Over the past decade, non-surgical facial rejuvenation for men has increasingly become a mainstream treatment for those seeking anti-aging solutions.
The growing availability of injectable fillers, treatments and products has popularized facial rejuvenation among men.
Today, more men than ever are having dermal fillers and other professional cosmetic treatments. That said, they have different goals than women.
Generally, male patients want to address the ageing/"tired" appearance (wrinkles, lines) or masculinise various aspects of the facial contour (cheekbone prominence, jaw prominence ).
Although these goals share similarities with those of their female counterparts, the differences must be highlighted.
As with any aesthetic treatment, each patient's unique anatomy must be discussed in detail and treatment goals established early on.
Why Do Men's Faces Age The Way They Do?
The ageing face is characterised by three main processes:
1) loss of skin elasticity
2) loss of bony skeletal support
3) atrophy of facial volume.
The depletion and loss of even distribution of the fat pads in the face and thinning of the adjacent skin tissue lead to predictable age-related changes in the male face.
These include temple hollowing, midface ptosis, and perioral (mouth area) hollowing.
The end result of these processes leads to the familiar signs of ageing: loss of cheek projection, ptosis of the brows, nasolabial folds, jowls and marionette lines.
Men start with less subcutaneous fat tissue and therefore have deeper wrinkles and lines than women.
More than that, these three skin ageing processes overlap to a significant degree as one influences the other.
For example, loss of facial volume can make skin sagging more apparent. The skin may also sag because the bones beneath it have lost their support.
Loss of bone in the mandible, midface, and forehead contributes to a loss of support for the skin and soft tissues of the face and neck.
Sagging skin on the other hand can make the bones look sunken in and hollow out the face. The skin also becomes thinner and leathery with wrinkles forming in areas of tension and facial expression.
If that wasn't bad enough, environmental factors and lifestyle habits (UV radiation, smoking, etc.) accelerate this ageing process.
All in all, men typically tend to develop more deep-set wrinkles and show more sagging in their faces than women. These deeper lines and volume loss cause them to appear older than women at similar ages.
Therefore, many of the current treatment strategies (both surgical and non-surgical) are also designed to help men address the effects of facial skin ageing.
The Best Facial Rejuvenation Treatments For Men
When it comes to facial rejuvenation, choosing the right injectable is only one component of an aesthetic treatment.
Just as important is the way we apply and perform the injections for each individual area of the face.
In order to achieve optimal aesthetic rejuvenation, it is important that the patient understands the need to correctly treat all their ageing concerns.
Botox
Neuromodulators can be used in the upper part of the face to soften these lines and wrinkles to great effect. In fact, Botox is the most common cosmetic procedure performed on men.
A needle carrying neurotoxin is injected into the muscle tissue, where it binds to the nerve cells and interferes with their ability to send messages to the surrounding muscles.
The result is that the muscles slowly relax and weaken, making the previously pronounced facial wrinkles smoother and softer. It takes between two and four weeks for this process to occur.
Even after the Botox treatment has worn off, it can take a while for the wrinkles on your forehead or around your eyes to become visible again.
That's because the wrinkle-causing facial muscles haven't been forming the wrinkles for a few months and need some time to fall back into their old ways.
Our male patients commonly receive cosmetic Botox on the glabella (between the eyebrows), forehead, bunny lines (nose wrinkles), crow's feet (around the eyes) and chin (to smooth inconsistencies or improve definition).
Botox is not only used to prevent signs of ageing on the face. Medical uses include blepharospasm (uncontrolled blinking), strabismus ( lazy eye ), hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating), migraine and bruxism (teeth grinding).
Specifically for hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating), Botox blocks the nerves that stimulate your sweat glands.
Since men have stronger facial muscles than women, higher doses of botulinum toxin are needed to achieve similar effects. How much exactly? Only a doctor can confirm after examining your face during a consultation.
Dermal Fillers
Tear Trough
Bags under the eyes, dark circles and sunken eyes make the face look sadder, older and more tired. This is particularly true for men as they get older, when bags appear and the skin under the eyes begins to droop.
This leads to tear trough deformity, a common complaint among men seeking aesthetic treatments. Since the eye area is such a critical part of the face, it is important that any treatment that is performed be subtle and natural looking.
Dr Farmah specialises in non-surgical rejuvenation of the tear trough using dermal fillers injected into the area.
Precise microinjections of hyaluronic acid fillers with lidocaine, add volume and boost skin hydration.
This treatment is effective and has been proven to treat sunken or hollow areas under the eye. The result is a smoother, more rested-looking eye.
Hollow Cheeks
Because male and female cheeks differ in their curvature, the last thing a man wants is cheek augmentation with filler injection techniques designed for female patients.
In men, this can lead to excessive feminisation of the cheeks. That's why we always stress that you need to choose the right injector.
Injecting dermal fillers into this soft tissue area is like drawing with a pencil instead of a felt tip pen.
A professional injector will follow the soft, smooth contour of the cheek, tracing it over the bone (zygomatic arch) and not lateralising it or raising it up at a 90-degree angle to the body.
This can create a feminine look in men. Volumizing the cheeks the correct way, ensures masculine features will remain and be enhanced.
Good injectors also avoid using the same exact technique in injecting dermal fillers on different patients.
They understand that male facial features differ in terms of convexity, depth and width from one man to the next.
Some men have flat cheeks, others have prominent cheekbones and still, others have a combination of both types of facial features.
When a filler is injected into this area in a man with coarser features, the natural masculine appearance is exaggerated in a very superficial way (which is emphasised by a false-looking cheek volume).
Always remember that there is no magic formula for injecting dermal fillers into the face - it is an art, not a science.
Receding/Weak Cheek
A receding chin or weak chin, while not necessarily a factor of ageing, can make men feel insecure or self-conscious about their face.
Often they may not even know what the issue is.
Men with a weak chin may feel that their nose appears larger, their lips protrude outwards and the skin under the chin slopes directly down to the neck without a distinct and projected angle.
Unlike the other cosmetic problems discussed so far, a weak chin is largely a genetic trait inherited from your parents. In some cases, it may be a congenital defect or the result of an injury that damaged the lower jaw bone.
Our best treatment for a weak chin is dermal filler injections.
As well as treating lines and wrinkles, dermal filler is a great treatment for restoring and reshaping the face.
When injected into the chin, it adds volume to the area and brings it into better proportion with the rest of the face.
Always remember that chin filler treatment for a weak chin is a specialised filler treatment.
Your aesthetic doctor will first carry out an assessment of the whole face to determine where the dermal filler can be placed most effectively.
After the dermal filler is administered, you can expect the following:
- Achieve a more balanced face
- Achieve a more masculine and defined chin and jawline
- The illusion of having a smaller nose
- Lips that appear more proportional
- Reduces the appearance of mild jowls
Do you want to learn:
- The cost of a chin filler treatment
- Whether or not it will work in your budget
- And cost effective chin filler solutions
If that’s so then check out our next article for you here - How Much Does Chin Filler Cost: A Detailed Analysis
Non-surgical Facial Rejuvenation for Men With Dr Aesthetica
Fill out a consultation form here, call us on 0121 769 0242 or check out this page on aesthetic treatments for men. We will be happy to answer any questions you may have if you are considering dermal filler or botox treatments.
Dr Aesthetica, with Doctor Farmah, welcomes patients from Birmingham, across the UK and abroad.
Our medical aesthetics clinic office is located on Bristol Rd S, Birmingham in the United Kingdom
To see Doctor Farmah and his team in action, visit Dr Aesthetica's Instagram page.