Social media has worked something of a miracle. Because the sharing of experiences and above all of images and videos has practically brought the techniques of art closer to all ages aesthetic medicine. And not just among the ladies.
The market of fillers, botulinum, hyaluronic acid and many other treatments in our country are growing in all age segments, including the young and very young. In a field still largely dominated by the demand of women (who make up over 80%), the male world is also showing a growing interest in the solutions offered by aesthetic medicine: in particular, among men the demand for non-surgical aesthetic treatments increased by 25% since 2008.
The data was released by the experts from the Italian Society of Aesthetic Medicine (SIME) gathered in Rome, drawing from the Businesscoot report.
What the market trends say
Although the international market is firmly dominated by the USA (5.3 million aesthetic medicine procedures carried out in 2021), Italy is the country with the highest number of aesthetic medicine procedures in relation to the number of inhabitants.
The international cosmetic medicine and surgery market has been valued at around $13.9 billion in 2022 but by 2027 it is estimated that it could reach $23.4 billion. Non-surgical procedures in 2021 accounted for 54% of the global market, with an estimated value of around $7.5 billion.
Market growth is mainly driven by growing importance attributed to physical appearance and to need to feel better about yourself. Alongside this, the stigma and prejudices that surrounded the use of these practices no longer exist.
“These data are certainly interesting, but fortunately in some cases they differ from the experience of SIME members – comments the president of the scientific society Emanuele Bartoletti. The percentages concerning very young people are particularly significant. In the report, between 40% and 45% of those who turn to Aesthetic Medicine fall into the age range between 19 and 35 years old. It is not specified how many of these fall into the 19 – 25 age range, but I hope they are few. From the survey conducted among SIME members, fortunately only 5% fall into the age group under 24 years of age, and the majority of these young people present acne problems”.
Because young people are beauty seekers
According to Bartoletti “the increase in young people's use of Aesthetic Medicine represents a serious problem. Very often they are driven by social media directly or subliminally, and this entails the risk of encountering doctors, or even worse, non-doctors, who acquiesce to requests that are often meaningless. It is important to pay attention, because the addiction of young people from this type of therapy is becoming increasingly worrying. This leads to the risk of undergoing transformations that they may regret later.”
In fact it must be said that a significant slice of the market is occupied by age range 19-34, which carries out 40-45% of procedures and is the most influenced by fashions and social trends. 35-40% of procedures are the prerogative of the age group between 35 and 50 years, which suggests that the request for preventive treatments is sharply increasing before approaching the threshold of middle age.
Injectables still dominate the market (representing almost 80% of all aesthetic medicine procedures) (hyaluronic acid and botulinum toxin). In the field of facial rejuvenation treatments, the stars are the chemical peels hey skin tightening treatmentswhile they are evergreens permanent hair removali anti-cellulite treatments and the non-surgical fat removal. Therefore, those that Italians make to aesthetic medicine are “traditional” requests, but in a very dynamic and constantly renewing market which has seen procedures such as rhinofiller and the coolsculpting.
What do men ask the specialist?
Male attendance is increasing significantly in the practice of aesthetic doctors. But be careful: you need to agree on a path and not arrive with ideas that perhaps cannot be translated into reality.
“Aesthetic medicine – recalls Bartoletti – is not an on-demand menu; just as it would never occur to you to suggest to the cardiologist what to do, in the same way you must rely on the aesthetic doctor. And from this point of view, men rely much more on the aesthetic doctor than women do; this is why we can say that they are 'ideal' patients. Girls and women often arrive with specific requests that are difficult to dismantle.”
What is certain is that men also need cosmetic management of their skin and they are becoming very attentive to cosmetic applications.
“But they can't borrow them from their wives or girlfriends – comments the expert – because men's skin has completely different characteristics. An in-depth skin check-up allows the aesthetic doctor to make an adequate prescription for cosmetics and cosmeceuticals. THE cosmetics in humans obviously they must not contain hormone-like substances; then in principle they must be light, such as oil-in-water emulsions and gels. The product, applied to the skin, must dry immediately, must not be perfumed and must leave the skin hydrated without 'pulling' the surface, as happens for example with cosmetics rich in hyaluronic acid”.
Tailor-made treatments for young people
Men have a thicker dermis on their face and neck because they have more hair follicles and larger sebaceous glands.
“And this is fortunate – explains the president of SIME – because their dermis is more active than that of women. Here because all biostimulation and biorestructuring treatments in men they give better and more evident results than in women and require fewer sessions. They are therefore certainly worth considering in case of need, especially from 40 to 60 years old.”
Chapter young. If you overtrain often their cheeks are a little hollow because they present a dramatic reduction in fat mass and muscle hypertrophy. The furrows on the cheeks begin from under the eyes, almost as if they were the continuation of the dark circles, and give the face a tired, poorly rested appearance.
“One of the indications we give to these subjects is the filling of these grooves with reabsorbable fillers (hyaluronic acid or calcium hydroxyapatite) or, in some cases, with restructuring treatments that promote filling by stimulating the production of collagen, to gradually fill these furrows – says Bartoletti. Always young people have psychological issues, psychological problems often relevant due to the presence of acne scars which can be treated with a PRP session, which softens the fibrous retraction, followed by the use of weakly cross-linked hyaluronic acid which attracts water and tends to further relax these fibrous shoots. To further uniform the surface, 3-4 sessions of needling combined with superficial peelings, or ablative laser resurfacing (CO2 or Erbium) can be used”.
What to do as an adult
As the years go by, expression lines and sagging tissue begin to appear in men too. In man prevention is particularly importantbecause the facelift must be carried out much later than in women, making it much more 'visible' from a scarring point of view in men.
“On the other hand, all procedures with machines such as the Endolift, radio frequencies and everything that, by acting on the dermis, causes thermal retraction through heat stimulation, thus inducing an improvement in laxity and a more compact appearance of the skin, work very well. – comment the experts. THE fillings with fillers they can also be done in men, but always respecting male aesthetics; therefore, for example, the filling of the zygomatic region can be carried out if necessary, but with 'masculine' criteria, i.e. it must not be too evident in the zygomatic area, which must not exceed the width of the jaw”.
Attention, on the front of wrinkles, to obtain a good neuro-modulation effect with botulinum toxin, excessive doses should not be used, to avoid 'freezing' them. We must leave men with a greater capacity for contraction and expression than women. So they are needed particular attention and precautions, declined to the masculine.
An important difference compared to women is the use of botulinum toxin in the frontalis muscle. In men the frontal muscle often continues even above the hairline, therefore by raising the forehead high wrinkles can also form in the middle of the head and this is visible in very balding men and gives an anti-aesthetic effect .
“In this case the toxin must be used on a larger skin area, even towards the receding hairline, where the frontalis muscle 'rises'. Men must also learn to protect themselves from the sun, being careful not to forget any area – concludes Bartoletti. The top of the head must always be protected with sunscreens, both in the presence of hair and, even more so, in case of baldness. In men they are in fact particularly vertex skin tumors are frequent. The sun is also responsible for photoaging which represents a problem that is difficult to combat once it has reached the most advanced stages. The appearance of spots can also be attributed to the sun. Prevention is therefore essential. To eliminate skin blemishes in men you can mainly use Q-switch or picolaser lasers (but not pulsed light because you risk having to shave your beard) and skin peels”.
