How millennial faces are no longer popular

Online beauty standards have developed a gothic taste. The squishy faces are replaced by a gaunt, hollow aesthetic. Those who are not blessed with the necessary bone structure have found the solution in a gruesome cosmetic procedure called buccal fat removal.

The question is what to do when chiseled faces become less popular, as they inevitably will. When cherub cheeks are back in vogue, so what?

Over the years, this type of cosmetically enhanced homogeneous beauty has been supreme for women in the western world. Big lips, a contoured nose, high cheekbones, and wide, raised eyes make up a look that author Jia Tolentino has dubbed Instagram Face — a reference to the social media platform’s presence and editing tools. Like Instagram, now it’s out of date.

The ideal of beauty is beyond design. Grab one and the next one will escape you. The light 1990s eyebrow pencils gave way to subtle lamination brows. The athletic silhouette is replaced by curves. But it all gets trickier when cosmetic treatments are added to the mix, promising to help clients get closer to the ideal – if they have the money, time and pain threshold. Keeping up with the trend by swapping skinny jeans for straight legs or long hair for wavy cuts is pretty easy. Reversing changes made to the shape of your face is not.

This is a problem for influencers who make money by posting selfies. Reality TV star Kylie Jenner, one of the most famous Instagram faces, has made a fortune using her own image to sell her beauty products online. But earlier this month, a Trash Day newsletter featured digital strategist Leila Brillson, who highlighted research in which young internet users said they didn’t connect with Jenner because her face was too “millennial”.

Brillson felt it was inevitable that the cosmetic procedures used to achieve perfect, Instagram-ready faces would lose popularity. “The standard of beauty for millennial women—unobtainable and curated looks—I think the generation behind us is looking at how old it is and choosing a different path.”

Social media reinforces the effect of punishing ideals. Along with Instagram faces, there is a “Zoom boom” in cosmetic interventions for people who are unhappy with how they look on video calls. Snapchat dysmorphia describes users who wish they could be seen as their online selves.

I blame the filters. In 2015, social media company Snapchat purchased the San Francisco Looksery company, using the company’s facial tracking technology to map augmented reality images onto user images. Since then, social media photo filters have gone into overdrive. Earliest dog and rainbow ears added. Now they are designed to be hyper-realistic and show users what they look like with aesthetically enhanced features. You no longer need FaceTune or other digital editing tools. Filters can give you a sharper jawline, an improved hairline and clearer skin in an instant.

The rise of high street clinics offering non-surgical treatment can make that digital image a reality. A syringe filled with Juvéderm and Botox freezes and fills in features, moves contours and erases wrinkles. Thanks to injections, you can completely change the shape of your face.

It’s hard to overstate how normal this is. Magazines that once reviewed face creams are now telling you about your first lip filler appointment. Young customers are encouraged to freeze their faces now to prevent future wrinkles. They are indoctrinated into expensive, never-ending habits. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons reports that in 2020, approximately 12,000 cosmetic Botox injections were performed in adolescents.

If you follow the trend, the number will go up. An annual audit by the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons shows that cosmetic procedures will double by 2022 compared to the previous year. These are some pent up requests thanks to Covid. But procedures are up at pre-pandemic levels. Association quotes social media. “Knowledge about plastic surgery has traditionally been word of mouth, but now it has increased exponentially through digital word of mouth via Instagram,” said former president Rajiv Grover, who compiled the audit.

Non-surgical treatment is even more popular. The Global Survey of the International Association of Aesthetic Plastics noted that around 17.5 million were performed worldwide in 2021, one third more than surgeries.

Even this is not close to the actual number. There are no prominent figures for the so-called tweaks made on the road, sometimes by practitioners with minimal training. In San Francisco, I walk past a small shop every day that opens directly onto the street and offers onsite shots to passers-by.

Nothing lasts long. If you freeze one set of wrinkles, others will appear. The filler can migrate. Lip injections can transfer to the top of the mouth — an unfortunate phenomenon known as mustache fillers. Trend setters will turn up their identical noses and move on. Just don’t expect them to accept a natural look. The era of the millennial face may be coming to an end but extreme standards of beauty are not going anywhere.

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