to believe a certain thing and nobody's going to change your opinion.

Kirstin (10:36):
Okay. While we're talking about breasts, what is auto augmentation and do you think it's going to be popular in 2026?

Dr. Gardner (10:44):
Great question. So I'm going to start by talking about butts, even though you asked me about breasts. So I used to do a lot of, or still do a lot of buttock augmentations, and I just wasn't satisfied with them because everybody that I did one on their butt looked tighter, the skin was tighter, but they were flatter. So anyway, what I started doing was an auto augmentation where instead of just cutting out all of that tissue, we used some of that tissue to tuck it under the buttock skin to volumize the buttock. So instead of a buttock implant, we used their own tissue and did an auto augmentation. So we're using their own tissue as an implant, so to speak. So with breasts, you do the same thing. When we do a breast lift, it's almost always, or most of the time, there's going to be some amount of breast tissue that is removed when we do the lift. Well, instead of removing that tissue, you're going to use that tissue as a natural breast implant to augment the rest of the breast. So the breast becomes more shapely, you get more volume, and it's essentially trying to replace a prosthetic implant with your own auto implant. So

Dr. Koehler (12:07):
It's been tried for many, many years, different techniques, and the reality of it is it doesn't really work very well. And if it did, people would be, if that was an option, people would be doing that instead of implants. And I think temporarily it looks good, but in the end, the weight of that tissue tends to sag down and not look good.

Dr. Gardner (12:29):
And that's the difference between a butt and a breast, right? Gravity always wins. So when you do an auto augmentation on a breast, like Dr. Koehler said, gravity ends up winning and it pulls the tissue down to the lower pole. Well, in a buttock lift, that's actually what you want. And so it tends to favor one procedure and unfortunately does not favor the breast.

Kirstin (12:54):
Alright. Do you have a big prediction on what the most major shift in body aesthetics is going to be for 2026?

Dr. Gardner (13:03):
Shift?

Kirstin (13:04):
Anything you think is going to boom this year?

Dr. Gardner (13:06):
I'm hoping body lifts and skin removal will boom because that's the part that I enjoy the most. But I don't know. I do think as we see more and more weight loss patients, we are going to see more and more skin removal. So I'm going to go with just skin removal.

Kirstin (13:23):
Okay.

Dr. Gardner (13:25):
All types,

Kirstin (13:27):
All types. Head to toe.

Dr. Gardner (13:29):
We don't discriminate.

Kirstin (13:32):
Alright. Do you have a burning question for Dr. Koehler or Dr. Gardner or me? You can leave us a voicemail on our podcast website at AlabamatheBeautifulPodcast.com. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks, Dr. Gardner and Dr. Koehler.

Dr. Gardner (13:46):
Thanks, Kirsten.

Kirstin (13:47):
Get back to making Alabama beautiful.

Announcer (13:51):
Got a question for Dr. Koehler. Leave us a voicemail at AlabamaTheBeautifulPodcast.com. Dr. James Koehler is a cosmetic surgeon practicing in Fairhope, Alabama. To learn more about Dr. Koehler and Eastern Shore Cosmetic surgery, go to easternshorecosmeticsurgery.com. The commentary in this podcast represents opinion and does not present medical advice, but general information that does not necessarily relate to the specific conditions of any individual patient. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it and subscribe to Alabama the Beautiful on YouTube, apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. Follow us on Instagram @EasternShoreCosmeticSurgery,.Alabama the Beautiful is a production of The Axis, theaxis.io.