Cosmetic Surgery and Beauty Magazine #67

feature
If 2014 was the year of the Selfie then 2015 is shaping up to be the year of
the “Brotox”. Cosmetic enhancement for men isn’t just on the rise; it’s
positively booming.
According to current statistics from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic
Surgery (ASAPS), the number of cosmetic procedures for men has increased by
more than 273 percent since 1997.
By far the biggest contributor to this statistic is non-surgical procedures.
According to ASAPS figures, the top surgical procedure for men is liposuction,
with nearly 52,000 men in America having the surgery in 2013. Compare
this, however, with the top non-surgical procedure, anti-wrinkle injections – a
whopping 385,000 men had botulinum toxin injections in the same period.
In total, men had more than one million cosmetic procedures performed
in the US alone in 2013 and this number is set to rise in the pending 2014
ASAPS statistics.
Men are wanting more
‘Cosmetic surgery for men is a booming field, and non-surgical treatments are
growing exponentially faster than surgical,’ says US plastic surgeon Dr Grant
Stevens. ‘Men wear resumes on their face – we are seeing more men come in
for fillers and anti-wrinkle injections. It’s no longer just the domain of women.’
Such has been the steady growth each year of male clientele that Dr Stevens
has recently opened Man Land, a separate male-only cosmetic clinic that looks
more like a cross between a sports bar and a smoking lounge.
There’s been a shift in attitudes towards male cosmetic enhancement,
particularly over the past few years. Better information, better access, more
predictable results and the widespread use of non-surgical treatment are factors
contributing to the increase in men visiting their cosmetic practitioner. Competition
in the job market and being attractive to women are also key motivators to ‘going
under the knife’.
More and more men are opting to refresh an ageing face, remove unwanted
body hair, get rid of love handles, etch a six-pack, and possess a more chiselled
chin – and that’s just scratching the surface. Today’s attitude is about making
guys feel good about looking great.
The fact that a number of male celebrities have spoken out about their own
surgery has perhaps also gone some way to remove any stigma attached to the
male makeover.
Tough-talking celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay first revealed he had undergone
cosmetic surgery in 2009 to improve the appearance of deep lines in his chin.
‘Simon Cowell suggested that now I’m a success in America, I should do
something, so I had a filler put under the deep crevices,’ he told the Radio Times
in an interview at the time. ‘My mother said they were smile lines. I could deal
with that at 21, but not at 42.’
Hollywood heartthrob George Clooney did his part to promote male surgery
when he underwent surgery to remove eye bags — something he admitted
to Julia Roberts during an interview for Oprah Winfrey’s Oscars special
back in 2007. Once voted the ‘Sexiest Man Alive’, Clooney had a blepharoplasty
to improve the appearance of sagging, aged skin and small pockets of fat
around the eye area. Asked what had been the last biggest change in his life,
Clooney told Roberts: ‘I had my eyes done. Can you tell? I think it’s important to
look awake.’
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