Cosmetic procedures in the US

Americans summoning strangers to drive them places and Americans paying doctors to subtly rearrange their faces have, since 2017, risen together at a correlation of 0.979. This is a statistic that sounds like a Tom Wolfe book from the future, and it probably is. One either gets in the car or has the work done, or — increasingly — both in the same afternoon.

Uber and Lyft rides grew from about 2.6 billion in 2017 to roughly 6 billion by 2022 as post-pandemic mobility rebounded and rideshare pricing normalized. US cosmetic procedures climbed from around 17 million to over 26 million in the same window, driven by the infamous 'Zoom effect' — extended video calls during lockdown producing an unprecedented wave of self-evaluation — and by the mainstreaming of non-surgical injectables among younger demographics. Both trends are the same urban, affluent, digitally-mediated lifestyle finding new outlets for discretionary spending. The ride and the filler are paid for out of the same wallet.

Five years of more movement and more maintenance is a portrait of a consumer economy that will, given the option, optimize everything it can see. The face in the rear-view mirror is now on a different subscription. Everything in between is just logistics.