First, it was moisturiser, then it was “manscaping”. Now, as Bryce Corbett reports, Australian men are being Botoxed and undergoing cosmetic surgery in greater numbers than ever before.
Ladies, take a long hard look at your man. Is he starting to fray a little around the edges? Has the toned physique you married all those years ago long since succumbed to the combined forces of gravity and good living?
Does he need a trip to the David Jones bra department for a fitting? Or would you, on balance, prefer to be running your fingers over a washboard stomach, rather than his carefully cultivated beer gut?
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Don’t nag him into exercising more. Don’t foist your jar of Ponds onto him or stick him on a diet. Discipline is so ’90s. And besides, there’s no need.
We live in an age in which the silhouette we want is but a surgeon’s knife away. A judicious nip here, a little tuck there and a vial or two of Botox for good measure.
And though cosmetic procedures in this country were once the exclusive preserve of the fairer sex, Australian men — formerly the planet’s last bastion of cold, hard machismo — are going under the knife in greater numbers than ever before.
According to The Australasian College of Cosmetic Surgery, Australians submit themselves to almost a quarter of a million Botox injections each year, for which we collectively fork out $250-$300 million.
The College estimates that as a nation we now spend as much as $1 billion a year on cosmetic surgery and medical procedures. And while the lion’s share of work is being done on women, cosmetic surgeons all over the country say they are starting to see more and more men in their waiting rooms.
They come for brow lifts, Botox injections, eyelid surgery and frown-line removals. They’ve been lining up in increasing numbers for tummy tucks, liposuction, hair plugs, pectoral implants and two procedures that are in particular demand — man-boob and love-handle removal operations.
In part encouraged by a celebrity trend to not only have work done, but happily own up to it, there’s been a wholesale makeover of the Aussie bloke.
“Ten years ago, I was lucky to see maybe one man a week,” says Sydney cosmetic surgeon, Dr Joseph Hkeik, whose All Saints Cosmedical clinics specialise in “non-invasive” cosmetic procedures such as Botox, dermal fillers and microdermabrasion.
“Now, it’s not unusual for my waiting room to be filled with men. Women are now competing with men to get appointments. The difference between men and women is that men don’t see it as pampering. They see it as a results-oriented process,” says Dr Hkeik.
Results were certainly at the top of 28-year-old Sydneysider Andy’s mind when he recently underwent liposuction of the chest, stomach and love handles.
“I had the procedure on Friday and was back at work by Monday,” he recalls.
Just so we are all on the same page here, it’s worth breaking down the procedure to which Andy willingly submitted himself — and paid handsomely for.
He was sedated but conscious during an operation in which his body was injected with up to six litres of saline solution, the fat was liquefied by a laser and a scapula was inserted under his skin to scrape out stubborn layers of fat that had settled on top of his musculature.
“That’s when it all went a bit Nip/Tuck and they started jiggling around in there,” Andy recalls. “Towards the end of the procedure, I had to stand up while the surgeon fine-tuned everything and made sure everything sat in the right place. It was uncomfortable, but not painful.”
One and a half hours and $8000 later, Andy emerged with a flat stomach, a defined chest and a sleek silhouette.
“I felt I wasn’t getting the same results from the gym and running that I used to,” says Andy. “And in the gay community, there’s a lot of pressure to look good. For me, this was money well spent.”
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It’s one thing for cosmetic enhancement to be increasingly common among young metrosexuals and the gay community in urban centres, but quite another for the trend to be upheld among older fellas in regional parts of the country. Yet the creep is happening.
Read more of this story in the January issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
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