Financiers have found a perfect way to splurge their annual bonuses cosmetic surgery to keep them looking youthful in a fiercely competitive job market.

Business is booming in nose jobs, wrinkle fillers, liposuction and botox relaxants to repair the ravages of time.

Operations carried out by the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons rose by a third to over 22,000 last year. The number of men having surgery has risen steadily and now account for 11 percent of the total.

The male is becoming more relaxed, said Mel Braham, chairman of the Harley Medical Group whose profits rose by 35 percent in the last year with a turnover of 27 million pounds.

There is a very substantial growth in the male side of our business. The bonuses in the City contribute to that, Braham told Reuters.

With company bonuses in the country totalling 19 billion pounds last year, he quipped: Bring them on, bring them on.

There is much more overall awareness that they have as much right as the opposite sex to look as good as they can.

The secret is to start early rather than late to give yourself the best chance of looking good. Better to attack the small blemish first, he added.

Prices range from 200 pounds for botox relaxants to 6,000 pounds for a facelift.

Among the most popular operations are nose reshaping. Men are also keen on liposuction to remove the love handles on their waist and to have breasts reduced.

Braham said a man who is approaching 50 and looks about 60 felt I don't want to be ousted and should take more care. That'll give me another 10 years in the chair.

These are well perfected and accepted techniques, Braham, said. It is becoming more open and accepted.

Finding an effective remedy for baldness would give the already thriving industry an enormous boost and that is what the biotech company the Intercytex Group is seeking right now.

Trials are underway in Britain for a hair regeneration treatment but Intercytex chief executive Nick Higgins warned, The technology is challenging. No one has done this before.

Explaining the technique the group is seeking to perfect, he said We take cells responsible for hair growth, multiply them and them inject them in the head. We tease out the cells responsible for growing a new hair.

The challenge is to make sure they grow thick enough and quick enough so they are cosmetically acceptable.

The stakes are certainly high.

The hair transplant market in the United States is worth 800 million dollars (425 million pounds) a year. And only one or two percent of balding men in America have it done, he said. This is a huge potential market.

Medicine