The New Face of Masculinity

Lately, I’ve been watching something shift in the world of men — particularly men who hold power. For a long time, masculinity has been culturally defined as something proven through what you do: build companies, run teams, secure funding, conquer industries. Appearance was secondary, almost suspicious. A man was supposed to be above caring about how he looked.

But that story seems to be over.

In a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, we learned the following:

• Men in tech are increasingly turning to cosmetic procedures — from injectables to “mini face-lifts” — to combat signs of aging.

• Plastic surgeons in Silicon Valley and Beverly Hills report dramatic increases in male clients over the past five years.

• The pressure to look young is tied directly to professional relevance: older faces risk being labeled “irrelevant” in tech.

• Ozempic and other fast weight-loss drugs are prompting more men to pursue face-lifts to fix rapid “deflation” and loose skin.

• Hybrid work has made surgery easier to hide — more downtime without being seen.

• Once-private procedures like Botox are now considered standard maintenance among male tech workers.

• New surgical techniques focus on subtlety — men want changes that are undetectable and “natural.”

• Historically, men’s accomplishments shielded them from beauty pressures — now looking the part is required too.

• The average quoted surgeon fee for a U.S. face-lift is around US$11,395 — but when you add in anesthesia, facility costs and other expenses, the total cost can easily rise to US$20,000–50,000. Wall Street Journal+2Instagram+2

• For elite surgeons in cities like New York and Los Angeles, “deep plane” or high-end face-lifts can reach US$100,000 to US$350,000+. Wall Street Journal+2Instagram+2

• At the low end (medical tourism destinations such as Turkey, Mexico, Brazil), face-lifts may cost as little as US$3,000. Hindustan Times+1

• Surgeons report that among men in tech/finance/private equity, demand for procedures like face-lifts, neck-lifts and eyelid surgery has jumped significantly (one doctor said male requests were ~25% higher than pre-COVID levels; eyelid surgery up ~50%).

• Cosmetic dermal treatments (Botox, fillers) are now so commonplace among men in Silicon Valley that surgeons say the question is often: “Why aren’t you doing this?”

• Rapid weight-loss drugs like Ozempic contribute to “deflation” (looser skin) and are driving men toward surgical fixes.

• Men seeking aesthetic procedures today tend to prioritize a natural, discreet look—they don’t want the “swept” or overly obvious facelift look.

• Hybrid working and remote / flexible schedules during/after the pandemic made it easier for men to undertake surgical procedures (downtime is more manageable).

• The stakes for men have shifted: previously accomplishments might have been enough. Now, looking the part is increasingly part of the package.

In Silicon Valley, investment banking, and among the men who’ve built their identities on achievement alone, there’s a growing anxiety:Is what I do still enough?

Tech culture especially has become obsessed with youth. Ages over 30 are treated as a liability — not because the mind slows, but because the face ages. I’ve been reading about the rise in “mini face-lifts,” jawline optimization, upper-eyelid surgeries, and Ozempic-related “deflation” procedures among men in tech… and it’s striking how similar their narratives sound to those historically imposed on women: fear of irrelevance, pressure to look “refreshed,” and the new requirement that success must be visibly optimized.

It’s no longer enough to build a product. You must look like someone who is building one.

For the past several years, I’ve explored beauty apps like FaceTune as the starting point of this shift — mostly through the lens of women, because that’s where these pressures have been most visible, most judged, and most theorized. But recently I’ve turned my attention to the apps men use quietly, almost secretly, to retouch themselves into a version of who they believe they need to be.

One of the apps I’m currently investigating is Manly, a FaceTune-adjacent tool specifically marketed to men. The name alone reveals a tension: this promise that digital self-correction can make you more of what you already are. More masculine. More defined. More employable. More everything.

There’s a frantic desire among these men to keep their edits invisible. Wrinkles erased without drawing attention to having erased them. Confidence pre-manufactured. Beauty rebranded as efficiency.

We used to talk about women and the “effortless” beauty myth. Now men are carefully entering the same performance — and trying not to get caught.

I’m fascinated by how quickly the stigma has dissolved. Beauty interventions are no longer feminine or frivolous — they’re pragmatic workplace survival strategies for men who feel their accomplishments alone can’t hold the spotlight anymore.

So stay tuned.

My work is expanding into this space — into the quiet insecurity, the desire for invisibility, the new aesthetics of power as optimized through apps like Manly. Into a masculinity that suddenly fears being seen… in the wrong light.

Because when men edit their own faces, it tells us something profound:

The face of power is no longer born — it’s retouched.

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