More and more men are joining cosmetic surgery, although they are still a minority, only 15% of all interventions. They go to beauty centers to enhance the gluteal crown (giving volume to the butt in the upper part), sculpt the jaw with hyaluronic acid to have a more manly appearance or undergo non-invasive techniques to eliminate localized fat using cold, but In general they try to avoid the most invasive ones.
According to the latest SECPRE report, The reality of cosmetic surgery in Spain, men represent 15% of the total, three percentage points more than in previous studies. In the case of men, the most requested operation is blepharoplasty (which removes excess skin on the eyelids), followed a very short distance by gynecomastia or breast reduction, with rhinoplasty coming in third place. Liposuction comes in fourth place, surpassing otoplasty (it usually involves reducing the size of the ears or changing their position so that they are closer to the head when they are prominent, as is the case with ‘puff ears’). The same pattern is repeated worldwide. However, the most striking change is that more cosmetic surgery operations are currently performed on young people than on older people.
On the other hand, techniques that have caused rivers of ink to flow remain very marginal, says Isabel de Benito, president of the Spanish Society of Reconstructive and Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (SECPRE) and co-responsible for the Porcuna clinic.
When the book was published in 2022, the presenter had already resolved his concern. “It turned out very nice to me. I always had a complex and a little more forcefulness doesn’t hurt. They injected hyaluronic acid into my glans and it looked beautiful, very youthful. Over the years, everything suffers,” he confessed. However, Vázquez has not established a professorship, given the low demand, according to Concepción Lorca, a plastic surgeon at the Gregorio Marañón Hospital.
In the opinion of this doctor from Jaén who has a private consultation in Madrid, hyaluronic acid is reabsorbed, so it must be supplied again every year or year and a half. However, the increase in the circumference of the glans is not spectacular: around one centimeter, De Benito estimates. “There are also techniques to lengthen the length of the penis by one or two centimeters, at most,” Lorca intervenes.
It has also been published that nipple surgery has become one of the most searched for on the Internet by men and that surgeons in New York City cannot cope with the huge number of men seeking to reduce the size of their nipples. her nipples. The aesthetic inspiration is David Beckham, whose “small, symmetrical and almond-shaped” nipples are encouraging many young people to emulate “Golden Balls”, the nickname by which the British footballer is also known. However, this is a distortion, since what has grown is breast reduction (in men, it is the second most requested intervention, with 5,811 Spaniards operated on in 2022).
According to specialists, there are various vital phases where it is very common for men’s mammary glands to develop, although they later subside. It happens, for example, in childhood and puberty, explains Lorca, a period in which it is quite common for these glands to grow, only to return to their original state in a few months. Now, if after a year or more, they do not decrease in size, it is normal that they no longer do so, which can cause psychological problems derived from aesthetic pressure.
Gynecomastia – the development of the volume of a man’s breasts produced by hormonal alteration – also appears due to the use of steroids and hormones to increase muscle mass, as well as in overweight and obese people, since peripheral fat exists. an enzyme called aromatase that transforms part of the male hormones into female ones, stimulating breast development. “To me, personally, no man has come to me and asked me just about the nipple. The usual thing is that it is a mild gynecomastia,” says Lorca.
The point is that more and more men are daring to undergo cosmetic surgery, especially non-invasive techniques. This is the case of CoolSculpting, one of today’s most popular alternatives to eliminate unwanted fat with a cold application treatment (last year The New York Times published an article that argued that the risk for patients is greater than what recognized by the manufacturer). Another technology that is on the rise, reveals the president of SECPRE, is Morpheus8, “a radio frequency that men increasingly use to tighten the skin in the area of the double chin, on the abdomen, even on the arms after dieting” explains Benito.
In addition to flat bellies, very marked jaws and heads with hair (those who travel to Turkey to have a hair transplant are still a minority, although the sector estimates that around 10,000 Spaniards travel to Istanbul annually to have surgery in one of the 350 Turkish clinics). who perform this operation to put an end to baldness, at prices between 50 and 85% cheaper than in Spain), the newest thing under the sun is the interest that less invasive techniques arouse among young and not so young people.
According to the latest data held by SECPRE, 26.9% of the interventions correspond to people between 45 and 60 years old, 35.4% to the age group between 30 and 44 years and 29.5% to those between 18 and 29 years old. The pattern is repeated worldwide, except that operations for those under 34 years of age account for more than half of the total.
“Today we seek facial and body perfection. What I see most in my consultation are young people who seek greater body definition, since, even though they are athletes, they may not be able to eliminate fat accumulation in certain areas,” says Lorca. To this end, one of the most popular options is body contouring surgeries, also such as 360-degree liposuctions. The intervention usually lasts about three and a half hours and is performed in the operating room under general anesthesia. The normal thing is to start with the patient face down and then turn him over. The price is around 3,000 or 4,000 euros in low-cost clinics, but can reach up to 8,000 or 9,000 euros when the surgeon is experienced.
Having surgery on the gluteal area “has also become a trend,” says Benito. Basically, it is about improving the profile of the gluteal crown “and this normally involves filling in places where it is nice to have volume, that is, at the top and not at the bottom, so that the buttock is rounded and well defined,” he explains. The filling is normally carried out with the extraction and subsequent injection of fat from areas where there is excess (namely: the holsters, the abdominal area, the inner surface of both knees and the hips) and is called lipofilling or ‘lipofilling’. lipograft’. The technique is used not only to enhance the buttocks, but also to cover scars, fill in dark circles or cheekbones and rejuvenate the face.
To attract younger people, some American clinics use the slogan “you, but better” on Instagram and TikTok. But the objective is often unattainable, since they do not use real images in their advertising, but rather photos and videos retouched with the thousand digital filters of these platforms. Slanted eyes, sharp chins, high cheekbones and squarer chins are some of the operations most in demand by young people, following the new beauty standards of social networks. “See how this filter makes my chin and jaw look? Well, that’s how I love them,” some young people say to be like in their selfies.
With a digital filter you can retouch your nose, lift your ears or sharpen your face as much as you want, because filters have no limits, unlike surgery. For this reason, Dr. Lorca acknowledges following the Instagram account False Beauty (@bellezafalsa), which shows the true face of celebrities (literally), as in this publication that we link below. That is to say, one thing are the photographs in which the boys and girls look more attractive and another is the harsh reality, because the skin is not perfect, but has acne, pores, breakouts, wrinkles and small spots.
Months ago Vivo published the growing practice of looksmaxxing (maximizing physical appearance), a trend that has existed for a decade that now seems to have returned with force to some internet forums and social networks in order to try to become as attractive as possible according to a series of socially prescribed criteria, such as, for example, “hunter’s eyes” or slightly inclined towards the temples. The looksmaxxing trend assigns “scores” to aspects of male appearance, focusing especially on the jaw, muscles and skin. The goal is to increase the score through softmaxxing and hardmaxxing (which may involve the use of steroids, hair transplants and cosmetic surgery).
However, few people dare with these extreme trends. In general, contouring procedures, eyelid surgeries, ear reshaping, neck lift surgery and face lift surgery, as well as non-surgical treatments such as Botox, are the most popular among men. . In fact, the key for men is that the aesthetic change is so subtle as to go unnoticed.