Cosmetic surgery is a type of gender-affirming care to help you look the way you feel inside.
Whether that means changing the body that people can see, or the body that’s only seen by you in the mirror, this type of surgery is designed to make you feel better about yourself.
Each year a new trend comes forwards as doctors and patients uncover new ways to help reduce self-hate.
Minimally Invasive Procedures
Influencers and celebrities help to steer the masses into enjoying or rejecting body types, and this year we are seeing a trend in minimally invasive procedures. This means people are following influencer-induced recommendations but not permanently.
Although this may be alarming to some, this shift means that more people are playing around with their image and using temporary, low-risk procedures as they explore. If these experimenters want to try something permanent, they will be more informed in their choices and will have a better understanding of what they want overall.
This change comes from scientific research into low-risk cosmetic surgery, and the new socially accepted understanding of dysmorphia – the idea that a minor flaw in your appearance is causing intense negative feelings such as embarrassment, anxiety, or shame.
This massive insight into scientific and social change matches the data we have collected.
Trends In Procedures
A From Big Changes To Nature Ones
For a while, many cosmetic surgery procedures were aimed at enlarging body parts or shrinking them down. Larger breast sizes, smaller stomachs.
The Brazilian Butt Lift was a common favorite, as it helped women develop larger derrières to match the sexualized and beautified idea of Brazilian bodies.
However, in 2023, the size of BBLs has been shrinking, and so have breast implants.
Women are the main audience for these surgeries, and the current trend suggests a more natural look, which plastic surgeons like Dr. Shahram Salemy provides in his Seattle, Washington practice.
Breast enlargement surgeries and BBLs are still in high demand, however, now clients ask for changes that follow the natural curves of their body and suggest natural growth.
From Bouncy To Muscular
Another noticeable change comes from the textures of our bodies. This is true across men and women. Before, women would prefer a bouncy body suggesting a natural jiggle to their breasts or bottoms, but now the idea of working out has become so popular that a muscular version of the same idea is dominating.
Men are asking for this change too. Removing their naturally large or bouncy chests for an aesthetic alternative that suggests a muscular body.
Unique Requests
Our last major trend shows that many people asking for cosmetic surgery want something changed that bothers them, but would affect no one else. For example, changing the shape of their ankles, or adding just a little extra filler to their lips.
Small changes, or changes that are rarely shown to the public, suggest that these requests are based on personal happiness over body dysmorphia that has affected someone for a long time.
Very few people would notice this change, instead the unique request is to help an individual with their own self-image.
This suggests that crowds aren’t just following influencers, but they are also looking at themselves and understanding their own personal needs. These unique requests becoming a strong trend shows that more people are understanding the importance of self-love, and how a small change can uplift your self-worth.
Trends In Surgery Choices
Skin Tightening
Skin tightening has always been of major interest to the general public. This procedure is designed to reduce common signs of aging such as fine lines, sagging skin, and wrinkles.
However, Renuvion Skin Tightening is becoming more popular than the alternatives. This method doesn’t use surgical scallops to tighten or remove the skin. Instead, radio frequencies alongside helium plasma technology are used to help promote the natural growth of collagen.
Collagen is a natural protein in our body, found in connective tissue. We use it to create new cell growth and replace dead skin cells.
Encouraging more collagen means your skin will receive new cells which will make your wrinkles smoother, and your sagging skin tighter.
Because it uses collagen instead of pulling your skin, this change looks natural.
Gynecomastia Correction aka Male Breast Reduction
Gynecomastia is a condition where a man’s body produces large tissue amounts around the breasts. Larger men or overweight men are the most likely to experience dramatic versions of this condition – making their bodies seem very feminine.
Although there is no medical negativity to this condition, it can have a dramatic effect on someone’s self-image.
To reduce the size, surgeons make a small incision around the areola and remove the fat cells.
As more and more men come to terms with their body identity and how they feel, we are seeing more men come forward about their self-conscious feelings towards their chests.
Liposuction
Both men and women are coming forward to remove fat around their stomachs. Although men and women focus on different locations of the body the procedure is still the same. A small needle-like object (cannula) is inserted into the skin and removes the fat cells through suction power.
The surgeon moves or sculpts the area affected to help even out the body shape.
Breast Enlargements And Reductions
In the US alone, 300,000 breast augmentation surgeries are performed each year. Unlike most body parts, breasts are the most visual part of the body that is constantly hidden.
If you wear baggy clothes or skin-tight clothes, the size of your chest is still apparent.
It comes as no surprise that, due to their “constantly seen” nature, women who are uncomfortable with their current size want to change it to best suit their ideal body shape.
This doesn’t mean making their breasts as large as possible, though. As we said before, the current 2023 ideas are based on natural aesthetics and muscular aesthetics. This could mean reducing breast size to create a shape more in line with your chest (or to reduce back pain), or enlarging breasts to make your chest feel fuller and in proportion to your body.
Breast surgeries have always been popular, and this year doesn’t seem any different.
Rhinoplasty
Rhinoplasty or “a nose job”, seems to be the most popular facial cosmetic surgery so far this year.
Annually you would expect around 225,000 nose-reshaping surgeries every year. This year there seems to be a higher focus on breathing during sleep and repairing broken noses, while aesthetic rhinoplasty is dragging behind.
Otoplasty aka Ear Reshaping
Otoplasty is a procedure when the shape, position, or size of your ears is reshaped to better fit your preferred aesthetic.
Like all the other surgeries listed, there is nothing wrong with these body types, but a person’s identity and self-worth may be attached to these irregularities.
As more and more people are accepting cosmetic surgery as a way to find their preferred body, simple and noninvasive surgeries such as Otoplasty have become more popular.
Final Thoughts
Every year we see a trend in breast surgery, Brazilian buttock lifts, tummy tucks, and liposuction. These surgeries focus on Western ideas of female beauty around breasts and bottoms, but also around the idea of thinness being beautiful.
However, this year we are seeing the population step away from exaggerated body shapes, and dive into more natural-looking body shapes or even muscular alternatives.
This change shows how the idea of weightlifting and muscle toning has increased in recent years creating a new universal beauty standard.
This trend is set to remain for a long time.