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The World Says Men Pulled Back. My Waiting Room Says Otherwise

Black and white photograph of four men of different backgrounds and ages standing together against a dark studio wall, faces lit by a single hard light. Illustrative image, not patients. Frank Agullo, MD, FACS.

The International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery says men had 14.1 percent fewer aesthetic procedures in 2025 than the year before. Women fell 7.7 percent. Gynecomastia surgery, the one operation only men have, fell 26.2 percent.

No, in my practice it has been completely the opposite. We’ve seen dramatic growth in men coming in for plastic surgery, including liposuction, eyelid surgery, facelift and neck lift surgery, and gynecomastia.

The Reason Is Not in the Report

I think the GLP-1s are actually increasing the amount of demand we see in the office for consultations. The first thing patients notice is the deflation on the face, which we may treat early with fillers like Sculptra, Lipoderma or hyaluronic acid to restore this lost volume. But as the patient progresses in their weight loss journey, just filling these areas is no longer enough to maintain their youthfulness, and many are turning to face and neck lifts.

The other thing I am seeing often is that the patient feels better and is healthier, but the body, with the loose skin, is not showing that externally. So many men are coming in for gynecomastia and tummy tucks, and some men are coming in to restore the volume they have lost in the buttock, where we do liposuction and fat grafting. Some weight loss patients have skin that has recoiled pretty well, so we can get away with just liposuction and skin tightening using Renuvion J-Plasma and/or BodyTite.

Men are getting healthier, slimmer, and ready for their bodies to match the way they feel.

What They Ask For

In my practice, the most common procedure I perform in men is gynecomastia surgery. That is number one. Number two is liposuction, which usually involves the abdomen and the lower back, but sometimes it is extended to the neck, upper back, lateral chest and even the breast itself. Number three is eyelid surgery. Number four is rhinoplasty, which is very common in younger men. Last but not least, facelifts and neck lifts have become more and more common in men, especially with the GLP-1s.

What I Will Not Do to a Man

When we do facelifts, we do not like to raise the brow as much. In men, it should pretty much line up with the superior orbital rim. Male rhinoplasty is usually a more masculine, closed rhinoplasty aiming for a straight dorsum, the Roman style. We want to avoid the curved dorsum and the more projected, refined tip. Also, when we do buttock fat grafting in men, we usually skip fat grafting to the hips, because we want to avoid a feminine curvature and instead project the gluteus maximus muscle.

The full list, and the ISAPS table, is in the full post on the Agullo Plastic Surgery site.

Why Me

Double board-certified, Mayo Clinic trained, Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at Texas Tech, Castle Connolly Top Doctor 2014 through 2026. The men in my waiting room are still there, and there are more of them.

Ready to Talk?

Call (915) 590-7900, text 1-866-814-0038, or book online. #StayBeautiful

Find me at @RealDrWorldWide on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, @Agullo on X, or @AgulloPlasticSurgery on Facebook.

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The Most Performed Operation on Earth Is on Your Eyelids

Black and white close portrait of four people of different backgrounds, three women and a man, eyes open and lit by a single hard light. Illustrative image, not patients. Frank Agullo, MD, FACS.

Eyelid surgery is the most performed aesthetic operation in the world. The International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery counted 2,457,677 of them in 2025, up 16.2 percent in a year and 69.9 percent since 2021. It beat liposuction. One in five patients was a man.

The first thing anybody looks at when they see somebody is their eyes. I think that’s what gives us an overall feeling about the patient, and it is the first thing that we will form an opinion on. So a lot of patients are self aware of these features, and they come in to get them resolved.

“You Look Tired”

I think the most common reason patients come in is because people are telling them that they look tired, when they’re actually feeling just fine and feel like they have energy. A lot of them feel younger than their actual age, but the eyelids are not helping them send this message out. They look in the mirror and they look at photos, and they can identify the areas that they don’t like. Sometimes they can’t really identify exactly which procedures they need, and of course that’s why we’re there, to help them come up with the best plan possible.

Why the Syringe Lost

The same survey has filler down 25 percent in a year. Under the eyes I saw that coming.

Fillers over time have started to come out of favor, as we are now noticing that the filler really never dissolves. The results can last about a year, but the filler does not dissolve, it just disperses. I have seen cases where it blocks the lymphatic drainage, and patients start having bags under the eyes, which are worse in the mornings, or they have discoloration or lumpiness. Sometimes they can also get inflamed. So I have dissolved a lot of under-eye fillers in order to improve all these complications, and that is why I am more inclined to use fat rather than hyaluronic acid fillers.

Just adding volume to the tear trough can hide the under-eye bags for a while. But as they keep progressing, it comes to a point where adding volume is not going to help, and we actually need to remove those herniated fat pads.

Why It Keeps Winning

The procedures to fix these complaints are usually short, can be performed under local anesthesia or even IV sedation, and have short recovery times. Patients can return to work fast and they heal fast as well, so they see an overall transformation and are quite happy with the results. This is of course noticed by people around them very quickly, and that’s how word of mouth spreads, and this procedure keeps becoming one of the most common that we perform.

Some patients actually return to work earlier and use thick-rimmed glasses to kind of hide the surgical aspect.

The upper-versus-lower question, the brow lift numbers and the older patient are in the full post on the Agullo Plastic Surgery site.

Why Me

Double board-certified, Mayo Clinic trained, Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at Texas Tech, Castle Connolly Top Doctor 2014 through 2026. Eyelids are one of the operations I do most, and the one patients thank me for fastest.

Ready to Talk?

Call (915) 590-7900, text 1-866-814-0038, or book online. #StayBeautiful

Find me at @RealDrWorldWide on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, @Agullo on X, or @AgulloPlasticSurgery on Facebook.