We see gorgeous people on social media, billboards, TVs, and the red carpet nowadays. We tend to regard them as a representation of beauty, establishing a standard against which to assess whether or not other people are appealing. Furthermore, the COVID-19 shutdown produced an enthusiasm for gorgeous clear skin and features, prompting many people, regardless of gender, to seek out aesthetic treatments.
With aesthetic treatments becoming very popular in today’s world, is there still an existing stigma among men about it or are men becoming open to receiving such treatments? To find out more about this, we spoke with Dr Sii, Medical Director of SOL Aesthetics to gain his insights and experience on aesthetic treatments for men.
Common Aesthetic Treatments Among Men
Younger patients (20 to 30 year olds) do more of a facial sculpting treatment. Facial sculpting is a procedure that reshapes the face to enhance or improve facial features. Most commonly aesthetics treatments among men are enhancements to the nose, chin, jawline which is mainly achieved by doing injections, fillers and botox.
In the past, male patients wanted to look more masculine. But these days, it is the other way around as they want more feminine features due to the rise of K-pop. Dr Sii observes that men go for a stronger chin and smaller jaw look with a higher nose to feminize their face. He also further adds that men do their brows as well which has become very common.
With patients in their mid to late 30s, who are very advanced into the career and work in a client facing job, they are looking to look more presentable and less tired-looking. They seek treatments that will make them glow and look more radiant as it gives their clients some confidence. So, for this age group, aestheticians are doing more skin treatments for them such as treating skin texture, scars and pores.
“Mainly we do things like lasers and injectables to just enhance their looks slightly, not so much of augmentation alteration,” says Dr Sii, Medical Director of SOL Aesthetics.
Societal Standards for Good-looking Men
In the last 10 years, things have changed so much for men. Women have always been under the microscope to look a certain way and historically for men, not so much. However, things have changed now with all the Hollywood and K-pop beauty standards circulating on social media.
“I think men today, especially, the younger generation are definitely being scrutinized for their looks,” says Dr Sii
Hence why, aesthetic clinics all over Singapore are seeing an increase in younger patients who want to look a certain way because of pressure from the media, their partners and those around them. The LGBT community are also under pressure when it comes to beauty standards and Dr Sii observes that many from that community seek out aesthetic treatments to look better.
“Things have definitely changed in today’s world and men are equally under scrutiny of their looks as women,” says Dr Dr Sii, Medical Director of SOL Aesthetics.
For the older men, things could be a bit more different for them as they don’t usually succumb to societal pressures on beauty standards. Their reasons for aesthetic treatments have more to do with wanting to feel better and look better for their clients.
Aesthetic Treatments In Improving A Man’s Life
In setting, aestheticians are not treating physically sick people. So why do they do what they do? If you look at it in the long term, the main aim is to make someone feel and look better. When they feel better, they will be more confident about themselves.
Dr Sii recalls that in particular patients who have come in to seek treatment from him, they usually have some major life events coming up such as attending a wedding or going for job interviews. When it comes to such events, these patients who have, especially men who have thoughts of not liking certain parts about themselves.
Men are usually a bit more specific about what they don’t like, so these patients have already had concerns for the longest time, but they just don’t have the opportunity or the push to do something and they have felt this lack of confidence about their looks. Dr Sii further notes that when they have these major events coming up, they do get a bit stressed out and they do feel that they will not be impressive enough, in terms of my looks, to go through it. So, it takes them a bit of courage and guts to come in and get things done.
“I must say this group of patients in particular who have something to look forward to (major life events), when we do fix that very specific problem that has been bothering them for years, it is really life changing for them,” says Dr Sii, Medical Director of SOL Aesthetics.
This is because immediately after going through aesthetic treatments they feel much better about themselves and become more confident. Because of their newfound confidence, they end up doing very well in their job interview or looking really good in wedding photos. Dr Sii believes that the mental part plays a huge role in their success and sometimes men just need to feel good in order to look forward to these events.
Instead of having doubts and low confidence about their appearance, Dr Sii believes that aesthetic treatments bring hope to these people and allow them to look back on good memories that they have made with their loved ones or in their career.
About Author
