Cosmetic surgery has male makeover

Muhammad Ali uttered the best rhyming couplet in the history of poetry on the eve of his 1974 'Rumble in the Jungle' clash with George Foreman in Zaire - a fight that nobody expected him to win.

After being badgered over his age and likely defeat by the wig-wearing ABC sports reporter Howard Cosell, Ali, wide-eyed and grinning, pointed to his tormentor's suspect-looking temples and said: "That thing on your head is a phony, it comes from the tail of a pony."

Ali went on to knock out Foreman in the eighth round. Cosell spent the next 20 years being reminded of why there is never much confusion over who is more likely to walk away with the bloody nose when sparring with the Greatest.

Male vanity, like pattern baldness, has been around for as long as males, which may be why wigs can be traced back to many ancient civilisations including the Romans, Greeks and Phoenicians. None were averse to wearing a 'syrup' on special occasions. The evolutionary progression went along the lines of fire, bronze, iron, wig, nuclear fusion.

Happily male pride has enjoyed equal longevity and prevented the hunter gatherer from getting too soft round the edges and undergoing the sort of invasive cosmetic procedures that have become available in clinics around the world over the last three decades.

Now this equilibrium may have been ripped asunder as we discover that almost a third of the patients visiting Dubai plastic surgery clinics are men. It appears to be a Gulf phenomenon because male cosmetic procedures account for a much smaller proportion (between 8% and 10%) of the total in the UK and US.

A poll of Dubai cosmetic surgery clinics undertaken by Arabian Business reporters this week revealed on average 32% of patients are men. They visit the cosmetic clinics for all sorts of procedures, including liposuction, rhinoplasty and 'gynaecomastia' correction - the medical term used to describe the process of male breast reduction.

While cosmetic drug and implant companies face the prospect of declining orders as disposable incomes fall in the US, business is starting to boom throughout the Middle East. The biggest increases are being seen in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Rising incomes have been cited as one explanation for the surge in male cosmetic procedures while the 'ageist' nature of the local job market is another reason according to local clinicians whose clients believe they need to look younger to be considered for jobs.

Whatever the explanation, the trend is transforming the local healthcare industry. Men across the region are going under the knife and laser in record numbers and it seems in this part of the world at least, the age of the male wig may be drawing to a close while the age of the male cosmetic makeover looks set to begin.

Sean Cronin is the editor of Arabian Business English.

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