Is Joe Jonas the new face of “Brotox?”
In recent years, the stigma around cosmetic procedures has diminished as “tweakments” are becoming evermore normalised.
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, “Brotox,” an increasingly common term for male botulinum toxin use, is the No. 1 cosmetic procedure requested by men, with a 400% increase in treatments administered since 2000.
In a bid to destigmatise anti-ageing injectables for men, DNCE frontman Joe Jonas has recently spoken out about his use of them to smooth fine lines.
"To me, there's nothing more beautiful than confidence," Jonas told Allure in a recent interview. "And looking your best comes from feeling your best. I make it a point to prioritize practices and routines that make me feel like the best version of myself."
According to the father of two and husband of Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner, he became interested in injectables after noticing more frown lines. The results helped him get "that confidence boost" without making him feel like "a different person," he said.
"It gave me that confidence that I think we all want to feel as we get older. There's this kind of stigma around guys talking about skincare and how we feel and the products we use," Jonas continued.
However, the singer went on to tell People that he hasn’t always been so open about this stuff due to social perceptions of what men should and shouldn't do.
"I think there's a stigma that's fading, and I like that," Jonas told the publication, also saying he believes the normalisation of male appearance enhancement, from cosmetic procedures to skincare and makeup — has already begun.
"I don't think it's necessarily something that we have to shy away from," he said. "We can be open and honest about it and be confident and not really shy away from speaking our truth."
Changing times
As Dr Sina Salmi of Windsor’s Estetica Clinic points out, it was only a few years ago that High School Musical star, Zac Efron was ridiculed online for his presumed use of injectables. Although male-targeted beauty has increased by £100m in the UK in just two years, Salmi believes that there is still a lot of work to be done to reduce the stigma.
“As a clinic, we want to normalise aesthetic maintenance and skin rejuvenation for men,” he says.
“In turn, we hope that our male patients slowly feel comfortable enough to openly talk about their positive experiences with their male friends and colleagues, just like many women already do.”
Differing regulations in the US and UK
Notably, due to the stark differences in cosmetics and advertising regulations between the UK and USA, such celebrity endorsement wouldn't be allowed in the UK.
As botulinum toxin is a prescription-only medicine in the UK, it is unlawful for these treatments to be advertised in any way to the public. This extends to all media, including social media and on websites, as well as both paid-for advertisements and non-paid-for marketing posts or communications.
The recent parliamentary report called “The impact of body image on physical and mental health” is calling for dermal fillers to become prescription-only medicines in line with botulinum toxin and for tighter regulation around the cosmetics industry and advertising on social media.