You’ve Got Male…
Dr Ayham Al-Ayoubi: As more and more men head through the doors of aesthetics clinics to improve their appearance, we take a look at some of the most popular male treatments.
The beauty industry has always been dominated by women, and while that is still largely the case, the male grooming market has seen a phenomenal growth in the last two decades.
Gay or straight, young or old, it seems men are becoming more and more concerned about the way they look and are increasingly wanting to change the things they don’t like about themselves when they look in the mirror.
Men are rapidly changing their attitudes towards many things that have traditionally been seen as ‘the domain of the woman ‘from face creams and diet pills to cosmetic surgery. But what is driving this change in attitude?
Dr Ayham Al-Ayoubi, a leading surgeon from the London Medical and Aesthetic Clinic on Harley Street, a major reason behind the emergence of the ‘new man’ or ‘metrosexual’ has undoubtedly played a part in spurring this new breed of male consumer.
Influenced by celebrities like David Beckham, this generation of men has made taking care of your appearance less of a taboo and more of a ‘manly’ thing to do.
Smartlipo
Not afraid to admit they take their grooming seriously, they use face creams, hair straighteners, and fake tan and have their body hair waxed in a bid to look good.
And, in very much the same way as the beauty market opened the door to women to explore more invasive surgical and non-surgical options, so it has done the same for men, with recent statistics showing increasing numbers of men are realising the benefits of cosmetics surgery and non-surgical cosmetic enhancement.
Dr Ayham Al-Ayoubi believes the internet has also meant that information on treatments is more readily available than ever and the emergence on less invasive treatments offering more natural results also encouraged more men to dip their toes into the aesthetics pool.
Whatever the reasons behind it, one thing is clear, cosmetic surgery has become more acceptable for men. Although audit figures released by the British Association of Aesthetics Plastic Surgeons earlier this year showed that male surgery overall fell by 4.5% -from 4,298 ops performed in 2011 to 4,102 in 2012 – men still account for roughly one in ten of all cosmetic surgery patients.
More interestingly, the most impressive percentage increase across all cosmetic was in male brow lifts, which rose by 19%.
Rhinoplasty remained the most popular surgical treatment for men, although this was down 9% from last year. Male blepharoplasty was up 11% from last year, making it the second most popular cosmetic surgery procedure for me, while face and neck lifts and fat-transfer also saw increases of 14% and 9.5 % respectively.
Male breast (or ‘moob’) reduction surgery, possible shunned in favour of new-surgical approaches, was down by 18% – yet still maintained it’s as the third most popular procedure for men.
According to Rajiv Grover, consultant plastic surgeon and president of the BAAPS, “The considerable drop in body-shaping procedures such as liposuction and tummy tucks may well be due to people choosing to head back to the gym or the fact that there are now many less-invasive options to target problem areas, such as for gynaecomastia or ‘man boobs’.
In the US, men had almost one million cosmetic procedures, 10% of the total. The number of cosmetic procedures for men increased over 106% from 1997.
The top 5 surgical procedures for men were:
- Liposuction
- Rhinoplasty
- Eyelid surgery
- Breast reduction
- Ear shaping
Plastic surgery is big business in the UK – and despite the recession, it’s a growing one.
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