Gen Z Finds Cosmetic Surgery a Turnoff

While the U.S. boasts the highest number of plastic surgeons in the world, cosmetic surgery and its results do not seem to appeal to Gen Z, according to a recent poll.

Conducted on behalf of Newsweek by Redfield & Wilton Strategies, the poll questioned 2,500 U.S. adults to reveal how each generation thinks cosmetic surgery affects people's looks. Of all the adults who took part, 9 percent had undergone the knife themselves.

Gen Z (aged 18-26) took a different stance to older generations when it came to how cosmetic surgery impacts your looks, with almost two-fifths (38 percent) revealing they found cosmetic surgery made people "less attractive."

The natural-is-best preference seen in the younger generation seems to have stemmed from the acceptance of the previous generation, as 35 percent of millennials (aged 27 to 42) agreed cosmetic surgery makes people "less attractive." There was a significant drop when it came to those aged 43 to 58 years old, also known as Gen X, (26 percent) and those aged 59 and over, the Boomers and the Silent Generation (23 percent).

Award-winning aesthetic specialist and mother to two Gen Zers, Dr. Sabika Karim told Newsweek: "Gen Zs believe in proactive aging as opposed to anti-aging.

"The cause of this seems to be multifactorial. They have grown up in a world where social media is ubiquitous, and therefore there's a pressure to constantly look great all the time. They are more real than the millennials and the Xers when posting—and want less curated interactions with social media so rather than using fake filters, they have treatments, so they don't need them."

The poll also found that half of all Gen X respondents believe cosmetic surgeries bear no change as to how attractive people are, despite the treatments all impacting physical features. Gen Z and millennials shared a similar outlook as to this (36 percent and 38 percent respectively), while Boomers and the Silent Generation sat somewhere in the middle (46 percent).

Karim highlighted how Gen Z has had a unique experience and outlook as a result of growing up with social media and having information at its fingertips. "Social media has also normalized anti-aging treatments and brought them into the mainstream, and the Gen Zs don't feel a taboo when talking about injectables, a type of nonsurgical cosmetic procedure.

"They have also truly grasped this phenomenon of 'proactive aging' which means that they are prepared to spend time, effort and money on regenerative and preventative treatments, from active skin care to injectables such as botulinum toxin and polynucleotides so that they can continue to drink from the fountain of youth. And with all the information so readily available at our fingertips the Gen Zs are more well-informed than ever."

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons' 2023 procedural statistics further highlighted that Gen Z's priorities—when it comes to plastic surgery—align with older demographics, with face-lifts, facial fat grafting and forehead lifts sought out by the age group.

The demographic is also taking advantage of living in a time of more advanced technology, reducing the need to go under the knife. The report revealed a 5.5 percent increase in uptake of noninvasive procedures for 20-29-year-olds since 2022—a pattern that is reflected in Karim's own experiences.

"As much as they are embracing proactive aging, my experience (and the statistics), reveal that the younger generations may consider that surgeries are too drastic and make people look less attractive," she said. "This may be that they favor safer, less radical minimally invasive procedures, or simply, the younger ones don't have the need for the more dramatic results yet."

"In my near two decades of experience, I have met so many people who said they would never consider a filler or a face-lift, but that has only lasted until they needed one themselves," added Karim.

Do you agree with Gen Z's attitudes toward cosmetic surgery? Let us know in the comments or via [email protected]