The latest statistics show that more men are having plastic surgery, with some surgical procedures showing significant increases. Facelifts for men, for instance, were up 14 percent in 2010 compared to 2009. Since 1997, the number of men getting cosmetic procedures has increased 88 percent.
Special Considerations for Men
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), the top surgical procedures for men in 2010 were nose surgery, eyelid surgery, liposuction, breast reduction and hair transplantation.
Plastic surgeon Dr. Bruce Genter has had many male patients over the past two decades, from teenagers to security contractors in Iraq. He pointed out that there are some special considerations with men and plastic surgery.
- Because men often don’t wear makeup, their incisions are harder to hide.
- They usually have less hair or no hair at all to camouflage scars.
- For facelifts, sideburns have to be kept in place.
- Because men sometimes go shirtless, liposuction incisions on the body have to be small.
Men are also seeking non-surgical procedures too. Former model Sean Jones said that running kept his body in shape but affected his face. “If you lose weight, it goes from your face, too,” he said. “And I started having those little wrinkles.”
His modeling agency told him to freshen up his look, so he got Botox injections to smooth wrinkles and a filler to plump up his cheeks and under-eye area. According to ASPS, Botox was the top non-surgical procedure for men in 2010.
Despite plastic surgery for men becoming more common, surgeons have noticed that men tend to keep their procedures to themselves. Jones’s surgeon, Dr. Marlene Mash, said, “We have people whose spouses don’t even know they’re having anything done.”
Dr. Jonov is a cosmetic surgeon who specializes in plastic surgeries of the face, breast, and body at Seattle Plastic Surgery.
