I Got My First Butt Facial, and It Won’t Be My Last

This story was featured in The Must Read, a newsletter in which our editors recommend one can’t-miss story every weekday. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.I would say I’m a fairly well-groomed man. I get a haircut every two weeks, I get my eyebrows threaded regularly, and I’ve even let my friend sugar my back (bad idea). But below the belt? I more or less time my manscaping with my haircuts, trimming every two weeks with a 1/8-inch guard. It’s partly a personal preference—I just think it looks more attractive—but it also feels like basic maintenance and one of those small aesthetic choices I can easily control on my own. A fuller bush may be back in style, but it’s not for me.As a gay man, I am well-attuned to the importance of a good-looking ass. Butts occupy a fairly prominent place in gay male culture, serving as equal parts aesthetic asset, sexual focal point, and object of admiration. But a great butt is still a butt, which means even the most lovingly maintained one can still get breakouts, ingrown hairs, or some poorly timed mystery bump at the worst possible time.Add summer sweat, tighter shorts, and whatever grooming decision you made before a beach weekend, and suddenly giving that area a little professional attention doesn’t sound entirely unreasonable. That was exactly how I found myself intrigued by a service I previously had no idea existed: the butt facial.Bespoke Surgical first entered my search history for more practical reasons. My buzzer was no longer cutting it for the back hair I can’t reach, so laser hair removal had been on my mind. The Manhattan-based business isn’t your traditional medspa; it’s more of a medical practice built around men’s sexual health, wellness and proctology, with cosmetic treatments folded into the mix.Somewhere on their treatment menu was The Super Glow Down (There), a $250, 90-minute butt facial that sounded like the gayest possible use of disposable income. Naturally, my curiosity won and the 10 a.m. appointment was slotted into my calendar.I still had some mild reservations, of course, but they weren’t about being naked in front of a stranger. I’ve crossed that bridge many times with much worse lighting. What I wanted to know was whether this was actually worth it, or whether I was about to hand over money that could have bought a cart’s worth of Trader Joe’s groceries. Would it leave my ass meaningfully smoother and glowier? Would it make me want to do this regularly? Was I about to be upsold into skincare for a body part I’d previously trusted to do its own thing?Butt facials are still niche enough that Brandon Kirsch, MD, FAAD, a chief medical and experience officer at Von & Co Medical Aesthetics, wasn’t aware of them. Nevertheless he says the demand is understandable. “Skin there is prone to issues because it is frequently occluded by clothing, and the environment is warm, damp, and sweaty,” he says, which can lead to ingrowns, folliculitis-like bumps, and dark spots. Add hair removal, friction and bathing suits that “keep getting smaller,” as he put it, and the modern ass apparently has more to contend with than ever.Bespoke Surgical is on East 12th Street, right near the Strand Book Store and a corner I threw up on once. I walked over from therapy on a gorgeous Wednesday, which meant I was going directly from getting my head shrunk to getting my ass handled—peak New York self-care. When I arrived, the office itself was clean and calm, with the kind of put-together energy you want before beginning any appointment that requires full nudity before lunch.Michael Aronwits, a registered aesthetic nurse, took me back and began with the kind of skincare assessment I imagine people with actual routines answer very confidently. He asked what products I use on my face. A few, none of which I actually know the names of, I reply. Then he asked what I do for my butt. A swipe of CeraVe body lotion after a shower when I remember, I respond. Otherwise, I said I mostly trusted that it’s still back there and leave it at that.The questions weren’t just to make me confess how little attention I pay to my backside. Aronwits says he asks about a patient’s skincare routine to understand how they care for their skin and whether anything they’re using could cause irritation or interact with the treatment. “This gives me a sense of the overall health of the skin barrier and helps me tailor recommendations that fit into a routine they’re actually likely to stick with,” he says. “A great treatment starts with understanding where someone’s skin is before we even begin.”Aronwits left the room and told me to undress completely—no gown, no towel, no strategic draping of any kind—then lie-face down and let him know I was ready. There was nothing sensual about the setup whatsoever. I simply hopped on with my socks still on my feet, pressed my groin against the paper, and hoped my ass would make a strong first impression. Thankfully, he said the skin on my butt generally looked good at first glance, which felt like the kind of compliment you don’t realize you’ve been chasing until someone with a medical license gives it to you.As I expected, this wasn’t an appointment that allowed much room for modesty. Thankfully, modesty has never been a major obstacle for me. If I can’t show my friends a nude and ask whether it deserves to be sent or deleted, what kind of friends are they? If Aronwits needed to see every inch of my ass to improve it, then godspeed.What I hadn’t expected was just how involved the treatment would be. The service isn’t merely someone rubbing lotion across your ass, slapping your cheeks, and wishing you well. Aronwits explained that the ass deals with constant friction, pressure, sweat, and occlusion, all of which can contribute to breakouts, folliculitis, ingrown hairs, rough texture, dryness, and hyperpigmentation.The process begins with a gentle cleanser to remove sweat, oil, bacteria, and buildup without stripping the skin barrier, followed by toner for hydration. This isn’t your typical baby wipe situation, and nothing about having your butt professionally cleansed feels casual in the slightest. He intentionally lathered the cheeks slow, overlapping circles, never rushing. I could tell he was taking inventory as he went—where the skin felt dry, irritated, or generally in need of professional help.Then came exfoliation time using Future Method’s Butt & Body Scrub, developed by Bespoke Surgical founder Dr. Evan Goldstein specifically for this area. I expected something far more aggressive, as far as scrubs go, but it was relatively civilized. There was a little bit of grit to it, but nothing that made me tense up or had me consider whether I was paying for, ahem, another type of service. Aronwits is firmly against attacking your ass with a loofah or aggressive exfoliating gloves, since too much friction can cause microtrauma and inflammation, potentially making ingrown hairs and dark marks worse.He then examined my bum for any clogged follicles and ingrown hairs, performing extractions only where he deemed appropriate. I have a pretty high pain tolerance, but for the record, I didn’t feel much of anything, which I choose to believe means my ass is naturally flawless. Aronwits says the approach is client-dependent. Gentle pressure or cotton-tipped applicators can sometimes be enough, while other situations call for sterile lancets or fine tweezers. He always first examines the skin under magnification, with the goal of using “the least traumatic approach possible.”That was followed by a high-frequency treatment designed to reduce acne-causing bacteria and calm inflammation. A serum containing kojic and azelaic acids was next to address any uneven tone and post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. At this point, my butt had a considerably more sophisticated skincare routine than my face, and Aronwits had absolutely no problem getting up in there. My cheeks were slightly separated at points, and the treatment brought him extremely close to my butthole, occasionally grazing the underside of my balls. None of it felt sexual; it was simply thorough. There’s only so much polite distance you can maintain when the service area is your entire ass.The strangest part was how quickly it stopped feeling strange. Aronwits has presumably seen hundreds of asses, and mine was simply the next one scheduled. He was doing his job. I stared at the wall, occasionally buried my head in the pillow, and let a professional apply products to parts of my body I had never once considered toning.Then came the massage, which he told me supports circulation and helps the products absorb. Despite my lifelong ambivalence toward massages, I dozed off. Apple Music’s Chill House playlist played in the background, and somehow, I was more relaxed than I’d been in months.The treatment finished with a hydrating jelly mask containing PDRN, an ingredient derived from salmon DNA used to support skin repair, followed by LED light therapy and a barrier-repair cream to lock in moisture. Before I knew it, the 90 minutes had passed. I was told the aftercare, is much like what you’d expect after any skin treatment: avoid saunas, steam rooms, and anything that will make you sweat excessively. My newly pampered cheeks would need to skip Barry’s for the day.Once I was dressed again and was no longer face down with salmon DNA derivative on my ass, I started processing what had just happened. The ridiculousness was obvious, but the treatment itself felt much less absurd than I expected. Do I think every man needs to run out and book a butt facial? If your ass is minding its business, that’s between you and your cheeks. But Kirsch says he sees “real derm value” in the right exfoliation, a good cleanse, and having a trained provider distinguish between common culprits like folliculitis, keratosis pilaris, or something more serious that might need actual treatment.Demand for the butt facial also tends to follow the calendar. Interest generally spikes in the summer, when people are headed to beaches, wearing less clothing, and just showing more ass in general. The patient mix, according to Aronwits, isn’t just gay men on their way to Fire Island (though I’m sure we’re well represented). Bespoke sees both men and women across a wide range of ages, including people getting ready for vacations, dealing with acne or ingrown hairs, or trying to calm irritation after hair removal. Aronwits sees the treatment as basic upkeep most people ignore until there’s a problem rather than a frivolous splurge.Kirsch notes the skin on the ass is different from facial skin—“thicker” with “fewer oil glands”—and faces a very different daily reality. The “primary problem,” he says, is “constant friction and pressure the face never gets.” Add sitting, damp gym clothes, tight clothing and hair removal, and the idea of giving the area more targeted attention starts to sound a lot more reasonable.Yes, I’m very aware that a butt facial still sounds silly when you say the words out loud, but men have been manscaping for years, and this really does seem where the road was always headed. We’ve trimmed, lasered, tanned, and moisturized nearly everything else. Why did I assume my ass was exempt?My skepticism only held up until the treatment was over and I was on the Q train back to the Upper East Side. I couldn’t exactly turn around and admire the results head-on, but the skin felt strangely lighter. I suddenly understood this was an area I had treated as purely functional, until a professional spent time making it feel noticeably better. Naturally, I kept reaching back to touch it, suddenly very eager for someone else to see the results firsthand. Purely for an independent second opinion, of course. The male grooming industry may have finally located its last neglected patch of territory.