With toddlers wearing sheet masks, tweens buying wrinkle serums, and 30-somethings booking facelifts, it may seem like the beauty industry itself is aging backwards\u2014its rituals and treatments getting younger along with its consumers. But there\u2019s one procedure that\u2019s flipping the script on the trend, appealing to a far older crowd than it has in the past. Rhinoplasty, long viewed as an operation for high-schoolers and college kids, is gaining popularity among midlifers. For the past two years, 40- to 54-year-olds have gotten roughly as many nose jobs as patients in their 20s, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, with each age group accounting for 26% of the total number of nose jobs performed in both 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n
In Beverly Hills, half of the patients who see board-certified plastic surgeon Catherine Chang, MD, for rhinoplasties are over 40. Linda N. Lee, MD, a double board-certified facial plastic surgeon in Boston, says more than 50% of the nose jobs she performs are on middle-aged women and men, noting that, in her case, there may be some selection bias in play; she tends to avoid operating on patients who are still growing, physically and emotionally, which limits the number of teens she treats. Some of the other surgeons I spoke with estimate that the 40-plus set comprises closer to 15% or 20% of rhinoplasty cases, but \u201cthat\u2019s definitely more than I did five years ago,\u201d says Adam Kolker, MD, a board-certified plastic surgeon in New York City.<\/p>\n
![\"Image](\"https:\/\/media.allure.com\/photos\/69209a459ab772537d0d64ca\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/BEFORE_Dr.%2520Adam%2520R.%2520Kolker%2520Double%2520board%2520certified%2520plastic%2520surgeon%2C%2520MD%2C%2520FACS.jpeg\"\/)
<\/picture><\/span><\/div>\nA 46-year-old patient before her rhinoplasty\u2026<\/p>\n
<\/span>Courtesy of Dr. Adam R. Kolker<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n \u2026 and after surgery.<\/p>\n <\/span>Courtesy of Dr. Adam R. Kolker<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Oren Tepper, MD, a board-certified plastic surgeon in New York City, says that when he first started his practice, he\u2019d almost have to \u201ctake pause initially\u201d when an older person came in wanting their nose done. He\u2019d wonder why they didn\u2019t consider surgery during a more conventional phase of life. (Prime time for rhinoplasty still generally falls into the transitional zones between high school and college or college graduation and a first job, he says, when the physical transformation can be \u201cless jarring and more acceptable.\u201d) He\u2019s since come to realize that patients have all sorts of reasons for delaying nose jobs\u2014and that some people want to tweak their nose at 40 or 50 even if it never bothered them before.<\/p>\n Still, some of those approaching rhinoplasty later in life do so with trepidation, notes Melissa Doft, MD, a board-certified plastic surgeon in New York City. They\u2019ll commonly say, I should have done this when I was younger.<\/em> Or ask, Is it ridiculous that I\u2019m thinking about doing this now?<\/em> While the stigma around plastic surgery has faded in certain circles, nose jobs are still strongly associated with the awkward toll of puberty. Dr. Doft puts patients at ease by explaining that midlife rhinoplasty \u201cis actually more common than you think,\u201d as a lot of adults are now pairing it with other procedures, like facelifts and eyelid lifts, in the name of facial rejuvenation. In fact, a study out of UCLA, which used an age-estimating AI tech to compare before and after photos, found that women appeared three years younger following rhinoplasty alone.<\/p>\n For younger generations, it\u2019s hard to imagine a world without iPhones and Instagram. But the Gen Xers exploring rhinoplasty in 2025 grew up without these modern staples\u2014and the extreme self-consciousness they tend to promote. \u201cWhen we were 18 or 20, we looked in the mirror while brushing our teeth in the morning and mentally carried that image with us for the whole day,\u201d Dr. Doft says. Photos were typically taken with us smiling at the camera, capturing that same straight-on reflection and rarely revealing our profiles. But now \u201cwe\u2019re exposed in a way that we\u2019ve never been exposed before\u2014our every angle is out there,\u201d Dr. Doft says. \u201cIt\u2019s just a totally different level of pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n Back in the day, rhinoplasty\u2014plastic surgery, in general\u2014had certain geographic strongholds, like Los Angeles and New York City, but it wasn\u2019t nearly as ubiquitous as it is today. Even if someone was embarrassed by their nose\u2014because bullying, unlike selfies, is not a 21st-century invention\u2014the idea of cosmetic surgery may have felt foreign, scary, or extravagant. And, so, \u201cthey put it off for years,\u201d Dr. Kolker says.<\/p>\n![\"Image](\"https:\/\/media.allure.com\/photos\/69209a7428fc8375abb6185a\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/AFTER_Dr.%2520Adam%2520R.%2520Kolker%2520Double%2520board%2520certified%2520plastic%2520surgeon%2C%2520MD%2C%2520FACS.jpeg\"\/)
<\/picture><\/span><\/div>\nWhy now? Behind the rise of midlife rhinoplasties<\/h2>\n