OLD THINKING: FULL-ON FACELIFT NEW THINKING: THE LUNCHTIME LITE LIFT
A thread lift is the cosmetic equivalent of having barbed wire threaded under your skin to lift the tissue – Sharon Walker has just had her second…
I’m not for or against facelifts but, at 52, I’m not ready to have one. Neither am I comfortable with my face sliding down ‘the slippery slope to disappointment’, as writer Liz Jones once put it when speaking about her own facelift in the Daily Mail.
I’d been told by a couple of doctors that I could get the lift I was looking for with a dab of filler in my temples and at the top of my cheekbones. But rather than take their word for it, I went for a second opinion from Mr Geoffrey Mullan at Medicetics, whom I’d seen for lip filler and a thread lift three years previously. He took stock of my chunky little hamster cheeks (my words, not his) and said filler was a no, as more volume would make me look odd. What he suggested was another thread lift, a kind of ‘facelift lite’.
To be honest, I was hoping to side-step this solution, not because it doesn’t work – I loved the results when I had it before – but because it’s a far larger undertaking than a quick injectable. It’s not surgery, but it does involve a certain amount of rummaging around deep in your face, but if Mr Mullan was ready to go there again, so was I. And I have to say, this time, it was far easier. This is the case for most thread patients, Dr Mullan notes, as there’s less laxity in the skin after the first treatment and you’re more relaxed (though you could hardly call it a pampering experience).
I was in and out within an hour – the actual procedure took about 30 minutes – and I could easily have gone straight back to work.
How does it work exactly? Typically, five threads (though I had an extra one to help lift that hefty fat pad in my cheek), are inserted into each side of the face through a single point next to the ear. The threads are made of polydioxanone (PDO), a material that dissolves over a number of months, and they feature tiny barbs that open out like umbrellas when the threads are pulled, anchoring on to the connective tissue. (Once the threads dissolve, your dermis is held up by the resulting collagen and scar tissue that forms around the threads.) It’s not painful since you’re dosed up with anaesthetic, which is delivered through the cannula at the same time the threads are inserted. There were a couple of disconcerting crunches as the cannula pushed through the connective tissue and a couple of sharpish twinges, but that was the worst of it.
The effect is immediate and nothing short of miraculous. My jawline is gratifyingly sharper and my mid-face has lifted. I look a good four or five years
younger. For the next few days, my right cheek is slightly swollen and my whole face is a little tender. I also have some puckering in one area of my cheek, but I had that last time and know it’ll settle down in a few days. Not that anybody seems to notice anything. Two days after the treatment, I happily go to a party, and while I don’t feel quite myself, it’s okay.
Two weeks later, everything’s back to normal. My skin no longer feels tight or tender, and there’s no sign of any puckering. I feel like I’ve borrowed another couple of years – the time it will take for my face to start falling again. Will I consider a facelift then? I don’t know. Maybe I will be comfortable in my ageing skin. Or maybe not. Ask me again when I’m 55.
A thread lift literally hoists up the cheeks and jowls with fine threads under the skin (which gradually dissolve). In the right hands, the procedure can have a naturallooking rejuvenating effect that lasts 18 months to two years, thanks to the collagen production that it also stimulates. Many doctors offer this treatment, but as it’s a complex and invasive procedure, do your research, ask to see before and after pictures and never be pressured into having it the same day as a consultation. If you can, get a recommendation from someone who has had a treatment. The average cost of threads is £1,500 to £2,000. Sharon’s procedure with Geoffrey Mullan at Medicetics costs from £1,900.