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THERE WAS A time when the average man's beauty routine consisted of a short shower, a sharp shave and the cold shock of a splash of cologne.

But these days, simply being manly isn't enough, and with the heightened pressures of today's society, Asian men are increasingly taking their lead from the west and paying for plastic surgery.

Hong Kong plastic surgeon Dr Gordon Ma  Fong-ying  says the upturn reflects a growing awareness of what can be done to improve on the hand - or face - nature deals. 'The number of men undergoing plastic surgery is slowly increasing,' he says. 'People are now more open to the availability of various cosmetic procedures.'

Star culture is  partly to blame for reinforcing the myth that beauty is the key to success and happiness. Many men turn up at clinics asking for a defined jaw line like singer Aaron Kwok Fu-shing's, or an aquiline nose like actor Andy Lau Tak-wah's.

Nor are  celebrities immune. Last year, British singer Sir Cliff Richard, 63, admitted to having Botox injections to keep his wrinkles at bay. Although he stopped because it made his eyebrows droop, the experience didn't put him off altogether.

'When the day comes and I find it's all fallen down too much I'll have it taken up,' he says.

But although more Asian men are also being lured onto the operating table, the subject remains a social taboo.

'Chinese society is very secretive, and cosmetic surgery is not very well accepted,' says Dr Ho Chiu-ming, chairman of the Hong Kong Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons. 'So, men, in particular, are  unlikely to stand up and say, 'I did it'.  For this reason, I don't think anybody has accurate figures of the numbers of men undergoing surgery. There's still a bit of cultural difference between westerners and Orientals, although I believe this attitude is beginning to change because of the younger generation and western lifestyle.'

Incomplete figures from the mainland support the observations of Hong Kong surgeons. Four years ago, men there accounted for 10 per cent of cosmetic surgery patients, but the figure is now about one in five.

The trend is illustrated by a number of highly publicised cases where hard-up men have offered themselves as canvasses for doctors to perform free cosmetic surgery.

In Wuhan, a 30-year-old man is to undergo three months of plastic surgery after winning a Mr Ugly contest, and a 24-year-old from Heilongjiang province is set to become Shanghai's first 'man-made handsome guy'.

Ma says men have different gripes about their bodies than women, and typically bear them for longer before seeking help.

'The psychology for men is that they don't want to change their appearance, but they don't want to look tired and worn out, either,' he says.

One of the most popular surgical procedures  for men is eye-bag removal, closely followed by mole removal and surgery to create a double-lid crease, which widens the eyes.

Elevation of the bridge of the nose - rhinoplasty augmentation, which is the opposite to the reduction procedure commonly carried out in the west - and chin augmentation are also common.

Typically, men pay about  $20,000 for eye and nose jobs, and  $1,000 to have a mole removed.

Many routine operations in the west are less common here because of cultural and physical differences between Asian and Caucasian men.

Asian men prefer the gym to liposuction, and hair transplants are still rare because Asian hair is thinner.

Face-lifts are also less popular,  because Asian skin is more resilient to ageing than Caucasian skin, and often forms more noticeable scars. And it doesn't always produce better results.  'With Caucasians, the tighter you pull, the better you look,' says Ma. 'But, with Oriental men, the face becomes flatter and doesn't look so good.'

The reasons  Asian men choose to improve on their inheritance are manifold. More mature males are sometimes worried they might be herded aside by the younger bucks in the workplace, and so turn to cosmetic surgery to help them reassert their status. For others, the pressure to look better comes from home.

'One noticeable difference between the sexes is that men usually come here with their wives, whereas wives usually come with their female friends,' says Ma. But some have other  motives.  'They might say it's because of the working environment,' he says. 'But, secretly, I think some have either met younger girlfriends or want to attract them.'

Teenagers, who account for about a third of all men seeking cosmetic procedures, often want to make their faces look more 'western' by acquiring larger eyes and more defined noses.  'They're often brought in by their mothers,' says Ma.

However, most men who have cosmetic surgery are in their 40s and 50s, and want to 'upgrade' themselves.

Although plastic surgery has, arguably, transformed some ugly ducklings into swans, statistics from the Chinese Consumers' Association show a rising  number of complaints, with an average of 20,000 lawsuits filed every year.

Chen Guozhang, a senior member of the China Plastic Surgery Association, says it's a sign of social progress that people want to enhance their image.

'The practice of the whole industry is pretty chaotic,' he says. 'And some of the clinics and practitioners aren't qualified.'



Man Made... again