Fantasia Salon / Spa and Wig Specialists

For those who think the weight loss obsession thing is just with the females, think again.  It’s not uncommon these days to have weight loss surgeons chatting on sports shows.  Terry Simpson is a Lap-Band surgeon and does a radio ad to be aired for mostly-male audiences.  In one recent commercial on an Arizona radio station, he finished the commerical by stressing that losing weight through diet and exercise is harder than “kicking heroin”.

That will get your attention, harder to beat than heroin addiction?  Really? No wonder I’ve had so much trouble over the years!

Misleading or not, the Lap-Band advertisement illustrates a dramatic cultural trend.  Male cosmetic surgery and weight-loss services are booming and men are being targeted more aggressively than ever.

The Lap-band is not the only shrewdly marketed elective medical procedure aimed at appearance-sensitive men.  There has been great success offering laser -based hair regrowth systems of follicle-challenged clients.  One enterprising entrepreneur appeals to their collective sense of indignation by implying - a thick head of hair is no longer a genetic crap shoot — it’s an inalienable male right.

Plastic surgeons now advertise male-oriented procedures such as body-hair removal proudly in magazines and newspapers.  There was a hefty 44 percent increase in minimally invasive cosmetic procedures among men between 2000 and 2005, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

Men’s liposuction went up 10 percent between 2004 and 2005.  There has been a doubling of men getting the Lap-Band in the last few years.  According to the above mentioned Lap-Band surgeon, men used to account for 10-20 per cent of his business.  Today it’s 20-40 percent.

As women have closed the wage gap with men over the last three decades, men have closed the appearance-anxiety gap.  More attention is being paid to the body shape and physical appearance of males than ever before in this country.  And, the ideal of physical male beauty is more defined than ever before.

In days gone by, if a man carried his weight well, it was OK.  Now you have more men seeking out a permanent solution for weight loss as a matter of health and competitive advantage.

Why the heightened male obsession with appearance?  Well, we can thank the media who recently laid the blame for America’s anabolic fixation squarely at the feet of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.  Even todays GI Joe dolls are a lot buffer than those of 40 years ago!

Media is a factor and relationships are a factor.  And  don’t discount the economic factor. Men are a largely untapped market and represent the last proven reserves for the cosmetic surgery and weight-control industries.  No wonder they’ve been targeted with somewhat alarmist ads like the one for the Lap-Band.  In defense of his ad, the surgeon says that his statement was not based on an actual weight loss/heroin study, but a simple comparison of recidivism rates.  According to the good doctor, 98 percent of obese people who lose a significant amount of weight regain it, higher than the percentage of heroin addicts who slide back into use.

He also clarifies the ad’s implied bias against dieting and exercising, suggesting that overweight people “should do that as a first line.”

After all, perhaps we don’t want to kill an ant with a cannon.