Inside the Nuances of Male Aesthetics

Welcome to Under the Surface, where we explore aesthetics

and how it intersects with culture and identity.

I'm your host, Dianna Singh, Features Director at Allure.

Today we're talking about a quietly growing demographic

in aesthetics.

Men, more men are seeking filler

and other treatments than ever before,

but there are unique considerations

for male patients from physiology to cultural expectations.

To help us navigate this conversation,

we're joined today by Dr. Evan Rieder,

a dual Board-Certified Dermatologist

and Psychiatrist.

He's known for his holistic approach to aesthetics

and his focus on natural, thoughtful results.

Dr. Rieder, thank you for joining us.

Thanks for having me, Dianna, excited to be here.

Let's do it.

[bright upbeat music]

So, Dr. Rieder, what changes have you seen in recent years

when it comes to men seeking injectables?

I think in general, men are considered a sort

of a monolith, but I don't think that's the way

that they should be considered in the world of aesthetics.

So men are seeking lots of different things,

but in general,

we are seeing more men seeking aesthetic procedures

than we had even 10, 15 years ago.

And the industry's been talking about men

as this growing group since I was a dermatology resident

in 15 years ago.

And it's been happening more slowly than I think

that the industry has expected it to happen.

But it is happening and demographics are changing.

I think that largely has to do with a lot of the sort

of good work that's been done by millennials and Gen Z

and generations that have been coming after

that sort of de-stigmatizing these aesthetic procedures,

making the world of beauty more inclusive

and making it more open to everybody

of all backgrounds and identities.

So it's fair to see, say that you've seen

that change even over the course of your career then?

I have when I was a resident at NYU many years ago,

we were predominantly seeing a female patient,

but it's been more and more men over time.

And I think that it's been manifesting in my practice

such that right now I have, I do have a lot of male patients

that I see for aesthetic procedures,

and we try to do a very tasteful, natural look for people

in a way that sort of respects male considerations

and male anatomy. [upbeat music]

Unpacking that a little further,

how do cultural expectations of masculinity

and male aesthetics shape

what men are seeking out in treatments?

I think traditionally, I think the field

of beauty was really limited to

who was targeted towards women, at least

what was coming from marketing and industry.

Sure. And over time,

that sort of bled into the demographic of gay men.

And they were the first people to,

and the male population to really embrace that.

And now that's come into like the straight male population

as well in ways that are not

as stigmatized as they were even 10 to 15 years ago.

So, and I'm seeing that manifesting in my practice.

I think one of the things that people get concerned

about is sort of like looking weird

especially men who are want to dip a toe

into the water of aesthetics

and are not sure where to do so.

And it's a legitimate and a healthy fear

but I think because of what's happening in social media,

because of what's happening

with regular people being honest

about their own stories

and celebrities that are talking about this kind of stuff,

people feel more comfortable doing it.

Are we at the point where you think a patient

of yours is going back and talking to his guy friends

and saying, oh, you gotta go see Dr. Rieder.

He gave me the best injectables.

I will say objectively that has happened.

Okay. Yeah.

So every time someone comes into my practice,

I ask them how they found me.

Yeah. And so we're at a point now

where we don't have the Yellow Pages anymore.

And for people who are watching this,

they may not have even heard about the Yellow Pages.

But when I was growing up in the '80s, right,

the Yellow Pages was this book

that every business was listed in

and the White Pages where you would find people.

Yep. We don't have those anymore.

Right, so people use Instagram

and TikTok as your Yellow Pages.

So people will find me there and people also, people talk.

I'm pretty much a word of mouth and Instagram practice

and people talk at parties, people talk at social events,

people talk at art events, you know,

and that's how it happens.

Are there certain treatments that are most requested

among men in your practice?

The treatments that are still requested the most

are the treatments that have the largest evidence base

behind them like your botulinum toxin, Botox,

soft tissue fillers, lasers,

people asking for microneedling.

And the thing that the thread

that really weaves all those procedures together is

that they are not new procedures.

They have a huge volume of evidence supporting them.

That you have to ask the person who's on the other end

of the line, are you fiduciary?

Meaning like, are you making an investment choice

that's in your best interest?

Or also in my best interest.

So that's what I'm doing as well.

So I'm teasing out the literature

and I say, you know, you have one face.

Right. You have one body.

You don't use that to experiment on new procedures

or on someone's pet aesthetic project.

We do the things that are tried and true.

We know how they respond

and we have the reams of data to back them up.

And I think that because of that, my patient population sort

of 'cause they know who I am they know that I'm not gonna

to fool around with the other stuff.

Yeah, that said, our patients men included doing more

of their own research and coming to you asking

for something in particular

because they have read the reviews,

seen the TikToks about x, y, Z procedure.

I think to a certain extent, Pete, there are people

that are much more informed about aesthetic procedures,

but I do think that my patients in particular come to see me

because they kind of trust what I'm putting out there.

I tend to be, I work with industry a lot,

but I tend to be relatively unbranded in terms of

what I'm putting out there in the social sphere.

So I hope, and I think that I put sort

of like some credibility, authenticity into that space.

People will hopefully know

and trust that I'll do what's in their best interest.

What are you keeping top of mine

when you're treating a male patient?

Yeah, so it's actually a pretty nuanced conversation,

but very high level.

And there's certain things that we think about

in the female face that we find to be attractive

that would not be attractive

in the stereotypical straight male face, right.

So in the female face, you're thinking about rounder cheeks

and more of a taper down.

So the heart shaped face so like the chin comes

to more of, not necessarily a point but a taper, okay.

And so the male face is gonna be more squared off

that to be stereotypically attractive.

And again, there are differences in people's preferences.

But in general, looking at societies, the square face

and the angular features tend to be more attractive.

The medial cheek and what I'm talking about is like the part

of the cheek that's below the eye

that tends to be more flat.

And I think we have all seen pictures of people who have,

who are male patients who have filled their cheeks medially,

and it can look a lot softer.

And some people like that aesthetic,

I always bring up the example of like Anthony Hopkins.

So a classic actor who has a lot

of wrinkles on his forehead,

who it gives him a lot of character

and probably helps him play roles.

And if you were to wipe away those wrinkles,

you would be less authentically him.

So a lot of men would like to have wrinkles

in their forehead.

A lot of, little bit of wrinkles in their crow's feet.

I tend to have a smoother forehead

and I like that look for myself.

But a lot of my male patients, whether that is

because of their inherent anatomy with like a heavier brow

or because of the fact that they're an actor by profession,

they wanna have those lines.

So I think it's a very individualistic perspective on that.

Knowing that there are so many of those nuances involved.

For someone who is a man who may be listening to this

and wants to seek out an injector,

what sort of question should you be asking?

How can you find that person if they're not in New York

and can't come to you?

Yeah, that's a good question.

I think you want to ask people in your social circle

who they're seeing.

It's not just dermatologists who are injecting,

there's a whole field of practitioners in the world

of aesthetics that are giving people really great outcomes.

And I think you wanna look around your environment.

In some of my earlier research when I was in academia,

we looked at the concepts of like, authenticity,

what makes people uniquely themselves

And sort of stereotypical ideas of beauty.

And so we know that our ideas

of beauty can be changed depending on the environment

in which we find ourselves.

So if you find yourself in an aesthetic practice

where you're seeing overfilled faces,

that may not be the aesthetic for you.

If that's a look that you're looking for,

then maybe that's the practice

where you are wanting to go to.

But we know that our ideas of beauty and our values

of beauty can change depending

on the context we find ourselves in.

So find your community is what I would say

and ask around word of mouth is often the best way

to find those connections.

Filler seems to be the talk of the town lately.

What is your approach to filler for your male patients?

I will say that whether it's a male patient

or a female patient, my approach

to fillers has not changed over the last 10 years.

Even though societally it seems

like we follow a certain family that lives in Los Angeles.

Who could you be talking about?

I don't know, yeah. Who knows, right.

So when people follow the Zeitgeist.

So in general, I'm a very much a minimalist

when it comes to filler.

So we're not trying to transform faces,

but in my male patients, it's not uncommon to do filler.

Again, that would not be the first thing

that people come to my practice if they're cosmetic naive,

but giving structure to the jawline,

especially the corners of the jaw,

the chin helping

with projection can make the male face look more,

it can look stronger, more masculine.

And the lateral cheek,

it's the medial cheek where you run into problems.

So it can make it look more feminized.

But yeah, giving structure to those particular areas

can often make a face look much more masculine

without pushing it too far.

So people look too squared off

and that's can be a very odd look.

Is the word filler still scary to some male patients?

The word filler is now scary to a lot of patients.

But I talk to people like, I'm talking to you about this.

Again, my practices haven't changed.

And no one's getting like a huge face full of filler.

And I'm using very conservative amounts of filler

and we're using fillers in the places

where it's not gonna be really noticeable to anybody except

for the person who's receiving that.

So we're taking things back a little bit.

We're adding a little bit of edge,

a little bit of structure, and not in a way

to radically transform a face.

I know consultations are a key part of the process,

especially for someone like you

who has such a thoughtful approach.

What does that process look like for you

when you're sitting down

with a patient for the first time?

Good question, so it involves a detailed consultation,

usually about 30 minutes of my time

which I think is pretty unique

in the field of aesthetics.

But we're looking at the skin

where if we're just talking about face up,

I'm looking at the face and thirds,

we're looking at the forehead,

we're looking at the area around the eyes

and the nose, the central face.

And we're looking at the lower face,

But I'm not neglecting the hair.

If you look across societies, the two things

that make people look attractive across time,

across genders,

across races is thickness and fullness of hair.

And then evenness of skin tone doesn't,

regardless of what your skin color is.

So having the wrinkles be smooth,

having the skin tone be even

so there's less blotchiness.

Is hair sort of a gateway into the aesthetic world

for men sometimes?

Is that what prompts them

to seek out aesthetic intervention?

Yeah, it can be, it can be.

It's usually a couple things that come into play.

It's the hair loss.

It's feeling like people are losing their edge

in the workplace or feeling like they're looking tired

or angry when they're not tired or angry.

So those are generally the things

that the stereotypical straight guy will come

into my practice looking for.

Dr. Rieder, thank you so much for taking the time.

This was so insightful and so valuable, thank you.

Thanks so much for having me, Dianna.

Of course, and thank you for watching.