Lifestyle Choices

When we are young, our facial skin is soft and elastic. It stretches when we smile, laugh, yawn, frown, etc and then springs back into its original place. The smooth, firm appearance of the young face is caused by the thin layer of fatty tissue beneath the skin. Beneath the fatty layer lies muscle and it is this that enables us to make our facial expressions. The largest muscle is the platysma muscle, which extends from the jaw into the neck, defines the angle of the chin and differentiates it from the neck.

As the years pass, this muscle weakens. The flesh it supports starts to sag downwards, forming folds in the neck skin and a jowly appearance around the chin. The fatty layer, so evenly spread in youth, starts to sag downwards too, emphasising the jowl and making the chin appear more and more to merge into the neck. The facial skin loses its elasticity and creases form around the eyes, mouth, nose and brow.

Probably most men and women look with dismay in their bathroom mirrors at this evidence of onset of ageing. People who have dry, thin skins find that the ageing process is visible earlier. Those who have been sun- worshippers all their youth, glorying in their deep tans, may discover later that the cost is heavier wrinkling.

How we feel affects the way we look and those who retain a lively personality and are fit and active tend to strike others as younger or more ‘with it’ than those who are more staid and slow. However, how we look can also affect the way we feel and those who are inordinately depressed by the physical evidence that the prime of their lives has passed may find it difficult to feel good about themselves or exude confidence at all.

How we each react to the onset of ageing depends on our individual personalities, our image of ourselves, our expectations and lifestyles. Those with glamorous jobs where image is important or jobs where persuasive selling powers are needed may feel the more inhibited by the loss of their youthful dazzle. Those who have studiously ignored the passing of the years, doing everything that their children do and refusing to become middle-aged, may also be more hit by visual signs of ageing which seem to belie the lives they lead. And those who have always lacked confidence and questioned their self-image may find themselves feeling even more insecure once it is clearly evident that they have reached middle age.

How we choose to cope again varies from person to person. Some just get on with living their lives. Others colour their hair and pamper their skins with moisturiser and so-called anti-ageing creams. Yet others feel a need to resort to more drastic measures and start to think about a face lift. Fortunately, cosmetic surgery techniques have improved in the last several years, so that the end result of this procedure is no longer skin pulled uncomfortably taut across the cheekbones, shrieking face lift. However, it is a complex procedure, with variable results and a high risk of minor but distressing complications. And there are also a lot of misconceptions about what a face lift actually entails and what it achieves.

Face Lift

A face lift tightens the loose-skinned appearance of the ageing face by removal of excess skin, tightening of underlying muscle and removal of underlying fat. It cannot give you back your youth but it can make you look some years younger. (A mini face lift or ‘tuck’ entails only the removal of excess facial skin and so the effects are very temporary indeed, so much so that it is not really worth considering having one at all.)

Despite being called a face lift, this procedure actually concentrates on the lower part of the face and the neck. Entirely separate procedures exist for altering the appearance of the forehead and the eyelids. They may need to be done in addition to the face lift.

A face lift does not get rid of wrinkles. It may have the effect of smoothing out large wrinkles in the lower part of the face, merely because the skin is made more taut. But fine creases and any wrinkles in the upper part of the face will not be disturbed. Wrinkles can be removed by a separate procedure called a face peel.

A face lift is inevitably impermanent. Its effects may last several years for some, less for others. The procedure can be repeated, if desired, but at some stage nature will refuse to cooperate further.

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