Beauty clinics reveal the TRUTH behind dramatic rise in number of young Irish men getting cosmetic treatments to 'MASCULINISE' their jawlines and chins - and let's just say they're not just doing it for themselves...

Published: 21:28, 10 May 2026 | Updated: 21:31, 10 May 2026 Irish beauty clinics are reporting a sharp rise in the number of men seeking cosmetic treatments such as jawline fillers and anti-wrinkle injections. And one cosmetics doctor – who estimates there has been a 50 per cent increase in male customers since the pandemic – said most young men who come in are ‘pushed by their girlfriends’. Research by the British College of Aesthetic Medicine indicated there was a 70 per cent increase in men’s aesthetic treatments between 2021 and 2024. Dr Sana Askary, who owns Sitara Medical Clinic in the Beacon Hospital in Dublin, said that although there are no comparative statistics here, Ireland tends to mirror the UK closely in industry trends. Dr Sana Askary, who owns Sitara Medical Clinic, said that although there are no comparative statistics here, Ireland tends to mirror the UK closely in industry trends. Dr Askary listed anti-wrinkle injections and treatments for acne scarring as common among her male clients. But she said the ‘most common’ is chin and jawline filler – ‘to kind of masculinise the lower face’ She told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘Definitely, every day I’m seeing at least one male patient, which is quite a lot compared to maybe 10 years ago.’ The dentist and cosmetics expert listed anti-wrinkle injections and treatments for acne scarring as common among her male clients. But she said the ‘most common’ is chin and jawline filler – ‘to kind of masculinise the lower face’. Dr Askary explained: ‘If a guy has a slightly retruded chin, they’re either going to disguise that by growing a beard, or if they can’t grow a beard, or don’t want to, then they might get a bit of filler in their chin and jaw area to bring it out a little bit.’ Anti-wrinkle treatments for men start at around €200 for one area in Irish clinics. Jawline contouring starts at around €300 in most clinics, with the final price heavily dependent on the amount of filler required. But the price tag doesn’t appear to be putting off the growing number of men seeking cosmetic treatments. Dr Gus Schmitt of E&S Aesthetics in Dublin said his clinic now has ‘at least 40, 50 per cent’ more male customers than before the pandemic. It is widely understood the shift to remote working – when office workers suddenly spent half the day looking at their own faces on conference calls – provoked an upsurge in the cosmetics industry.  Dr Schmitt said his male clients are ‘mostly straight’ men, ‘despite the idea’ that gay men may be more likely to have ‘tweakments’. Teen boys are still capable of critical thinking around ‘manosphere’ influencers and ‘hate’ the idea of being exploited, a youth activist and secondary school teacher has said. Last week, Eoghan Cleary told the Irish Mail on Sunday that looksmaxxing – the manosphere spinoff where men and boys go to bizarre lengths to try to enhance their appearance – has ‘infiltrated’ Irish schools. Mr Cleary said Louis Theroux’s recent Netflix documentary on the manosphere is a powerful educational tool for schools, as it exposes the fact that most of the influencers at the heart of the manosphere ‘don’t even believe what they sell themselves’ and operate ‘just to make money’. He told the Mail this week: ‘What’s really powerful for educators to know is that as soon as young boys realise they’re being exploited – as soon as they realise that the purpose of these guys is not ideological, and they actually don’t care about them, and they’re actually just trying to make money out of them – they hate that. Mr Cleary said Louis Theroux’s recent Netflix documentary on the manosphere is a powerful educational tool for schools ‘They hate that idea, and they start to reject it really quickly.’ Mr Cleary said adolescent boys are ‘so hungry to have older, positive male influences in their life’ who ‘they know actually care about them and have their best interests at heart’. And he added: ‘We need to create space for young men to find their sense of solidarity and identity through genuine experiences of authenticity and vulnerability. ‘And the other thing is that we need to regulate the online world to protect them from all of the people who are telling them the opposite.’ ‘And most of them were sent by their partners,’ he added. ‘Because they said, “Look at this line – you can fix it.”’ Dr Schmitt estimates ‘at least 75 to 80 per cent’ of the younger men that come to the clinic ‘are pushed by their girlfriends’. ‘They usually come with their girlfriends, and, like their girlfriends, they do sunbeds, they have a skincare routine, they have the moisturiser, the SPF every day. Dr Schmitt’s most common treatment for men is Botox, but the GP and cosmetics doctor said he is ‘starting to do more collagen stimulators and facials’, while skincare is ‘growing fast within the male population’. He added that more men are coming in for treatments such as dermabrasion or microdermabrasion, a skin treatment that uses a fast-spinning device to remove the top layer of skin. Asked how Irish trends have shifted in the 10 years he has been practising in Dublin, Dr Schmitt, originally from Argentina, said: ‘I barely saw straight men at the beginning. Now it’s more common. Men are getting more into it. ‘They seem very cautious about people knowing about what they’re getting and they still want to look natural, compared to females, who want to catch everything up in one go. ‘Back in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, we start doing things more or less when we are babies. But now here, it’s catching up.’ Last week, the MoS reported on the online trend of ‘looksmaxxing’, which refers to men going to extreme lengths to look as handsome and manly as possible.  This can involve methods as bizarre and unproven as ‘bone smashing’, when a man repeatedly hits his face with a hard object to create a more pronounced jawline. On the ‘softmaxxing’ side, it can involve extreme gym devotion and dieting. Somewhere in between are the procedures offered by legitimate clinics like the two mentioned above, but both doctors told the MoS they have not heard the word ‘looksmaxxing’ much in their practices. Dr Askary said: ‘There’s a more extreme side, which is definitely something to be worried about, where it’s a bit obsessive.  'And especially when they’re looking at things that sometimes are completely out of your control, like your facial ratios, or the way your tongue sits in your mouth.  'There’s a lot of pressure, and there’s a lot of dysmorphia now, in both men and women.’ Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.