HKB Uncut | A Cosmetic Surgery Podcast
Welcome to HKB Uncut: the Health, Knowledge, and Beauty Podcast. On this show, Dr. Bill Kortesis & Dr. Gaurav Bharti unpack the newest techniques and trends in cosmetic surgery, how to tune out the social media noise to make empowered decisions about your appearance, and what you need to know before you book a procedure.
HKB Uncut | A Cosmetic Surgery Podcast
22. Do Men Get Plastic Surgery? What Men Are Really Asking For (and Why It’s Growing)
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Male plastic surgery is no longer a niche conversation, it’s a growing, but still under-discussed, part of aesthetics. In this episode, Dr. Kortesis and Dr. Bharti break down what men are actually seeking, how their goals differ from women, and why subtle, natural-looking results matter more than ever. They also unpack the shift toward aesthetic “maintenance” and how wellness, skin care, and hair restoration are becoming part of the conversation.
Resources mentioned:
3 ways men are approaching plastic surgery differently than you might expect are:
- Prioritizing subtle, “under-the-radar”, changes that don’t look obvious
- Treating aging with ongoing maintenance (skin care, injectables, hair restoration)
- Blending aesthetics with overall wellness instead of relying on one big procedure
Welcome to HKB Uncut: the Health, Knowledge, and Beauty Podcast. On this show, Dr. Bill Kortesis & Dr. Guarav Bharti unpack the newest techniques and trends in cosmetic surgery, how to tune out the social media noise to make empowered decisions about your appearance, and what you need to know before you book a procedure.
Dr. Bill Kortesis and Dr. Guarav are board certified plastic surgeons and Co-Founders of HKB Cosmetic Surgery, an award-winning practice with eleven locations across six states.
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You can legitimately see, oh my god, you're deficient in this mineral. You're deficient in this vitamin. And listen, you mentioned vitamin, most common vitamin deficiency in guys, vitamin D. So I'm a huge proponent of taking vitamin D. I forget sometimes, but it is huge.
SPEAKER_00Welcome to HKB Uncut, the health, knowledge, and beauty podcast.
SPEAKER_01On this show, we unpack the newest techniques and trends in cosmetic surgery, how to tune out the social media noise to make empowered decisions about your appearance and what you need to know before you book a procedure. I'm Dr. Bill Cortestis. And I'm Gora Bahardi. We are board-certified plastic surgeons and co-founders of HKB Cosmetic Surgery, an award-winning practice with 11 locations across six states.
SPEAKER_00In other words, when it comes to aesthetics and cosmetic surgery, we've pretty much seen it all, and we want to share our knowledge and unique approach to aesthetics and beauty with you. Whether you're interested in cosmetic surgery for yourself or want to separate fact from fiction in the plastic surgery world, we hope you'll tune in each week. Thank you so much for tuning in and being a part of uh our podcast. Today's episode is on the men. Do men have plastic surgery? Do they need plastic surgery? Why is it often under talked about? You know, let's break down some of these myths, G, on men having plastic surgery.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, I mean, at the end of the day, we age just as hard as our opposite sex, so we're definitely getting aesthetic surgical interventions. And at the end of the day, you know, the goal is to still, I mean, look elegant, look natural, look masculine. And it's it's gaining a lot of traction. I will say though that in the past, maybe not so much. Maybe it was even almost looked down upon. But now I feel like you know, male aesthetic rejuvenation is is commonplace.
SPEAKER_00What percentage of you know, do you think your personal patient population practices patient population? Where have you seen the trends over the last few years?
SPEAKER_01It's definitely increasing. I think that um it's still dominated by females over males. Um I would say that the ratio now might be, you know, anywhere from 20 to 30 percent. And I think there might be some variability in different uh parts of the uh.
SPEAKER_00And you know, if if you were to say patients are coming in, what are men looking for? Is it the exact same thing that women are, or what are what are the most common things that men want to address?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, here's the deal. I think traditionally men were looking at they they didn't like extra fat area, so liposuction, huge. Um then men also have facial concerns, you know, rhinoplasty, under your chin area, eyelids. But more and more now it's smaller stuff. Skin, make sure the skin looks good. They're um also interested in in things like bigger procedures like facelifts. Um what about you? What about what are you seeing?
SPEAKER_00I I you know, I think it's everything, right? I think you hit you you hit the nail on the head where I think traditionally it was uh mainly liposuction in certain areas, you know, be it the chest, the the tummy, hip rolls, because that's kind of where most men like to keep their their their their fat um deposits is in those areas. But it's really expanded, right? Now, you know, patients our male patients want all the facial aesthetics that we can offer from facelift, brow lifts, eyelid surgery, you name it, they they kind of want it all to now they're going in and actually getting our services that our estheticians typically treat, our mid-level providers that you know for Botox and Filler and stuff, and they're they're doing more and more maintenance treatments as well, which is very common. You know, and and the common question we always get asked is is like, can I still maintain my manliness? Can I still be very manly and get these procedures done? And you know, how do you address somebody comes in like, hey, I I still want to be a man and have some wrinkles, but I do want to make myself look better.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I think that those are all important points, you know, points that I would, you know, feel the same about. And I think that you definitely can do that. I think, but there there is a different approach to it. I think that's the main thing is you have to adjust the actual technique. So the technique is not exactly the same as it would be, you know, in a female. And I think that that's one piece, right? The other is kind of the actual procedure you're doing might be different. Let's just like, for example, like you know, jawline, you know, giving a male more of a masculinized jawline involves projection or involves increasing the the bigonial you know width. And what's paradoxical though, in that situation, it's like kind of women are wanting that now, also. So sometimes there are some parallel things that are happening, which is kind of an interesting thing that just kind of happens with trends and then we'll shift back. Um, other things are gonna be like with contouring. So massive weight loss has taken over, you know, you know, but the world by storm with using these new medications, and so it's happening to men also. So we're doing a ton of skin excisional procedures on guys also, but it's different. You know, what's different, for example, about an a male abdominal plasty, a male tummy tuck?
SPEAKER_00Well, uh, times it, you know, it's scar placement, but it's also how we deal with the waist, right? And and women want more curves, right? More often than not, in regards to their body contouring, they want to have that more of that that that shape uh creation of curves where where men want to maintain their sort of square appearance, right? You don't, you know, the term we utilize in our our field is feminizing the waist, right? We don't necessarily want to feminize the waist in doing so with body contouring and excisional skin surgery with with male male patients.
SPEAKER_01For sure. And you know what's interesting I found, which I'm curious to hear what you say, is that guys guys want to keep stuff under the radar. I think even more so than women. And so when you talk about incisions and incision placements, like when we talk about like the chest, like contouring for something like um, you know, gynecomastia where you have excessive breast tissue. Oh almost all my patients are like, hey man, whatever we can do to have the least, if not no scar is very important. And I think it's interesting. I think I think we're a little different than than than women. And I think partly it's because you know, we just don't want to have anybody to think we had anything because it might potentially um you know affect our our our perception of us being like, you know, masculine and men. But it is really interesting. So most of the stuff that I do on the chest is typically like, you know, aggressive um liporection using energy, but really trying to avoid scar at all costs, if possible.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, minimal scars at best, right? And if you do it, do it in areas where it hides or you know, it blends in with the a lot of times you do it around the areolas where it blends in so nobody can actually see the scar. And that works remarkably well.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and energy has been really valuable there. You know, doing multimodal liposuction, ultrasonic liposuction, power-assisted liposuction, RF helium-based energy afterwards, like Renuvion, and it's it's really amazing the results that we can get without having to cut out skin. But at the end of the day, if you got to cut out skin, you gotta cut out skin.
SPEAKER_00The um you know, you know, the the thing is, G, that a a lot of our patients, including both women and men, are doing everything they can to take care of themselves. Right. This wellness revolution is happening where you know they're they're counting macros, they're watching their steps, they're watching what they eat, they're they're doing all the exercising. But there's still things, despite all that that only a surgeon can take care of, right? So you mentioned one gotta come ask you, right? And like, you know, unfortunately, it just happens a lot in a certain subset of the population and men, and it's something that can be taken care of easily, limited scar burden, right, and you can get the chest that you want, right? What other procedures are like that for men that you know are just not talked about? Because again, to your point earlier, men just don't want to talk about the procedures.
SPEAKER_01I would say eyes around the eyes for guys, you know, especially if you're if you're like you're in that phase of like you're you're you're maybe middle age, you're you're more in tune to your health, you're leaning out, um, you just can't help the the age effects that are gonna happen around your eyes, and that's the thing that makes you look older sometimes and makes you look fatigued and like you're like you're like in the best shape you've ever been in. You know, so like taking care of like upper lids where you remove the extra upper lid skin, that can be done straight under local. Literally, you get rid of it and you just look like you're refreshed, you're less fatigued, and sometimes it actually improves your peripheral vision because it you remove some extra weights. That's one. The other's lower lid. So I like to approach these two together. Yeah. This unit, you get rid of the bags, you do a little micro fat grafting to the cheeks to kind of improve that volume here. Not to make your cheeks fat, because but you think about when you lean out, you lose volume in your mid face and you look kind of gaunt. And then the others are a little bit of a little bit of skin removal and CO2 laser, but but I think treating this unit, this is a unit that really is like helping the helping guys with this unit is. You can take 10 or 15 years off just like that.
SPEAKER_00And again, scars, are they visible to the name?
SPEAKER_01No, no, they're not. They should be undetected and they fade. But the thing is they're in places that you would when you look, you're like, it just looks like a normal anatomic, you know, you know, you know, inflection point. So you don't really see it. You know, an other other thing is like, listen, one of the most under-discussed things, what is the most powerful thing for guys, same with women, but more with guys, is hair. I mean, hair is so important and like literally changes the aesthetic. I mean, tell what do you think about hair? Like, what what's what's how powerful is hair restoration?
SPEAKER_00Because we we see a lot of these patients, and I I tell every single one of them the same thing. If you have money and you have downtime, it's a no-brainer.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and it's not like crazy downtime, we're just like a little bit of downtime.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, it's not like a lot of downtime. You just have a bad haircut. No lie, you have a bad haircut for a few years.
SPEAKER_01And it's virtual, like it's a virtual, like nearly, you know, 100% kind of take rate.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it works really well. So you're basically removing hair from a part of the body that grows hair, it's resistant to hair loss, male pattern baldness, and you put it into an area that it's no scar without a scar burden. Yep. And it's it's it's remarkable.
SPEAKER_01And you know, the other thing is there's other stuff that's happening now. So you're like, I don't wanna not ready for that. Well, there are treatments now that are like incredible. There's supplements now that are valuable. You know, we're using vitrice now, which is really great, just the gummies that you eat. There is injections now where you can use your own autogenous stuff like PRP. Some people are talking about stem cell therapy. There's also recombinant platelet-derived growth factor using it in an off-label fashion, but getting remarkable, you know, hair growth. So there's really a lot of things that we can be doing that that go into like their your aesthetic. And this I know you love this stuff. Like Bill's a huge proponent of kind of just aesthetic wellness. Like this is part of that. Like, so for guys and women, but guys are kind of new to the game, you know, these there's small interventions you can be doing to control the way that you progress through life and also to maybe reverse some of the things that have gone on to kind of be at the place that you want to be.
SPEAKER_00So again, you're a middle-aged man, you're doing all the wellness stuff you think you can do. You got you hired your trainer, you're watching what you eat. What are the go-tos that you would say right now? Top five that you're like, I you have to do as a male patient? Procedures? No, I'm just talking about therapies in aesthetic medicine right now. Oh, I see.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I think that's you named a few, but let's let's I think the first is like, man, just take care of your skin. So you need to use three things. You need to use a real deal face wash. It doesn't have to smell fruity, it can be just like a normal high-quality face wash. It cannot be bar soap. The next is you need to use a just a high-quality moisturizer in the morning. And then at night, you need to use some sort of active agent moisturizer with like a retinoic acid. Nothing that's weird, nothing that's fruity, nothing that's you know, too much. Three things. It's simple.
SPEAKER_00Skin care number one. Got that.
SPEAKER_01All right, what else, G? Number two, you need to think about what's gonna prevent things from worsening, what's gonna prevent you from getting really deep wrinkles in your face, but still allow you to move. So I think neuromodulators, okay? Neuromodulators are things like Botox, Disport, Juveau, Latibo, what am I missing? Zeomen, um, all those products. Those are those are things that actually just lessen the burden of wrinkles just so that you don't form as deep of varieties. I think that's a great thing. And it's and if you don't like it, you don't have to do it, you know? So wrinkle reducers. Wrinkle reduction. Next thing is gonna be, I think, volume, you know, restoration of volume or collagen. Okay, so that doesn't mean to make you plump and and overfilled. It means to promote collagen production. We're talking about primarily facial stuff. So those are things like you can use a little bit of filler, not a lot, just a little. The other things that are really valuable are things like biostimulators. Okay, biostimulators are things that you can inject under the skin that promote your body to develop its own collagen. Radius, sculpture, fat. There's other stuff that's coming like derma clay, there's other things that have properties that will stimulate that. So that's the other thing.
SPEAKER_00Is hair in your top five or six?
SPEAKER_01Hair is definitely in it. And I think that you know you need to do something for your hair to keep it where it is or to improve it. And there's lots of things for hair. There's so many things that could be its own discussion, but there's pharmacotherapy, which means there's pills that you can take. There's things like low-dose monoxidil, oral, and topical. There's propetia that you can take in oral supplements at DHT blocker. There is biotin-based supplements, there's vitrice, like we talked about, there's neutrophil, like we talked about, there's PRP injections, there is exosomes, which is kind of the wild, wild west. There's some products that are really great, some products that you know you don't know really what's in them. There's a topical exosome that we really like using in our practice called intense um biplated. And it's it's remarkable the effects that we're seeing. I use it personally. So there, I mean, look, I mean, there was not it not a single hair up there before this episode. Yeah, I was bald. I was definitely bald at one point. Um and let's see what else.
SPEAKER_00What other ones what do you what do you think about I'm gonna I'm gonna throw a couple at you and see if you would put them in top five, top ten, top eight. Use of GLP ones for men.
SPEAKER_01You know, I think when it where it's needed, I'm not I'm not a proponent of everybody needs to be on a GLP one, so I'm a little bit cautiously into that. I think that I think it's really I love seeing, you know, uh active medications used for people who fundamentally need them. I'm gonna tell you that there are a lot of people who need them, and it's like it's it has changed. It's a game changer for a lot of patients, right? Remarkable. So you're not opposed to it. Nope. I think it's tremendous. I think those are those those medications are they're gonna become even more targeted and have less of the um side effect. My fear is side effects, guys. At the end of the day, the the stance I take is that everything, everything that we do has a potential side effect, and we just haven't really, really given the credit to what kind of side effects are gonna manifest from these. But the nice thing is that it's advancing, it's like iterating like AI, so it'll get better.
SPEAKER_00What about peptides? I think peptides are.
SPEAKER_01So I think that kind of stuff needs to happen. So there is real validity in in taking vitamins and specific supplements, but I think it should be data-driven. It shouldn't just be like, I'm gonna take all this shit.
SPEAKER_00I love it. Really good insight. Prevention, you know. Um, middle-aged man, they're doing all the right things, you know. Are plastic surgeons becoming their primary care doctors? Where do they fit in this? Because they're going to see their wellness doctor that's that's in their aesthetic practice. You know, is that overtaking primary care? They still need primary care. Where do they go for I know you you and I have I I asked you this because you and I have talked about this, and and I kind of know your thoughts, but I want our listeners to kind of hear.
SPEAKER_01I think we don't we we personally feel an obligation that for us to get the best results for our patients, that they need to like be their act they they need to be physically and emotionally and metabolically their best, also. So it's our in our interest to facilitate that. And hence why we have such an interest in in the kind of wellness and uh longevity and the aesthetic space kind of being colliding into one one one kind of super specialty. And I think that that's our aspiration, to fuse those together and be that, you know, that provider, that aesthetic, that holistic aesthetic provider. And and sometimes I hate the word aesthetic because it sounds so trivial. So maybe we can work on that vocabulary.
SPEAKER_00But you're right. I think we we need to take care of all individuals inside and out to optimize them to live their personal life the best they can, both with the way they look, the way they feel about themselves, and the way internally their body acts. So it it's a combination of it all.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and and and that doesn't mean like us micromanaging all of it. That means us, you know, do hell handling a lot of it, but also just working together with the with other people in the space and us us communicating better on you know a patient and and getting them to where they need to be. At the end of the day, I mean like I think all of us in healthcare, um in kind of wellness, we just want people to live and be their best. And it sounds uh you know aspirational, but it's so simple. It's so important.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I would encourage all men to you know seek out services. You know, I would really encourage them to ask questions, right? Go do your research, find individuals, you know, be at our practice somewhere else that you can trust or very trusted, have these open and honest discussions with them because there's ways we can help. Yeah, you know, surgery can surgery works really well, but there are alternatives to surgery as well. But oftentimes it's a combination of both that can get you to the outcome that you want.
SPEAKER_01And the other small stuff can make a big impact. And like there's a point that happens and it happens to all of us. Uh sometimes you you it'll a certain day it'll hit you, and you're just you might be looking back, looking at yourself in the mirror, you're doing something, you see something, or you're looking, you're just like, since when did I start looking like that? And and like but you can take control, you can you can kind of intervene and and dictate how it goes instead of just being like a victim to it.
SPEAKER_00And I'll say this to every patient we're live and breathing examples of what we preach because we're all doing the things ourselves that we're just talking about. We've had surgery, we're doing the wellness components, we do our neuromodulators, we do our fillers. Like these are things, skincare, these are all things that he and I live and breathe and do every day.
SPEAKER_01We can't prescribe if you don't subscribe.
SPEAKER_00Which brings us to please subscribe to our podcast. Oh, yeah, true. And um, you know, thank you for listening and being part of this. If you like what you're hearing, want to see more, please watch further episodes, follow us on our social media platforms, IG, TikTok, and um ask questions below. We're happy to kind of talk about any and everything. All right, guys, don't be scared, be prepared. Thank you for listening to HKB Uncut. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to us on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube to book a surgery.
SPEAKER_01Consultation or med spa appointment with our team, visit our website at hkbsurgery.com or head to the links in our show notes.