For years, cosmetic work was marketed like a mostly female conversation. That picture is changing fast. Men’s interest in plastic surgery is becoming harder to dismiss as guys increasingly show up for everything from Botox and hair transplants to liposuction, chest surgery, and highly targeted body sculpting designed to make the abs look sharper.
The numbers back up the shift. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons reported that male plastic surgery grew 8 percent in 2023. In 2024, men represented 7 percent of plastic surgery patients, up one percentage point from the previous year. That still leaves women as the overwhelming majority of cosmetic patients, but the male side of the business is clearly getting bigger.
And men are not only going under the knife.
Botox, or more broadly neuromodulator injections such as Botox, Dysport, Xeomin, Jeuveau and Daxxify, has become one of the clearest signs of the shift. ASPS counted 593,854 neuromodulator injections performed on men in 2024, a 4.3 percent increase from 2023. Men also received 257,486 skin-resurfacing treatments and nearly 147,000 hyaluronic-acid filler treatments that year.
The trend has become popular enough to earn its own nickname: “Brotox.”
@wowkarauhl Thr things I do for @dryolandaholmesdc 😅😅💉 a little preventative botox bever hurt nobody #dc #dermatologist #botox #malebotox #nowinkles #foryou ♬ KEHLANI – Jordan Adetunji
Plastic surgeons interviewed by ASPS say stigma appears to be fading as more men become comfortable treating wrinkles and other signs of aging. Las Vegas plastic surgeon Dr. Jeffrey Roth said his practice has seen more men seeking less-invasive procedures, while New York aesthetic nurse Tara Adashev said male patients have increasingly asked about Botox after noticing forehead lines and wrinkles around their eyes.
That shift also says something about what male grooming looks like now. A generation ago, upgrading your appearance might have meant a fresh haircut, a gym membership and an expensive watch. Now, for some men, the maintenance list can include injections every few months.
Hair is another major piece of the equation.
According to the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery’s 2025 Practice Census, 84.7 percent of surgical hair-restoration procedures performed by surveyed members in 2024 were on men. The largest male age groups were 30 to 39 at 30.2 percent and 40 to 49 at 28.5 percent.
In other words, plenty of men are addressing thinning hair long before retirement age.
Hair restoration is also moving beyond the scalp. ISHRS reported that the percentage of men seeking non-scalp hair-restoration procedures rose from 13 percent in 2021 to 18 percent in 2024. Beard and mustache transplantation accounted for the largest male recipient area after the scalp.
@fuego_trav Where it all started.. #hairgrowthjourney #hairjourney #fypシ #hairtransplantturkey #hairgrowth ♬ a good man with a broken heart – LoVibe.
Perhaps even more revealing is how patients talk about the procedure. ISHRS physicians reported that 44 percent of their hair-transplant patients in 2024 planned to tell other people they had undergone a transplant. The top reported motivation was straightforward: 90 percent wanted to “become/feel more attractive.”
So much for pretending nobody knows where that new hairline came from.
Then there is the body.
Male breast reduction, medically known as gynecomastia surgery, became the most common cosmetic surgery for men in ASPS’s 2024 data. Surgeons performed 26,430 procedures, an increase of 10.9 percent from 2023. ASPS said the procedure posted the strongest growth among cosmetic surgeries performed on male patients that year.
Liposuction is firmly in the conversation too. In 2023, nearly 20,879 men underwent liposuction, according to ASPS, and surgeons say some male patients are not necessarily looking for major weight loss. Instead, they want stubborn areas reshaped after diet and exercise have already done most of the work.
That brings us to one of the most eye-catching corners of male cosmetic surgery: ab etching.
Think of it as liposuction getting very specific.
Rather than simply removing fat from the stomach, abdominal etching uses targeted superficial liposuction around the natural lines of the abdominal muscles. The goal is to make those grooves more visible, creating the appearance of a more sharply defined six-pack. Researchers describe it as a form of high-definition liposculpture rather than a substitute for building abdominal muscle.
And yes, men are getting it.
A systematic review of high-definition lipoplasty in male patients examined 13 studies covering 1,280 patients. Researchers found that surgeons were using techniques including abdominal etching, muscular sculpture and other forms of high-definition body contouring, with reported satisfaction ranging from 84 percent to 100 percent across the included studies.
Another systematic review covering 6,964 high-definition liposuction patients found that, among cases reporting sex, 56 percent were men. Researchers calculated an overall complication rate of 14.4 percent, although major complications represented 0.2 percent of cases. Reported issues included hyperpigmentation, fluid buildup, and temporary tissue fibrosis.
That distinction matters because “six-pack surgery” can sound like an instant cheat code. It isn’t.
The published literature stresses patient selection, anatomy, and surgeon experience. Ab etching works by emphasizing existing contours beneath the skin, and researchers warn that high-definition liposuction is not appropriate for every patient.
Still, the demand fits neatly into the wider male aesthetics boom. One medical review specifically noted that high-definition liposuction has grown rapidly with visibility on social media and has attracted more male patients interested in enhancing muscular definition rather than simply removing fat.
That may be the biggest shift of all.
Men have always cared about how they look. What’s changing is the menu of options they are willing to use and, increasingly, admit using.
A sharper jawline can come from filler. Forehead lines can meet Botox. A receding hairline can meet thousands of transplanted follicles. A stubborn chest can meet gynecomastia surgery. And if months in the gym produce abs that still aren’t popping the way somebody wants, there is now a surgical procedure for that too.
Cosmetic medicine did not suddenly discover male vanity. The stigma around men openly participating in it appears to be loosening.
And once the secret appointment becomes normal grooming conversation, “Did he get work done?” may stop sounding like a question reserved for women.
