*EUR/Electronic Urban Report is keeping up with the Joneses — world-renowned cosmetic and reconstructive surgeon Dr. Michael Jones and his wife, Emmy-winning journalist and actress Cathleen Trigg-Jones.
The black power couple run a multimillion-dollar cosmetic surgery practice, Lexington Plastic Surgeons, with thriving offices in New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Atlanta and Miami.
They are helping people change their lives all while building a global brand and raising a family — and they’re taking viewers along for the ride through their reality series on Centric, “We Are The Joneses.”
Each 30-minute episode features the emotional journeys of two patients looking to transform not only their bodies but their lives. This season also follows Cathleen as she embarks on her own emotional journey to find her birth parents and her charity, Trigg House, which focuses on the emancipation of foster children.
Known fondly as the “Butt Doctor,” Dr. Michael Jones has been instrumental in developing a groundbreaking procedure to treat keloids in people of color. A published author and pioneer in surgery for darker skin types, his research has enabled him to make advancements in the field such as a scar-free rhinoplasty procedure.
We caught up with the couple to dish about their new reality series, their charity, and Dr. Jones notes the impact that pop cultural has had with shaping the way the black community views cosmetic surgery.
Check out our Q&A below with Dr. Jones and Cathleen Trigg-Jones.
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What does beauty look like, according to a plastic surgeon?
Dr. Jones: Beauty to me is really understanding what the patients desire. I’m just a reflection of their image of beauty. They convey to me what they feel is beautiful to them and it’s my job, my responsibility, to try to create that with the surgery, with the procedure, with whatever it is that we’re working with to give them their idea of beauty. Sometimes I try to take my impressions of beauty out of the equation because I may have a different feel than the patient and it’s my responsibility to listen to the patient’s desires and transform them the way that they want to be transformed.
How is using television and social media to record procedures beneficial for the patient and potential clients?
Dr. Jones: It’s been tremendously beneficial to the patients. Many times, I’m sure you’ve probably even been in this situation yourself where you would’ve loved to have been in that examination room when a loved one was being treated. Maybe a child, maybe a parent, and oftentimes the doctor will tell you, “No, this is only for the patient and myself and the medical staff.” Well now through the wonderful social media possibilities that we have, you can be invited into that operating room with us to see exactly what is going on. Your family members can see exactly how you’re being treated, exactly how you’re being cared for, and it’s beneficial for the patient as well because the patient can now log back in and see after their procure is done exactly what transpired during their procedure. And for others outside of the patient’s family, it demystifies what’s happening in the operating room. You no longer have to wonder or think that some magnificent thing is happening that no one knows about except the doctor. It actually is demystifying the procedures that we do so people feel much more comfortable with their understanding of what’s going to happen.
I feel like, 20 years ago, black culture wasn’t checking for plastic surgery. But it seems that hip-hop culture and pop culture icons like Nicki Minaj and Kim Kardashian, and all these Instagram models, have changed the way black women specifically view plastic surgery. Do you find this to be true?
Dr. Jones: Absolutely. It used to be kinda taboo in our community and it was really something that was only relegated to the rich and the famous. And quiet as it’s kept, those that were black, or people of color who were rich and famous, were still getting plastic surgery but it just wasn’t talked about. And now, there’s so many people and media icons that are very open about it, and because prices have fallen significantly because there’s a lot more surgeons out there performing these procedures so there’s a lot more supply of the procedures and the prices come down. It’s now readily accessible to the everyday person and the vast majority of our patients are middle class, everyday folks. They’re not rich. They’re not famous. They’re just moms, dads, school teachers, police officers. That is our bread and butter patient these days.
And what are some of the popular procedures that patients are coming in for? Does everyone want a new butt?
Dr: Jones: It really depends on the age and the sex, so for an older, middle-aged-to-older woman, they often have children so the most requested procedures are those that revolve around a mommy makeover. So that would be taking away that extra skin of the abdomen, tightening the muscles from pregnancy that have gotten loose, lifting the breasts or augmenting the breasts because after breastfeeding or just going through pregnancy itself, breasts might fall. That tends to be the most popular procedure that we do. But we also get more requests for Brazilian butt lifts than ever, that is definitely one of the procedures that we do the most in the practice. And that helps in sculpting the body because we’re taking the fat around the waistline, the upper and lower back, the sides, the front and we’re transferring that to the butt and giving it the illusion that it’s been lifted back to what it used to look like or even bigger than what it used to look like.
And then for men, the bread and butter procedures are liposuction, rhinoplasty – nose reshaping, and eyelid surgery because a lot of men will start to get bags around the eyes or hurling over the eyes, which makes them look a little older. So that’s a very common procedure for men.
This season on the show, you embarked on an emotional journey to find your birth parents. Talk about how transformative this process has been for you.
Cathleen: Anytime you go on a journey and you go inside and allow yourself to be that vulnerable, you learn about yourself. You learn about others. You learn about your place in the world. You really learn about what matters and what really doesn’t matter in life, and that’s what this has really been about for me. I started off as an orphan. I was in foster care the first couple years of my life and I never really thought I needed to know anything about that past and I didn’t think that it even bothered me but once we started filming “We Are The Joneses” and it would come up then a lot of emotion would be tangled into my answers and I didn’t know where it was coming from. It was like, wait a minute… I never thought this even mattered but I guess it really does. And that’s why I made the decision to include it in the show because I realize that if this bothers me, there’s so many people out there who are bothered by this. So many people who have been adopted or who’ve given a child up for adoption or who may have been in and out of the system for one reason or another, and I wanted to be able to show that it doesn’t matter where you come from, it’s really where you land and that you can still do this. And for me, it wasn’t always easy. I wanted to show that I’ve worked hard. I’ve struggled and I still struggle emotionally with some of the issues from my past, but you can overcome it and that’s what this journey is about for me.
My charity Trigg House, I founded back in 2006 and it was something that Dr. Jones and I started out just helping families every year. Our family would adopt a family every year that we can make a difference in the life of. And this year we adopted five families, which was a huge blessing and it’s growing. I have six foster girls that I’m taking behind the scenes of “We Are the Joneses” — two of them are about to age out of the system so I’m extremely excited about that. So I think for me, in general, as executive producer of this show, we really wanted to show a give back. It’s not just about vanity and plastic surgery. It’s not just about making people look good on the outside. That’s a huge part of it and it’s fun but it’s also about what’s on the inside. What makes people who they are on the inside and how can we help make a difference there.
Do the people coming to you expect to get “fixed” because they feel bad about themselves? Seems the esteem needs to be checked before you go under the knife.
Cathleen: Everything that we do is about helping people on the inside before we do anything on the outside. Dr. Jones spends time talking with patients about that. That’s my key message to women, girls, men — anyone. Truth is, we all have things that we’re not happy about and there’s things that bring us down emotionally, mentally – self-esteem wise. Some of us hit the gym fives days a week to address that. Some of us get our hair done or a weave or get our nails done, whatever it is that makes you feel better, plastic surgery is no different. But none of it will make you feel better if you don’t feel better on the inside and so that’s what we really try to teach people: do the work on the inside. It’s like making money. You think once you make money everything will be better. Well, it’s not if you haven’t changed your circumstance. And I think that’s what we try to show, and we show a lot of that on the show as well.
Dr. Jones: We are talking to patients prior to surgery. That is half of what we are trying to figure out in speaking to them, what is it motivating them. What is driving them to walk through this door and consider cosmetic surgery because I want to know are you doing this for the right reasons or for the wrong reasons because if you’re doing it for the wrong reasons and doing it for someone else, if you’re doing it because you think this is going to change some deep-seated emotional scar, it’s not. And so I wanna always be in line with what the patient is expecting so that I know that I can deliver what it is that they’re looking for.
What are you hoping viewers take away from this series and your family dynamic?
Cathleen: I think it’s several things. We intentionally crafted this show to be inspirational, aspirational, as well as entertaining. So the takeaway for us is that we hope people will leave feeling inspired. Whether it’s inspired by knowing that you don’t have to live with something that you’re unhappy with in your looks, or whether it’s being inspired by seeing a black couple like us that’s really working together, staying married, raising a family, building a business together, or whether you’re inspired by one of the patient’s stories and seeing what they went through or what they struggled with — how they were suffering inside and coming on our show and having surgery made such a difference in their lives. Maybe you’re inspired by my story or by Dr. Jones, seeing a black plastic surgeon who has worked really hard to build a business that’s expanded in five cities. So for me, I think that’s the takeaway. It’s really inspiration, aspiration, and entertainment.
“We Are The Joneses” airs Saturdays on Centric at 10/9c.
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