Cosmetic surgery has been here since ancient times, but it is always changing and evolving.
It's fascinating to watch how the field is focused by two main factors - technology available, and the popularity of trends.
If the doctors can do something, and the stars get it done, then everyone is going to want it.
Plastic surgery operations in general have been becoming more and more popular in modern times, both for men and for women.
While it has been increasing across the board in exponential terms for the past two decades, most of the growth has been for women.
Only more recently are we seeing a lot more men considering and undergoing cosmetic surgery - for either surgical or non-surgical.
The popularity of botox, liposuction, facelifts, and eyelid surgery operations have been leading the pack when it comes to men's procedures.
We hear about the latest "job" that a celebrity has had done almost before they get home from the hospital these days.
Stars talk about the "work" they've had done with such a casual tone that it really has become a normal thing for people to do.
The general public sees this attitude and mimics it outright, as we do towards a lot of the behavior we see from celebrities.
In 2007, the most popular procedures for women were breast augmentation, liposuction, eyelid surgery, abdominoplasty, and breast reduction.
For men, the most popular operations were liposuction, eyelid surgery, rhinoplasty, male breast reduction, and hair transplantation.
(from wikigender.
org).
The most recent data collected, from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, is similar.
In 2011 the most popular procedures for women were breast augmentation, liposuction, abdominoplasty, breast lifts, and eyelid surgery.
For men it was liposuction, rhinoplasty, eyelid surgery, breast reduction, and facelift.
The most popular operations for ages 35-50 were botulinum toxin type A (botox), hyaluronic acid, laser hair removal, IPL laser treatment, and microdermabrasion.
The big jumps lately, in the past few years, have been in non-surgical cosmetic procedures such as botox.
Botox, hyaluronic acid, laser hair removal, microdermabrasion, and IPL laser treatment were the five most common non-surgical procedures in 2011.
Almost the same as the top five from the 30-35 group, but in a slightly different order.
In total number of surgical and nonsurgical cosmetic procedures since 1997, there has been an increase of over 197% to a grand total larger than 9 million procedures performed in the United States alone! 91% of these operations were accounted for by women, with 14% of men saying that they would "consider" plastic surgery.
The general approval rating for cosmetic surgery in our society is higher than it's ever been, and as surgeons develop new and better methods and the procedures become more popular - with our stars leading the way - we are only going to see the trends becoming more and more popular.