Beauty-seeking men have been making up an increasing proportion of China's aesthetic medicine market in recent years, as they seek to improve their chances in job hunting or dating, according to China Youth Daily.

Men are more likely to splash out on medical cosmetology, spending 2.75 times more than the opposite sex per surgery, according to a report.

A patient receives a hair transplant operation at Yonghe Hair Transplant in Beijing. (Photo/China News Service)

During the "Double 11" online shopping festival in November 2020, the number of aesthetic medicine-related orders rose seven times from the same period in the previous year, with about 30 percent of the orders coming from male customers, according to statistics from Tmall, Chinese internet giant Alibaba's online marketplace.

He An (alias), 25, is one of a growing number of Chinese men willing to go under the knife to improve his looks. Unsatisfied with his single-fold eyelids, he decided to undergo double eyelid surgery. After the procedure, he received compliments from his friends, some of whom told him that they had also had cosmetic surgeries with the aim of improving their appearance.

He, who says he has become more confident after the operation, revealed that he also wanted to have hyaluronic acid and Botox injections to improve his facial skin. “Men also want to look better as physical appearance matters a lot,” the man said.

Hair transplant is another popular surgery for men facing hair loss. One out of six Chinese people suffer from hair loss, according to a survey released by the China Association of Health Promotion and Education (CAHEP). About 130 million Chinese men, or one in five, suffer from hair loss.

Chen Zhiwen (alias), a businessman born in the 1980s, used to suffer from baldness. In order to look younger and improve his chances of finding love, he spent over 40,000 yuan on a hair transplant. Now, he doesn't have to wear a hat to hide his baldness.

However, safety concerns have made some male consumers remain hesitant about whether they should join the plastic surgery craze. According to a white paper on China's medical cosmetology, in 2019, over 15 percent of lawful surgery institutions operated beyond their limits, and more than 80,000 cosmetology clinics carried out illegal plastic surgeries.