New York corporate-ladder climbers are redefining the age-old admonition to “Keep your chin up.”
According to a recent article in The New York Times, plastic surgeons are seeing a spike in demand for procedures that give prominence to the jawline. Most of the prospective patients, however, don’t want to look as if they’ve had work done, so they’re steering clear of surgery and opting for minimally invasive procedures. These include ultrasound treatments to tighten neck skin, thus making the chin more prominent, and molding with injectable fillers to widen the jawline or add projection to the chin.
“As soon as you look operated on, like — who’s that Kardashian guy? Bruce Jenner — you lose masculinity,” said Douglas Steinbrech, M.D., a Manhattan plastic surgeon quoted in the story.
Dr. Steinbrech tells The Times that among his male patients, jawline procedures have climbed to second in popularity behind liposuction. Perhaps that’s due to a theory that people who succeed in business tend to have a strong, square jawline. The Times points to research done in 2007 by another Manhattan plastic surgeon, Darrick Antell, M.D.
“When he studied photos of the chief executives (women included) from the Top 50 Fortune 500 companies,” The Times reports, “he concluded that 90 percent had non-receding to prominent chins, a trait found in less than half of the United States population.”
Non-invasive jawline procedures, however, are sometimes hindered by men’s thick skin. With this in mind, Manhattan dermatologist Paul Jarrod Frank, M.D., developed — and has trademarked — an aggressive procedure called UltraTight. Instead of using ultrasound on the skin’s surface, the skin and fat are treated with an ultrasonic wand inserted through small holes under the chin. The holes require no stitches to close.
The Times also reports that plastic surgeons and their potentially square-jawed patients are hoping that the Food and Drug Administration approves ATX-101, an injectable that dissolves chin fat. Another procedure is fat freezing, available only for the body now but reportedly nearing approval for the neck and face.
