Indian men lining up for botox for a facelift

NEW DELHI: Raghu Kumar often asks perfect strangers to guess his age. If you offer a number lower than X, and most people presumably do, he will tell you the secret of his youthful looks. It's Botox and this is a sales pitch. Kumar is the managing director of Allergan India, which makes the prescription drug used in skintightening and other facial aesthetic procedures.
Kumar, who first used the product last year, is not the only brand ambassador in his company. Botox is offered free to employees of Allergan and half have already tried it, many of them men.

This is the big open secret about Botox use in India, according to Kumar and those involved in the grooming business. Indian men are lining up around the block to get themselves injected full of the botulinum toxin type A for squarer jaws and manly chins, even less clammy hands. It should be pointed out that the drug, based on a toxin, needs to be carefully administered by experts and that there can be side-effects of varying degrees of severity. Meanwhile, any debate about cosmetic enhancements is probably wasted on those wanting to look better with an injection.

About 20% of new users that the company is adding every year in India are men, says Kumar. This is a significant jump from five years ago, when it was 5%. Most of these new Botox and dermal filler users are under 45 years of age.

Confirming the recent spurt in male Botox users, cosmetic physician Jamuna Pai reckons that 50% of them would be typically under 35 years, while another 1520% would be under 45. Besides models and actors, the profile of users includes businessmen, pol iticians, marketing, sales personnel, even rich farmers from towns and villages adjoining the metros, Pai says. Kumar adds that men working in public-facing sectors such as airlines and hotels also form a strong client base. “At one level it is intense competition that the new generation poses in today's cut-throat world.So many in their 20s have become successful icons today that those in their 30s and 40s feel the pressure to match up in every possible way, including youthful and nearperfect looks,“ says Kumar.

“Also, I have seen they are much open to trying out different things compared to the generation in their 50s today,“ he says.

Apart from skin tightening, Pai says men want leaner faces and fuller lips, many of them goaded by wives and girlfriends. Many also want to control excessive sweating of the palms, complaining of social embarrassment while shaking hands.

Kumar says it's not fair to compare usage of prescription drugs such as Botox with other male grooming products but Pai feels that the recent boom in that industry may have contributed to increasing acceptability and usage of the product.

“A male client who uses Botox or fillers for cosmetic reasons is definitely more likely to be using male-targetted grooming products and working out in a gym,“ she said. The male grooming market in India is expected to swell by a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11% to reach . 5,300 crore by 2016, says a Eu` romonitor study.

But does the increase in male Botox users also mean that they are shedding inhibitions about admitting it in public? Not really, most still prefer to remain closet Botox users, Pai points out, saying they insist on strict privacy and confidentiality.

A 35-year-old marketing head at an apparel company said he first tried Botox three months ago, mainly due to professional reasons. “Working in a hypercompetitive environment like sales and marketing and meeting clients on a regular basis demands that you work on your personality to hold the attention,“ he says. His wife and close friends know but most of his colleagues don't.

“The improvement was remarkable and so many people asked but unlike hair transplants, where the change is drastic, in these cases you can always give credit to eating healthier, exercising more and other lifestyle changes, which is what I did,“ he admits.