Robin was my gateway. Batman’s assistant’s jaw wasn’t the squarest, but at six in my bedroom in Charlotte, North Carolina, I knew something was different about him. This led me to Batman, Superman, Thor, Human Torch. I could pull dozens of their faces from memory even before the Marvel Cinematic Universe started making gods out of guys named Chris. The one thing they all have in common? A jaw that looks like a piece of granite. And I’ve wanted one ever since.
I’m a 34 year old male with the Gerber baby facial structure, which was adorable when I was a real baby. But now that I’m an adult? Of still adorable. I have struggled with my weight and body image my whole life, but my face has always been a particular problem. When I was at my heaviest, people couldn’t resist pinching my cheeks. When I was thinner and hospitalized for anorexia, another patient told me I had “pimple cheeks.” No matter how your body looks under your clothes, you know what you can’t hide? Your face.
“The sharper the jaw, the stronger the man” is such a natural way of thinking that we don’t even question it. A 2013 study found a link between a wider jaw and higher levels of circulating testosterone in men. A Duke University study found that CEOs with stronger facial features were perceived as more competent. Another study found that voters preferred leaders with more masculine characteristics in wartime. In comics (and boardrooms and the Oval Office and, I don’t know, a Cheesecake Factory), a square jaw indicates strength. And more men like me are looking for ways to get one.
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Non-surgical approaches include Botox and fillers. Ultherapy, which uses ultrasound to tighten loose skin. CoolSculpt, which freezes and kills fat cells. and Kybella,
which destroys fat cells with injected acid. But many surgeries also happen. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 57 percent of chin augmentation surgeries in 2017 were performed on men.
I might become one of them. After years of self-consciousness and a handful of non-invasive procedures, I’m not sure anything is off limits if it’s going to make me feel more confident. If I’m ready for the knife, the question is: What exactly does that mean? What are my options? And, more importantly, will it be enough?
IMPLANT? NOT THAT SIMPLE.
“Look at Greek and Roman art and you’ll see strong chins,” says plastic surgeon Melissa Doft, MD, in her office on New York’s Upper East Side. “Even in antiquity, this was an aesthetic ideal.”
I came to her wondering about a chin implant, which she said could be done in her office under local anesthesia. Traditionally, she might recommend one as an adjunct to a rhinoplasty to balance facial proportions, but many of her male clients are starting to specifically request it. Even without the nose job, she usually combines one with liposuction around the neck to define the jawline and adjustments under the eyes to highlight the cheekbones. For me, even that wouldn’t be enough. Dr. Doft told me that I would also need to have the buccal fat pads (the fatty areas inside the cheeks) removed. He made tiny incisions just above the upper molars to remove them. He would then use a cannula, a narrow tube attached to a syringe, to remove the fat from under my chin.
A full surgical treatment like this would cost me about $6,000, but would only take a few hours. Maybe it’s just as easy as Dr. Doft made it sound. After all, it showed me that it’s more about subtle changes than a huge, sweeping overhaul.
THE LIMITS OF FILLERS
What Lisa Goodman, The founder of the antiaging GoodSkin clinic in Los Angeles told me to cut deep (and she’s not even a surgeon): “You don’t actually have enough cheekbone structure to handle the amount of fat you have.”
Ouch. The secret to contouring a man’s face with just injectables, he says, “is really just straight lines,” meaning that instead of making gentle curves that would feminize the face, the goal is to create angles. It is achieved with heavier fillers such as Radiesse and Voluma, which are injected deeply and can visually enhance the bone structure. By layering them with a lightweight filler like Juvéderm to plump up your skin, you can rework your face in subtle but dramatic ways. In my case, Goodman said “my fat was falling off”—as was any remaining fat—so the filler would visually produce more bone structure to support the surrounding tissue.
A complete treatment with only minimally invasive methods requires a big picture view and a lot of patience. Kybella can be used to remove pockets of fat (like my oral pads) without surgery, but it involves three to six treatments, each one a month apart. I was already on Kybella and had negative side effects — my throat was completely numb for four months. (I’d rather just go under the knife.)
USING A COMPLETE TOOL SET
One of the few plastic surgeons in the US who specializes in men, Douglas Steinbrech, MD, told me that no matter what surgical choices a patient makes, adding fillers has the best results. In 2014, Dr. Steinbrech created what he calls the Male Model Makeover, which usually involves improving the corners of the face. The jaw line is its focal point. “That a strong jaw is associated with respect and power is hardwired into our brains,” he says. “You see it more now because of the hypersexuality of superheroes.” Just look at Michael Keaton’s 1989 Batman opposite Ben Affleck in 2016.
The problem is trying to go from Keaton to Affleck in one process. “It’s a game of addition and subtraction,” says Dr. Steinbrech. “The mistake is to put an implant deep into the bone under all that soft tissue, assuming it’s going to make you a sculpted band
star.” If a patient doesn’t already have a well-defined bone structure (as I don’t), Dr. Steinbrech may advise getting a chin, jaw, or cheekbone implant, but he’ll suggest removing the fat first (through procedures like micro – liposuction and Kybella) or tightening of sagging skin (such as with a facelift or neck lift). Then fillers are added at the end for ‘refined details’.
Dr. Steinbrech recommended almost the entire menu. She noted that I had “general subcutaneous fat on the face” (meaning my whole face is fat, not just my cheeks), so even with the removal of the buccal fat pads, I’ll have to manage my expectations. He also recommended a chin implant (“no-brainer”) and cheekbone implants. The “icing on the cake,” as he put it, would be a generous helping of magazine. Depending on how many syringes he used, this could cost me up to $18,000 per visit. To show me what this would all look like, Dr. Steinbrech used a computer program he calls virtual surgery.
THE “AFTER” PICTURE.
The face Dr. Steinbrech created as I watched looked like someone had made the action–my figure. The goal, she said, was to create a “Hollywood doppelganger,” a prettier version of my face that retained what made me, well, me. Even so, what I was looking at behind the screen was the ultimate selfie — a version of my face that I desperately wanted for myself and for others to see.
About that desperation: I called Roberto Olivardia, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and lecturer at Harvard Medical School who literally wrote the book on male body image. Since he and his colleagues published The Adonis band In 2000, he noticed a dramatic increase in men’s preoccupation with their faces. “The everyday person has become the celebrity,” he says. “To take a photo these days, you have to look good, because with social media, everyone has access to it. This has greatly increased body image.”
Photo editing apps have too. “People can change their face very easily now,” says Olivardia. “They can see what they look like with a more angular jaw [for instance], and it sends people to plastic surgeons’ offices faster.” A decade ago, patients showed up to their visits with photos of celebrities. Now they come with their own edited photos, a phenomenon Dr. Steinbrech calls “Snapchat deformity.” It introduces new issues to plastic surgeons, who spend more time adjusting to patient expectations due to issues such as basic anatomy and genetics. Facetune may be a magic wand, but surgery is not.
In the weeks after my consultation, I spent so much time playing with Facetune that my photos looked like they belonged in a fun house. I looked at my face in the mirror, lifting and stretching my skin like an aging starlet in an old movie.
I began to realize that my expectations were out of control. Even with extensive treatments, I would never look like who I imagined.
This story isn’t going to end with some body-positive realization—at least not one that leaves me happy with how I look now. And is it so strange? We go to the gym to look different. We wear clothes to hide our bodies. I had an epiphany, sure, but the epiphany was: If I can’t be Batman, I’m still going to be Robin.
Garrett Munce writes about men’s style and grooming. It has been written for esteemed sir, New York Magazine, Spotlightand Very good light and held staff positions in GQ and W. Follow his skincare obsession on Instagram @garrettmunce.
