If you have ever worried you don’t look approachable enough — or wanted to look more so — this could be the solution.
Cosmetic medicine experts are offering a specific package of procedures to help rid people of a ‘resting b*tch face’.
The term, also shorted to RBF, describes an unkind, sullen or scowling expression a person may have on their face when relaxed, without intending to.
And world-leading plastic surgeons now claim there are rising numbers of patients coming forwards seeking help to correct the accidental scowl plaguing them.
The problem, they believe, may be linked to increasing numbers of people using slimming jabs, and losing weight rapidly.
Also dubbed ‘Ozempic face’ the look is typified by sunken eyes, gaunt cheeks and sagging skin.
Speaking at the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery’s annual meeting in Austin, Dr David Turer, a plastic surgeon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, told MailOnline he was seeing an uptick in patients complaining they suffer from an RBF.
He added: ‘There is a real surge in demand more generally too for cosmetic surgery because of GLP-1s [weight loss jabs].’
Dr Michael Somenek, a Washington-based facial plastic surgeon, added: ‘It all stems from loss of support to the face, particularly below the lower lip, where you lose volume, you lose support, and the corners of the mouth start turning down.
‘You then develop a very drawn look that almost conveys a sense that you’re just not happy when you’re resting, you’re not showing any animation to your face.
‘Other people interpret it as a sad, and in some cases even angry characteristic.
‘The other thing that’s really crazy with GLP-1 resting b***h face, is that aside from the volume loss, skin quality — the luminosity, the radiance of the skin — has really taken a hit.’
Figures also suggest the issue has become more common in the last year alone.
In its annual trends report, the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery last month revealed that facial plastic surgeons reported a 50 percent rise in the average number of fat grafting procedures performed in 2024.
This trend, the Academy noted, was ‘likely fuelled by patients addressing “Ozempic Face”‘ who wanted to restore lost volume and sculpt or tighten different areas of the face.
‘The thing about Ozempic face and RBF is that we used to just associate volume loss and skin laxity with more mature patients,’ Austin-based aesthetic plastic surgeon Dr Johnny Franco, told MailOnline.
‘Now we’re seeing it in people in their 20s, 30s, you just see so many people with it.
‘The other thing that I think is interesting is that there’s so many ways to treat it, if you can be proactive about it early. It’s much easier than later.’
New techniques include biostimulators — a group of injectables, that experts say herald a ‘new frontier in anti-ageing medicine’.
Unlike dermal fillers, which inject volume into the face, biostimulators work by stimulating cells known as fibroblasts to continue producing collagen and elastin.
This helps the skin to naturally produce its own volume.
‘By treating patients with biostimulatory products like Sculptra, we’ve seen some remarkable responses by just restoring some of that lost volume in the mid-face,’ Dr Somenek said.
‘I also think neuromodulators, like Botox, can be used to target the lower third of the face focusing on specific muscles.
‘There’s a particular muscle called the DAO, but it really stands for depressor anguli oris.
‘That can be a very strong muscle in some individuals that draws the corners of their mouth down.
‘So when you see that and you inject that and release it, it actually lifts up the corners of the mouth quite nicely.’
Such treatments can be done is as little as one lunchtime, taking 15 to 30 minutes and costing a few hundred dollars or pounds, Dr Somenek added.
Other experts, however, recommend combining a mix of treatments including skin tightening energy devices that use radiofrequency energy, as well as targeted fillers.
‘But you’ve got to be really careful, because people don’t want to be overfilled,’ Dr Franco noted.
‘We’re really focused on repositioning the face, rather than refilling it.’
For patients, however, who have undergone far more significant weight loss with the jabs and suffer severe skin laxity, there are ‘no non-surgical devices that are going to be effective, even filler’, Dr Turer told MailOnline.
‘Those patients often just need a face and neck lift, often with a face lift fat grafting as well.’
Fat grafting involves harvesting fat from one area of the body like the abdomen or thighs during a small liposuction procedure, and injecting it into areas of the face that have lost volume.
‘Comprehensive facial rejuvenation with the facelift and fat grafting can probably go on anything from $20,000 (£15,000) to hundreds of thousands dollars, depending on the surgeon,’ said Dr Turer.
At least half a million NHS patients and some 15 million in the US are now thought to be using the jabs, which can help patients lose up to 20 per cent of their bodyweight in just a few months.
Doctors in the UK have also long told how they are treating increasing numbers of slim women who end up in hospital after falsely telling online chemists they are overweight to pass eligibility checks.
Under official guidelines, only patients who have a body mass index (BMI) of over 35 and at least one weight-related health problem like high blood pressure, or those who have a BMI of 30 to 34.9 and meet the criteria for referral to a specialist weight management service, should be prescribed Wegovy.
