Botox

It was probably inevitable that when men finally started coming in for Botox, it would be hailed as the next big thing, but it does seem to be a bona fide trend. According to an ABC News report, year over year increases in the number of men receiving Botox injections are in the range of 10%, in line with overall trends. This translates to more than 300,000 men opting for wrinkle reduction.

   It’s becoming a crowded world for injectable wrinkle relaxers; first there was Botox, then more recently Dysport, and soon the newly approved competitor Xeomin. It was a simpler world when it was just Botox, as when Xerox was the only copier, Kleenex the default brand for facial tissue, and Clorox the go-to brand of bleach. On the one hand, all of the wrinkle relaxers work the same way, using highly purified versions of the toxin molecule that in very much larger doses causes botulism.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons is just out with its annual statistical review of procedures and the big news is an uptick in numbers, especially facelifts. This is encouraging for those who consider cosmetic surgery a harbinger of an economic rebound, suggesting that consumers are more willing to spend. Chalk it up to frugality fatigue, or just an affirmation that even when times are tough people want to look their best.

Some people seem to have a knack for finding the balance between too much and not enough, just as Goldilocks was able to find the porridge of just the right temperature and the bed that wasn’t too soft or too hard (even if she couldn’t comprehend the subtleties of trespassing and burglary.) But we live in an era of extremes and false choices, and nowhere is this more apparent than in plastic surgery and cosmetic medicine. Some assume that Botox always results in the frozen face, or that we need to accept our wrinkles as a badge of graceful aging.