Being told that ‘you’re better off with surgery’ is definitely not what you want to hear when, fed up with the signs of facial sagging that come with middle age, you’ve finally plucked up the courage to experiment with some of those minimally invasive ‘tweakments’ – tweaks that are now so popular that the UK market is worth £3.6 billion annually.
The use of injectables (such as Botox and fillers) has increased by 7,000 percent in two decades. And with more and more ‘miracle’ non-surgical cosmetic solutions on the market, you’d be forgiven for thinking that there’s now a scalpel-free treatment to prevent and correct every aesthetic problem you might have.
You might even think, not unreasonably, that this class of procedures will eliminate the “need” for more traditional plastic surgery. This was certainly widely suggested in the early days of minimally invasive treatments. Unfortunately, this is not always the case and for some people, surgery – whether it be a facelift or an eye lift – will be the only effective solution.
Inge van Lotringen explains why ‘tweakments’ are sometimes not enough and that you may need to go under the knife to get the desired result
It could be why upper eyelid surgery is one of the most requested surgical procedures around (Jennifer Coolidge, 62, Matt Damon, 53, and even Taylor Swift, 34, are reportedly done). And facelifts are in demand, too (Brad Pitt, 60, is said to have just had one) – recently described by US Elle as “pretty awesome right now” and drawing patients in their 40s.
The reality is that no matter how happy you are with your adjustments, there comes a point where your skin becomes too saggy and the underlying supporting tissues (fat and bone) are too withered. At that point, non-blade adjustments (such as fillers or heat tightening) will no longer make a measurable difference.
“It takes an honest doctor’s eye to determine this, but think of very thin, dry, wrinkled skin that has lost its ‘bouncy,'” says surgeon and cosmetic physician Dr. Apul Parikh. The age at which this happens can vary widely, but it can be due to aging, bad genes, or lifestyle factors such as smoking or sudden weight loss.
In such cases, a modern facelift, which addresses both the superficial and deeper tissue layers of the face or neck, is the only tool that can satisfactorily reposition and firm all your ‘moving parts’, giving you a fresh face with more volume in one go.
“It’s annoying for people to hear, but it’s better than wasting thousands of dollars on adjustments that don’t work,” Parikh says.
Eyes are usually the fastest to fail with non-surgical help. Many people who have spent years using toxins to lift their brows and open up tired or droopy eyes (which works for some, but not everyone – it depends on the strength of your forehead muscles) find that the trick suddenly stops working in their mid-forties to early fifties.
“Again, this happens when the skin becomes too loose,” Parikh says. Essentially, the gradual toxin-induced muscle lift can no longer hold up sagging eyelids.
Because there are indications that ‘lifting’ heat treatments such as plasma and radiofrequency microneedling can cause long-term damage to the skin around the eyes, an upper eyelid correction, which is surprisingly quick (a half-hour procedure with a week’s recovery time), seems a more logical choice. It involves removing a strip of skin from the eyelid.
“It has by far the most visible and predictable outcome,” says oculoplastic surgeon Dr. Rachna Murthy. “And it’s the only safe option if you have a history of eye conditions like dry eye.”
For bags under the eyes, filler injections can “successfully correct dark circles caused by hollow and thin skin, but if there are fat deposits, loose skin or permanent bags, lower eyelid surgery is the only effective and long-term solution,” Murthy says.
Tweakments cost between a few hundred and a few thousand pounds, but need to be repeated every few months or annually to maintain usually quite subtle results. The results of surgery last a decade or more and can be much more pronounced.
But they come with significant downtime, risk and a price tag: an upper eyelid correction costs around £7,000, while a facelift costs well over £20,000. Given that a decade of tweaks can easily set you back £30,000, surgery, while hugely expensive, may actually be the most cost-effective option.
A good facelift will also produce a much more natural result than the oddly shaped and unnaturally tight faces that result from the excessive use of fillers and toxins.
So if your cosmetic doctor is honest enough to tell you that the tweakments business is over, don’t be offended. Instead, be grateful that he or she has integrity and doesn’t want to sell you a fake product.
My icon of the week: Celine Dion
Music legend Celine Dion performs on the Eiffel Tower during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games
The singer likes her makeup to be as dramatic as her music. At the Olympics, her look was Charlotte Tilbury: The diva’s eyes were transformed into beacons with Luxury Palette in The Queen of Glow and Hollywood Exagger-Eyes Liner Duo, while lips and cheeks were peachy with Matte Blush Beauty Wand in Pillow Talk and KISSING with Lipstick in Nude Kate.
Cosmetic craving
Jules Von Hep has made it his life’s mission to help women (and men) see the beauty within themselves and stop criticizing their bodies.
A highly sought-after tanning expert and ‘confidence cheerleader’, he’s expanded his Isle of Paradise self-tan range to include a selection of body products that simply radiate joy and leave your limbs glowing. The Brilliantly Bright Body Polish is scented and packaged to ‘release happiness hormones’, features skincare ingredients vitamin C, niacinamide and hyaluronic acid and, at £18 (boots.com), is a fraction of the price of similar body boosters.