More and more men are turning to surgical procedures in order to look and feel younger, according to a release from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. In 2010, there was an overall 2 percent uptick in cosmetic plastic surgery procedures for men--including facelifts, liposuction, eyelid surgery, and breast reduction surgery (what the U.K.'s Daily Mail calls "moob reductions").

If this seems like a bit of news you've heard before, that's because you probably have. Perhaps in a June 2004 item from CBS ("a growing number of male baby boomers age 40 to 58 are turning to plastic surgery to keep themselves looking younger"), or a January 2005 report from ABC ("the number of men undergoing plastic surgery each year is on the rise"), or a December 2006 story from Forbes ("from 2000 to 2005, there was a whopping 44 percent increase in minimally invasive cosmetic procedures among men").

Men just love their plastic surgery, it seems. Perhaps we should stop being surprised by these stories. Here's a question, though: Didn't the economic downturn disproportionately affect men? If so many dudes are unemployed, how are more and more of them turning to expensive cosmetic procedures? The only way we can see of squaring the trends is assuming the procedures are to help impress in interviews. There certainly were a number of such stories in spring of 2009.

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