A recent BBC News article published, 30th September 2025, has shed light on a growing trend in the increasing number of young adults turning to aesthetic treatments like Botox and fillers. This shift has been driven largely by social media and it is re-shaping the landscape of cosmetic medicine. It’s a trend that practitioners and training providers need to pay close attention too.
What’s Driving Gen Z Toward Aesthetics?
According to the BBC article, young adults are looking for “baby Botox” and subtle filler work to maintain a youthful appearance. The rise of influencers and TikTok tutorials have normalised these procedures, making them seem as safe as normal skincare practice.
This cultural shift is creating a new kind of patient, one who is image-conscious and often influenced by online trends. For clinics and training providers, this means adapting to clients that are not well-informed about the safety and dangers of cheap, unregulated medicine.
Why Education and Safety Matters
With increasing demand for such treatments, there is a need for proper patient education. At Cosmetic Courses, we believe that every aesthetics practitioner needs to be equipped not only with technical skills but also with the ability to guide patients safely and responsibly. The BBC article highlights the concerns around unregulated and illegal prescriptions and the pressure some young people feel to conform to unrealistic beauty appearances.
This is where accredited training and patient education become so important. Aesthetic practitioners must be able to manage expectations and deliver treatments that prioritise patient’s long-term wellbeing.
How is Cosmetic Courses Responding
We are seeing an increase in interest from non-medical professionals who want to enter the industry and specialise in aesthetics. Our training cover treating younger patients and mastering techniques that deliver natural results.
We also emphasise the importance of ethical practice, teaching our delegates how to say no when a treatment isn’t appropriate and how to build trust with patients who may be navigating psychological or mental health issues.
Looking Ahead to the Future
The aesthetic industry is constantly changing and Gen Z is at the forefront of that change. As trainer providers and practitioners, we have a responsibility to meet these growing challenges with integrity, compassion and expertise.
If you’re a medical or non-medic professional looking to get trained and start a career in aesthetics, please view our training courses and join our community of practitioners who are committed to safe and ethical aesthetic medicine practice.
Botox is renowned for its muscle relaxing qualities. The injections send Botulinum Toxin Type A to the desired area causing muscles to relax and the area to smooth out reducing wrinkles.
treating with in their clinic, showing that it is not just woman that are interested in anti-ageing treatments. This could be due to more male celebrities admitting to having treatments, such as Peter Andre and Shane Warne having a little ‘Brotox’ here and there.
This is one of the most important areas for rejuvenation, but there are noticeable differences between the sexes. Anthropologists use the forehead as an indicator to determine the sex of the skull. It has been observed that a female skull has more of a flat supraorbital ridge, with a smooth convexity up to the hairline, whereas the male skull has a more pronounced supraorbital ridge with some concavity before the forehead becomes flatter towards the hairline. This skeletal structure is what influences the soft tissues and the overall position of the eyebrows.
This is an area that is extensively covered in female rejuvenation, but it does come with limited descriptions when it comes to males. Females have a rounder and fuller cheek due to having a thicker fat compartment in the medial area compared to the lateral area. In regards to female ageing, a fuller cheek gives a more youthful look, referring back to the triangle of youth – everything is more pert and smoother. Male cheeks tend to be flatter and more angular due to a thinner layer of subcutaneous fat. The technique used to treat this area have slight differences, and the volume of product used needs to vary. To keep the ‘flatter’ cheek look for male patients, product should only be used to replace the volume loss. Females can have slightly more product used, and this can be replaced more often to maintain the fuller cheek look.
There are more subtle differences between the sexes in this area. There are 2 angles that are used to determine the ideal nose shape: Naso-labial Angle and Naso-frontal angle.
Naso Frontal is the angle at the radix, the lowest point of the nasal bridge formed by a line running from the radix to the glabella and from the radix along the dorsum of the nose. This position of the radix is important between males and females. Females are normally in line with the lash line whereas males are at the level of the tarsal fold.
When treating both the female and male face for any aesthetic treatment, it is important to book them in for a full consultation, to undertake a facial analysis. Within this consultation, grade the upper, mid and lower face in terms of structure, proportion and symmetry. Within our training, we advise that you take photos of all your patients and keep these as a record to show before and after treatment– it also helps to show the patient how far they have come on their treatments with you.
Regarding the above guidance standards, our Aesthetic Trainer, Dr Fiona Durban thinks this is a step in the right direction “The GMC has simply defined standards of practice we should all currently be following. Practitioners should be self-directed in their learning in order that they are up to date with current best practice for procedures they perform. This also needs to be demonstrated for part of appraisal and revalidation. We should all be offering an initial consultation where treatments with our patients can be planned, their suitability assessed (including any psychological vulnerability) and information given. Consent should never be delegated to others. This guidance I hope is another step towards the profession demanding high standards of care and best practice”
