Men are finally experiencing the same body scrutiny as women

We’ve never paid so much attention to hairlines

Women’s bodies and the way they age have been heavily scrutinised for as long as we can remember. After generations of lusting after the ‘silver fox’, men’s appearances are now being picked apart in the same way.

Theorising whether celebrities have or haven’t gone under the knife is nothing new. 

You couldn’t walk past a wall of magazines in the 2010s without seeing a female actress, singer or model on the cover with an accompanying headline screaming that they’d had cosmetic surgery. Now our explore pages constantly find a way to sprinkle in a post annotating the differences in a female celebrity’s face over the course of at least 10 years. Regardless of whether these women have actually ever made any changes to their appearance, countless creators are always ready to point out all of the surgeries, injections and treatments they’ve potentially had done. 

Western culture has always been obsessed with picking apart the slightest change in women’s faces, breasts, bums, waists, and even shoulders (hello Barbie botox accusations), while men’s bodies have largely been allowed to change and grow old gracefully. 

We’ve lusted after silver foxes, praised dad bods and admired the distinguished older man, but as men feel the pressure to keep up with the hair gods of Hollywood, they’re now getting a taste of the scrutiny their female counterparts have gone through for years. 

Men are now under pressure to age 'correctly'

The rate of famous men reemerging from time out of the spotlight with significantly different hairlines seems to have skyrocketed in recent years.

Whether they’re simply naturally self-conscious about their hairlines, aiming to look like one of the internet’s boyfriends, or as suggested by some experts, many of them are just balding earlier, hordes of men are chasing luscious locks.

What feels to have increased even more than the amount of male celebrities with new hairlines is the frequency of conversations about males with new hairlines. 

Hair transplants aren’t a new trend. Men have been getting them for years, but aside from a few memes about what a flight back from Turkey looks like, there hasn’t been a great deal of criticism of changes to the fullness of men’s hair. 

The rate of famous men reemerging from time out of the spotlight with significantly different hairlines seems to have skyrocketed in recent years. Image: iStock

While people like Elon Musk have had very drastic changes to their hairlines, even younger men with sought after tresses like Harry Styles are now regularly the feature of articles and social media posts about hair transplants. 

It feels like every week there’s a new headline asking if ‘(insert famous crush here) has had a hair transplant’.

I can’t say if it’s a result of us all following the lives of celebrities closer than ever before thanks to our 10 hours of daily screentime, or due to the sheer amount of men ageing incredibly on our screens, but as a culture, we’re paying attention to men’s hairlines like never before. 

When Hollywood is now full of guys ageing like George Clooney, Richard Gere, Patrick Dempsey, Mark Ruffalo, Oscar Isaac and Sam Elliott, the bar for a good head of hair is set high no matter a star’s age, but why are we so obsessed with guessing which leading men have paid to better their hairline?

While people like Elon Musk have had very drastic changes to their hairlines, even younger men with sought after tresses like Harry Styles are now regularly the feature of articles and social media posts about hair transplants. Image: Getty Images

Why are we obsessed with guessing which stars have had work done?

Is it a twisted obsession with trying to get any additional insight into what stars are doing with their lives, or a way of subconsciously bringing the rich and beautiful down a peg by convincing ourselves that if they didn’t have the money, they’d all look just like the rest of us? 

Maybe some of us are so deeply into the practice of staying up to date on trends that we’re even following the most popular cosmetic surgeries of each year. 

Whatever the reason, our culture’s obsessed with picking apart stars’ appearances and theorising exactly what’s changed from year to year, and it surely can’t be healthy for anyone.

On the other side of the spectrum, it feels like our feeds are filling up with cosmetic surgery content, no matter our algorithm. Image: iStock

The normalisation of cosmetic procedures

On the other side of the spectrum, it feels like our feeds are filling up with cosmetic surgery content, no matter our algorithm. 

Creators are taking us along with them for their consults, prep and reveals when getting a hair transplant, breast augmentation or facelift, and we’re seeing all of the progress updates from start to finish. 

Historically, women have felt the need to lie about the cosmetic work they’ve had done – remember Kylie Jenner’s overfilled lips from sucking on a ‘lip plumper’ device? But now people in the public eye are starting to talk openly about their procedures.

It’s not just stars from the same cohort of the industry opening up about their cosmetic changes either. Australian DJ Fisher debuted his full head of hair in an Instagram post just months before Drag Race UK star Bimini posted about their dramatic hair transformation.

We’re so aware of the world of cosmetic surgery that it makes sense that the average Joe would be far better at spotting the signs of a hair transplant than previously before, but we really need to stop fixating on the bodies of people in the public eye.

Originally published as Men are finally experiencing the same body scrutiny as women