Plastic surgeon: ‘I put off my facelift’
Even professionals in the cosmetic industry don’t want to go under the knife as the number of procedures carried out drops in the face of uncertain times
Editor’s Note: Names of some patients have been changed.
In the early Noughties, it was impossible to avoid the telltale signs of plastic surgery. Frozen faces, deep décolletages and plumped-up lips were no longer the mainstays of celebrity magazines; as the cosmetic industry boomed, they began to crop up at dinner parties across the country. In 2015, a record 51,140 people went under the knife in the UK.
Yet just one year later, visits to Harley Street have dropped to their lowest in a decade. Only 30,750 cosmetic procedures were carried out in 2016, according to new figures published by the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) — a drop of 40 per cent after reaching record-breaking heights in 2015. Face and brow lifts fell in popularity by 53 per cent and 71 per cent respectively, year on year, with Brits opting instead for cheaper, non-surgical options such as fillers and Botox.
Plastic surgeons have been quick to blame the economic and political instability of the last 12 months for the trend. “I think it’s down to people feeling uncertain at the moment,” explains BAAPS member and consultant plastic surgeon Gerard Lambe. “People don’t know what is happening to jobs and the economy, and they’re concerned.
“It fits in with the wider pattern of people choosing to holiday in Europe, rather than exotic locations, and the Danish trend for ‘ hygge’, where everyone is staying indoors and getting cosy. You have to be in a confident frame of mind to undertake a major decision like surgery.”
Non-surgical options
For Jacqueline Lewis, a plastic surgeon who has been having Botox treatments for the last 13 years, this is a familiar story. She first planned to have a facelift when she turned 50, after noticing that Botox was no longer having the desired effect.
Yet after speaking to colleagues, who told her she could also benefit from eyelid surgery, jawline definition, cheek and jowl lifts and fillers — which would set her back £15,000 — she changed her mind.
“I thought, yes I want this, but I would need to be at home for at least a month,” she explains. “It is not cheap either. I didn’t want to pay such a large amount upfront, and in this time of uncertainty, I didn’t want to take the time off work.”
Instead Lewis, now 54, explored non-surgical options, and began having platelet rich plasma injections, nicknamed “vampire face- lifts” — a procedure where a patient’s own blood is injected into their face to boost collagen production and stimulate a youthful glow, made famous by the likes of Kim Kardashian and Rupert Everett.
“There has definitely been a difference and people say I look better,” she adds. “Over five years or so, (non-surgical treatments) would work out the same price as a facelift, but I’m happy to go slowly and carefully.”
She still hopes to have a facelift when she turns 60 (calling it the “gold standard” of plastic surgery), but has come to the appreciate the more subtle effects of fillers. It is a preference Lewis has also noticed professionally, “the trend is that my clients don’t want a drastic makeover. They want to look more natural.”
Natural alternatives
Researchers have previously found that in worrying economic times, people tend to look for reassurance anywhere they can find it — even in appearances. One study of American film stars from 1932 to 1955, in the wake of the Great Depression and spanning the years of the Second World War, found that actresses with what are considered “mature features” (small eyes, large chins, and thin faces) were more popular in hard times. The same researchers claimed that Playboy’s “playmate of the year” was likely to be older, as well as, heavier, taller and less curvaceous, in straightened years.
Lambe suggests that it is similar to the hemline index, referring to US economist George Taylor’s theory that described how women wore shorter skirts in the good times, with hemlines falling once economic conditions deteriorated. “Now people want security because it’s what they feel they are lacking,” he explains. “We are also heading towards a more natural mindset.”
For Mina, a 56-year-old mother from Hertfordshire, the search for a more natural method is one of the reasons she is still putting off breast augmentation surgery. When she first decided to take her 32AAA cleavage up to a B cup in 2012, the PIP implant scandal — where contaminants were found in silicone implants — hit the news.
“It really put me off,” she says. “Then by the time things improved, we were mired in economic uncertainty. It feels like a lot of money, that could be better invested.
“I am also still frightened by the thought of having a foreign body inside me. No one can assure you there’s zero chance it won’t go wrong — no matter how much you spend.”
Still, she has not given up on cosmetic surgery and hopes to make use of techniques that rely on natural alternatives, such as controversial stem cell treatments, where fat harvested via liposuction is used to build up the breast, and which is still in development.
“I want to wait for new technology that is foolproof and more natural,” explains Mina. “Hopefully, by then I will also feel more confident financially.”
With women like Mina and Lewis still planning to have the nips and tucks they have long dreamed of, it could be that plastic surgery isn’t on the way out, so much as taking a hiatus.
Lambe agrees and dismisses the idea that figures will continue to drop. He thinks the number of procedures will climb back up, as people get used to the new world order.
“An enormous number of people are still doing it and there is pressure to look good,” he says.
“I don’t think we’ ll ever see the end of it.”
The trend is that my clients don’t want a drastic makeover.” Jacqueline Lewis, plastic surgeon