Rodrigo Alves, known as the new Human Ken doll, has turned himself into a hit with his numerous amount of plastic surgery. But does the guy have a problem?

One person who would know is Dr. John Kahen, Aves' hair transplant surgeon, who claims that not only does the Botched celeb not have any kind of mental issue, but his procedures have turned him into a better person.

Enstars recently got the chance to chat with Dr. Kahen to find out more details on Alves, talk about why people choose to get plastic surgery, how he handles patients that don’t need cosmetic surgery and more.

Enstars: Can you talk about your medical background and how you got into this specialty?
John Kahen: I got my undergrad at UCLA. And then I went to Albert Einstein School of Medicine. Then I went to Beth Israel Medical in New York City to do surgical training. Then I did liver and organ transplant at NYU...I was balding at that time. I had pretty much zero hair, myself. Then I met this gentleman in New York City who was doing hair transplant so he did a hair transplant on me and …” I [thought] this is an interesting field because not that many people are doing it and for my personal reasons battling with hair loss and it gave me confidence...and I decided maybe I should change my career and move forward.

What was it like when you first met Rodrigo Alves?
 Very pleasant. I didn't know about his before pictures as far as what he looked like years ago before having these surgical plastic surgeries. And when I looked at him I [thought], “not a bad looking guy.” He looked well put together.

Due to the numerous amount of surgeries he's received, some might wonder if Rodrigo has a mental problem. What are your thoughts on that?
People think he probably has some mental disorder that he's going through all this surgery, but honestly, he doesn't...He had like his third or fourth rhinoplasty surgery--but the poor guy really did need it because it looked a bit crooked and not the way it had to look...He looks very confident...I don't think he had the confidence before. He told me that before all these procedures that he was lonely and had no friends and was sitting home doing nothing. He's very social now. And I don't think he had that power before his 32 procedures.

He needed to have all these things done to himself to get to where he is right now. And obviously the publicity he has is behind this as well...he's going around and he's getting free things, he's been in GQ [Italy] magazine, he does some modeling and things like that. I don't think with that image he had in the past he would be able to do any of this. So I think he's marketing himself doing this.

But as far as having a mental issue, I don't think he has a problem.

Rodrigo has said it's difficult for him to stop getting plastic surgery. If he keeps getting procedures, does that mean anything?
The only surgeries he'll keep doing is to fix procedures that went bad. There's nothing else he can do....But whatever happened that didn't come out well, he's going back to fix.

Alves is known as the “Human Ken Doll,” much like the “Human Barbies” (of which there are several). Is what Rodrigo's doing with his image different from what these other people are doing?
Rodrigo is trying to fix his self-image. I don't think those people are really trying to...Rodrigo had plastic surgeries from what he was before to what he is right now. He looks a lot better, but those Barbies--they look like anorexic. They don't look proper. They look sick. They look dehydrated.

Being in L.A., it might seem like a lot of people get plastic surgery for superficial reasons.
We have patients that come over here and they want to look Kim Kardashian, looking to compete with that sort of image. But we have [patients] who want to look younger...Here we have the beach, people go out, they like to show off their bodies, they got to show off their hair. So it's more prestigious being done out here and that's because of the environment. I don't think it has anything to do with chasing a superstar...but mostly it has to do with the fact that the weather is nicer and people want to look better.

What's your take on people who want to get plastic surgery just to look like a celebrity or to look attractive when they already are?
The most important thing that we look into is not asking, but talking to the patient [about] the goals and expectations to make sure they don't have any underlying psychological problems. Because some of those people have a lot of different problems. They have this image in their head that they're going to be looking like this and trying to chase somebody, which is impossible to do.

They have tons of hair and they have a good image and you tell them, “There's nothing wrong with you. There's nothing to fix.” And they're just, “No, I want to be this, I want to do this.” So we stop them. We tell them “You look great the way you are right now. And why don't you go home and think about it and see what you think about what I told you versus jumping into any surgical procedures.”

What do you think is considered to be irresponsible plastic surgery?
 It's irresponsible if the patient is not a candidate for that specific surgery and the surgeon goes and does that procedure...When patients come in, first we have to talk to them examine the patient, ask them all the medical questions [to see] if the patient is really a candidate. And those expectations are very important to discuss during the consultation.

Is the "Human Ken Doll" something that Rodrigo was striving to be labeled?
 [Laughs] No. It pisses him off.

Tags
Human Ken Rodrigo Alves, Interview