facial surgery
by Jenny Bryan
When Marie Coles turned 50, she decided she wasn't going to grow old gracefully. She bought a sports car, dyed her hair blond, had a belly piercing and a tattoo, and signed up for a facelift.
© stockbyte
'If someone had said to me 20 years ago you'll probably have a facelift when you're a bit older I'd have said don't talk rubbish, but 20 years ago my life was very different,' she explains. 'I've done lots of things I wouldn't have thought I'd do 20 years ago, and a facelift is one of them.'
Marie didn't expect surgeons to transform her face, just to smooth out the downward creases between her nose and mouth and give her more shape around her jaw.
'Down lines are miserable lines. If you're in repose and your face is a whole combination of lines that go down, you look bloody miserable,' she points out.
Her surgeon, Mr Saif Khan, explains that Marie's modest requirements are in line with current trends towards gentler, less dramatic facelifts than in the past.
'In Britain, most people are conservative, so facelifts are done in a way where they don't look over-tightened as opposed to the US. But there are patients who specifically request it, and I have to honour that request,' he explains.
all in the muscles
Smoothing out facial lines and creases isn't done simply by pulling the skin tight and cutting off the excess. Surgeons need to get under the skin and tighten sagging facial muscles. It's this which rejuvenates tired faces. Ideally, surgeons like to operate when people are in their 40s and 50s and have some elasticity left in their skin. Those with strong, well defined bones are likely to see best results.
A standard facelift tackles the lower half of the face, the jaw line and neck. The surgeon cuts the skin at the temples above the hairline and continues down each side of the face, around the ears, and down behind the earlobes. The muscles underneath the skin are carefully separated from the surrounding tissue, tightened, and stitched in place to solid areas in front of and behind the ear. If there is a lot of fat under the skin, this can be sucked out using liposuction. The skin is lightly pulled up towards the incision line, a small amount snipped out and the new edge stitched back in place.
When the bandages came off her face, Marie wasn't surprised by the initial swelling and bruising. When this had gone down, she was very pleased with the look of her face – restored to the heart-shape of her 20s and 30s. Gone were the jowls, back was her slim, flat neck. But Marie was concerned about the loss of hair around the scar, just above her ear. Reassured that this would, in time, grow back, she went out to celebrate her new-found youth.
Typical price for a standard facelift – around £4,500.
(March 2003, resources updated January 2005)
