LANCASHIRE businessmen are turning to botox, laser line removal and facial fillers because they want to look as ‘slick and attractive as contestants on The Apprentice’.

That’s the view of a leading plastic surgeon in the region who said that almost one in four of his clients were now male – with businessmen as young as their mid-20s seeking enhancements to the way they look.

However Peter Paterson said that an initial rise in requests for cosmetic surgery had been replaced by a growing trend for men to look for non-surgical ways of improving their looks.

The surgical director of the pioneering Sandon House Clinic in Preston, said the stigma that once surrounded cosmetic procedures for men had gone.

He said: “Programmes like The Apprentice have put the focus more than ever on looking slick and coming across as young, energetic and vibrant – a case of looking the part even if, as Lord Sugar frequently discovers, people can’t always deliver the goods.”

He said that the majority of his male patients were businessmen – including young people who want to look their best in an increasingly competitive jobs market.

The most popular male procedures are neck lifts and face lifts, scar and mole removal and upper eyelid reduction, he said.

But Mr Paterson added that botox and filler treatment for fine lines and wrinkles was rising rapidly.