Men's Plastic surgery article

"A New Man"

Item Magazine
Story by JESS FILCH Photography by FABRICE TROMBERT

More and more men are finding themselves going under the knife in search of an updated look.
In 2004, the number of men who chose to have cosmetic surgery jumped by 60 percent. But while men may be more likely to opt for surgical enhancement now than ever before, they remain less likely to accept long periods of down time and find it difficult to hide behind hair and make-up while healing.

When seeking out masters of the understated, natural look, male plastic surgery patients turn to Dr. Robert Silich, who has been touted by W and New York magazines as a rising star. A third generation physician, he has gained notoriety by co-authoring a paper on the "Short Scar Face Lift," a procedure which uses a smaller incision and has quicker recovery than a standard face lift. Dr. Silich has also perfected the art of sculpting faces through the use of fat by suctioning the smallest amount of fat from the neck to restore or even create a strong jaw line, as well as injecting fat to fill out furrows and lift sagging areas. Male plastic surgery patients are particularly appreciative of the lack of visible scarring.Dr. Silich's office is located on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, but he is licensed in both New York and LA and is often referred patients by famed beauty doctors in Beverly Hills, as well as those on the East Coast. And though plastic surgeons are not at liberty to discuss their clients.

Dr. Silich's office has a back door through which celebrities slip in and out. The occasional bodyguard lingering outside gives you the idea.

We caught up with Dr. Silich fresh out of eyelid surgery.

ITEM: What is happening now in men's plastic surgery?
Dr. Silich: Plastic surgery was associated with a stigma of the woman in her sixties that looked like a mannequin. But now the trend, in general, on both coasts is to get smaller plastic surgery procedures with little down time. Men want to look like themselves, just fresher and like they didn't have any work done. It's not a surprise or a coincidence that the male cosmetic surgery phenomenon coincides with the "less is more" movement.

ITEM: Have men become more vain?
Dr. Silich: Men have been interested in how they look for centuries. Look at Oscar Wilde, the Duke of Windsor, Cary Grant and Montgomery Clift. In a way, they were the precursors to the Metrosexual. It used to be haircuts and Bespoke shirts; now the new avenue is plastic surgery.

ITEM: What are the most common procedures you perform on men?
Dr. Silich: I've rarely met a man over 40 who couldn't use liposuction of the neck or love handle areas. Defining of the neck and jaw-line goes a long way. Even a man who is not classically handsome can become a leading man if he has a strong jaw and neckline. Steve McQueen is a good example of this. Men should get rid of bags but not wrinkles. Every man should have some crow's feet but not baggy eyelids, so I do surgery to get rid of the fat and excess skin. It's important not to pull the skin because that can make men look odd or too effeminate. There's a way to approach eyelids from the inside of the eye, without incising the skin. This has the added advantage of not requiring sutures and cuts the downtime.

ITEM: What is the most popular plastic surgery procedure for men?
Dr. Silich: Statistically, it's Rhinoplasty (“nose jobs”), but that includes teenage men.

ITEM: How is performing Rhinoplasty on a man different from improving a woman's nose?
Dr. Silich: A man's nose still has to be esthetically pleasing, but it's a different challenge because you have to make it look a little rough — I might leave a bump and make sure the tip is not too high. You really have to make sure it looks like it was never done.

ITEM: Any new tricks up your sleeve?
Dr. Silich: I've been using an electric cautery to tighten the eyelids. Fat is held by a thin layer, like a pillow in a pillowcase. The casing gets stretched out and becomes saggy. Instead of removing fat, which would be like making the pillow smaller, I use the cautery to tighten the case. The electric current actually shrinks it without surgery.

ITEM: What about Botox?
Dr. Silich: A man's face should be dynamic, not static. The injection sites are different for
men than women, and I inject in smaller areas.

ITEM: Do you have a philosophy for male plastic surgery?
Dr. Silich: One governing rule is that a man should look age appropriate. Someone in his sixties should aim to look more like Sam Shepard or Harrison Ford, not Ryan Seacrest.