Interest in plastic surgery has exploded over the past few years, despite the global Covid-19 pandemic forcing many practices into temporary closures.
In fact, data from The Aesthetic Society shows hundreds of thousands of patients across the US used the lockdown period to have plastic surgery, with a 54% year-on-year lift in surgical procedures in 2021. There has even been some suggestion that working from home and, therefore, conducting more meetings via video call, increased the appetite for plastic surgery. All of this is part of a trend that has become known as the Zoom Boom.
In short, more and more people are considering plastic surgery to achieve their desired look. As a practice, we find the recent trends in plastic surgery interesting and wanted to dig further into the data.
In this post, we’ve used search data from Google to answer several questions about plastic surgery trends in our home state of Texas, including:
- Which plastic surgery is Texas most interested in?
- Which plastic surgery is increasing in popularity quickest?
- What is the most popular plastic surgery in each city in Texas?
- Which area of Texas is most obsessed with plastic surgery?
So, let’s get stuck into it!
Which plastic surgery are Texans most interested in?
Below, we’ve listed the 20 most searched plastic surgery procedures in Texas.
The formal names of each procedure are used below, but please note the data includes searches for commonly known alternatives, where relevant. For example, the data for abdominoplasty includes searches for ‘tummy tucks’, the rhinoplasty data includes searches for ‘nose jobs’, and breast augmentation data includes searches for ‘boob jobs’ or ‘breast implants’.
| Procedure | Average Monthly Searches | Change In Monthly Searches 2018 – 2022 |
|---|---|---|
| Brazilian Butt Lift | 24,700 | 650.95% |
| Gynecomastia | 14,800 | 82.83% |
| Liposuction | 14,800 | 22.31% |
| Abdominoplasty (Tummy Tuck) | 14,000 | 66.36% |
| Botox | 12,100 | 123.46% |
| Microdermabrasion | 12,100 | -18.18% |
| Breast Augmentation | 8,800 | 43.10% |
| Chemical Peel | 8,100 | 50.00% |
| Rhinoplasty (Nose Surgery) | 8,100 | 22.73% |
| Lip Filler | 8,100 | 22.22% |
| Blepharoplasty (Eyelid Surgery) | 5,400 | 179.31% |
| Labiaplasty | 5,400 | 125.00% |
| Mommy Makeover | 5,400 | 50.00% |
| Buccal Fat Removal | 4,400 | 340.00% |
| Breast Lift | 4,400 | 86.21% |
| Hair Transplant | 4,400 | 51.72% |
| Rhytidectomy (Face Lift) | 2,880 | 65.63% |
| Breast Reduction | 2,400 | 81.25% |
| Genioplasty (Chin Augmentation) | 2,130 | 132.54% |
| Butt Implants | 1,900 | 0.00% |
The Brazilian Butt Lift (commonly shortened to ‘BBL’) is the most popular procedure across the whole of Texas, with approximately 10,000 more searches a month than any other procedure.
A Brazilian Butt Lift transfers fat to the buttocks from other body parts to boost size, shape and volume. It has been made famous by a string of celebrities thought to have had the procedure – we won’t name any names, but you can probably think of a few. Clearly, this fame has generated a boom in interest from the public.
After the BBL, the competition is much tighter, with gynecomastia and liposuction equal in second place, followed closely by the tummy tuck in third.
The BBL has also seen the largest and quickest increase in popularity over the last four years, with a whopping 651% lift in Google searches for the procedure since 2018.
But interestingly, excluding the BBL, four out of the five procedures displaying the largest increases in interest are face-related:
- Buccal fat removal, which targets the cheeks, is up 340%
- Blepharoplasty, for the eyelids, is up 179%
- Genioplasty, for the chin, is up 132
- Botox is up 123%
We can’t say for sure, but this could be related to the Zoom Boom, given these areas are more visible during virtual meetings.
Methodology:
- We created a list of 44 plastic surgery procedures and pulled the average monthly search volumes for each procedure over the past four years from Google’s data. The average search volumes for each procedure have been ordered from highest to lowest for the top 20 in the table above.
- We then compared the volume at the start with the most recent data to calculate change over time for each of the top 20.
- In some cases, the search volumes are the same. These procedures have been ordered by their change in search volume – largest to smallest.
What is the most popular plastic surgery in each city?
Below, you’ll find a series of tables showing the top 5 plastic surgeries in cities across Texas. We used the 20 biggest cities based on population size, according to Texas-Demographics.com. The number after the dash represents the average number of searches each month for that procedure.
| Alrington | Amarillo | Austin | Brownsville |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brazilian Butt Lift – 350 | Brazilian Butt Lift – 120 | Brazilian Butt Lift – 1,690 | Brazilian Butt Lift – 140 |
| Gynecomastia – 210 | Breast Augmentation – 90 | Botox – 880 | Abdominoplasty – 120 |
| Liposuction – 210 | Gynecomastia – 90 | Gynecomastia – 880 | Rhinoplasty – 120 |
| Microdermabrasion – 210 | Abdominoplasty – 80 | Breast Augmentation – 790 | Liposuction – 110 |
| Abdominoplasty – 200 | Botox – 70 | Rhinoplasty – 740 | Microdermabrasion – 90 |
| Corpus Christi | Dallas | El Paso | Fort Worth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brazilian Butt Lift – 240 | Brazilian Butt Lift – 2,490 | Brazilian Butt Lift – 760 | Brazilian Butt Lift – 980 |
| Gynecomastia – 170 | Breast Augmentation – 1,370 | Rhinoplasty – 410 | Liposuction – 590 |
| Breast Augmentation – 140 | Abdominoplasty – 1,050 | Abdominoplasty – 390 | Abdominoplasty – 550 |
| Liposuction – 140 | Liposuction – 1,000 | Gynecomastia – 390 | Breast Augmentation – 500 |
| Abdominoplasty – 130 | Microdermabrasion – 1,000 | Liposuction – 390 | Microdermabrasion – 480 |
| Frisco | Garland | Grand Prairie | Houston |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brazilian Butt Lift – 190 | Brazilian Butt Lift – 220 | Brazilian Butt Lift – 180 | Brazilian Butt Lift – 3,780 |
| Botox – 140 | Breast Augmentation – 120 | Liposuction – 110 | Abdominoplasty – 1,920 |
| Gynecomastia – 140 | Gynecomastia – 110 | Abdominoplasty – 100 | Botox – 1,900 |
| Liposuction – 140 | Liposuction – 110 | Gynecomastia – 90 | Gynecomastia – 1,900 |
| Microdermabrasion – 140 | Microdermabrasion – 110 | Microdermabrasion – 90 | Liposuction – 1,900 |
| Irving | Killeen | Laredo | Lubbock |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brazilian Butt Lift – 260 | Brazilian Butt Lift – 220 | Brazilian Butt Lift – 220 | Brazilian Butt Lift – 190 |
| Liposuction – 170 | Liposuction – 170 | Abdominoplasty – 150 | Gynecomastia – 170 |
| Microdermabrasion – 170 | Abdominoplasty – 130 | Rhinoplasty – 130 | Breast Augmentation – 130 |
| Botox – 140 | Gynecomastia – 110 | Liposuction – 110 | Botox – 110 |
| Gynecomastia – 140 | Breast Augmentation – 100 | Microdermabrasion – 110 | Microdermabrasion – 110 |
| McKinney | Pasadena | Plano | San Antonio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brazilian Butt Lift – 150 | Brazilian Butt Lift – 110 | Brazilian Butt Lift – 280 | Brazilian Butt Lift – 1,390 |
| Breast Augmentation – 110 | Abdominoplasty – 80 | Botox – 210 | Botox – 880 |
| Gynecomastia – 110 | Breast Augmentation – 70 | Gynecomastia – 210 | Gynecomastia – 880 |
| Liposuction – 110 | Liposuction – 70 | Microdermabrasion – 210 | Liposuction – 880 |
| Microdermabrasion – 110 | Rhinoplasty – 50 | Rhinoplasty – 180 | Microdermabrasion – 880 |
We had expected some regional variation in the results, but in every single location, the Brazilian Butt Lift is the most sought-after procedure.
Methodology:
- We created a list of the 20 biggest cities in Texas, based on population size.
- We pulled the average monthly search volumes for our list of 44 plastic surgery procedures in each city.
- We ordered the results from highest to lowest for each city and picked out the top 5 in the tables above.
Which area of Texas is most obsessed with plastic surgery?
Using data from Google Trends, we can identify which metropolitan area in Texas is most obsessed with plastic surgery. Unfortunately, this data isn’t available for more rural areas.
The values in the table below are relative to one another. They’re calculated on a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 is the location where search interest in plastic surgery is highest as a fraction of total searches in that location.
Simply, a higher value means a higher proportion of queries in that metropolitan area relate to plastic surgery, not a higher absolute query count. So a smaller city where 80% of the queries are for ‘BBL’ will get twice the score of a bigger city where only 40% of the queries are for ‘BBL’. For example, despite a much lower population, Corpus Christi scores higher than Austin – meaning a higher percentage of searches in Corpus Christi relate to plastic surgery than in Austin.
| Metro Area | Interest in plastic surgery |
|---|---|
| Houston TX | 100 |
| Corpus Christi TX | 98 |
| Dallas-Ft. Worth TX | 98 |
| El Paso TX | 97 |
| Austin TX | 95 |
| Lubbock TX | 93 |
| Wichita Falls TX & Lawton OK | 93 |
| San Angelo TX | 90 |
| Odessa-Midland TX | 89 |
| Victoria TX | 88 |
| Sherman TX-Ada OK | 88 |
| Shreveport LA | 87 |
| San Antonio TX | 86 |
| Waco-Temple-Bryan TX | 83 |
| Tyler-Longview(Lufkin & Nacogdoches) TX | 83 |
| Laredo TX | 81 |
| Beaumont-Port Arthur TX | 78 |
| Amarillo TX | 78 |
| Harlingen-Weslaco-Brownsville-McAllen TX | 77 |
| Abilene-Sweetwater TX | 72 |
Interestingly, Houston tops the list, making people in Houston more obsessed with plastic surgery than any other metropolitan area in Texas.
Conversely, areas like Abilene and Sweetwater are far less interested in plastic surgery. This doesn’t mean there’s no interest, but it is much lower relative to other areas.
Perhaps it’s something with being in an area with a larger population that generates interest in plastic surgery, with Houston, Dallas and Austin (three of the five biggest cities in Texas by population size) all ranking in the top 5.
Summary
This research was a fascinating, fun look at plastic surgery interests and trends across Texas.
But, even as we celebrate the Brazilian Butt Lift as the undisputable number 1 of all plastic surgeries in the state, it’s important to remember that this data shows thousands of Texans are looking for information about cosmetic procedures each month – reflecting a real, genuine need for accurate, complete, and transparent information, so those who are interested can make informed decisions.
The onus is on the industry, ourselves included, to do precisely that.