Trend: More men looking to have a more “manly” appearance
Newsweeks’s term for them? Retrosexuals:
Aug. 20-27, 2007 issue – Measuring 6 feet 3, with chiseled pecs and a bushy beard, George seemed like a model of manliness. Yet two years ago the 47-year-old Virginia businessman (who declined to give his full name to protect his privacy) decided he didn’t look quite macho enough. So he went to see Dr. Jeffrey Epstein, a Miami hair-restoration surgeon, to have 3,000 hair follicles ripped from his scalp and transplanted into his face, chest and belly. He wasn’t satisfied. So a year later he returned to get an additional 2,400 grafts done. “I could still have another surgery and not be completely covered,” says George today. “I’m very pleased, but 2,400 grafts is not a very hairy chest.”
George’s quest for maximum hirsuteness isn’t as unusual as it may sound. He’s part of a growing group of “retrosexuals”—men who shun metrosexuality, with its often feminine esthetic, in favor of old-school masculinity. Cosmetic and hair-transplant surgeons on both coasts report increases in patients seeking a more rugged look: hairier chests and beards, squarer chins, more angular jaw lines. Dr. Paul Nassif, a well-known Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, has noticed the change in the photos patients bring in to show him their ideal image. A few years ago “they were bringing in a pretty-boy look,” he says. Now, though, the requests are different: ” ‘Give me a big, strong, manlier chin’,” he says.
Among hair-transplant specialists, the vast majority of their patients continue to be men hoping to combat balding and receding hairlines. But in recent years, those seeking facial and chest implants have increased. According to the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery, facial-hair transplants in the United States jumped from 765 procedures in 2004 to 1,189 in 2006. Epstein, the Miami doctor, has done 10 facial and chest procedures in the past 18 months—double the rate in previous periods. On the cosmetic front, some surgeons say that men are also asserting their manliness through rhinoplasty, or nose jobs, asking for a more pronounced proboscis.
Well, they might be able to buy the “look” but they’ll never be able to buy the attitude … 
Prior posts on manly men: