Why men turning to Botox.no longer raises eyebrows

Cosmetic procedures are soaring in popularity and they’re not just the preserve of women as more men seek to turn the clock back. Helen Coffey investigates the brotox’ boom

- Helen Coffey

“I came out of the womb and I said to the doctor – ‘give me some Botox!’” Fred*, 63, is not shy about his love of Botox – or “brotox”, as the practice of men getting the procedure has been colloquially dubbed. While the above sentiment is (one hopes) a gross exaggeration, he has been turning back the clock on facial wrinkles since the late Nineties, when he was in his mid-thirties.

“I was really happy with the results,” says Fred of that first time, now more than 25 years ago. “It’s not about the wrinkles, as such, but I’ve got one of those foreheads that always looks a bit cross. I was less focused on anti-ageing, and more on getting rid of my ‘resting bitch face’ – I don’t look as friendly as I’d want.” A friend suggested he try Botox and, hey presto, right away Fred felt he appeared “fresher”. He’s never looked back, keeping up the injecting habit ever since. “Some people say that it’s vain, but it makes me feel good,” he tells me.

Fred was undoubtedly ahead of the curve; while the toxin Botox has been administered cosmetically to smooth wrinkles since 1990, for more than a decade after Fred started, it remained largely the preserve of women. Now, men are finally catching up. There’s been a huge surge in brotox, particularly over the past five years – and the numbers are only going up.

In 2020, more than 265,000 men received Botox injections – a jump of 182,000 from two decades previously – while the amount of money spent by men on Botox rose by 400 per cent between 2000 and 2023, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.