In Good Company: Facelift
Enid Blackburn turned her face away from cosmetic surgery.
Money isn’t everything – but it’s a great improver. Mrs Betty Ford proved this after a facelift at 60. Everyone gasped with delight as she attended a star-studded gathering without her wrinkles. ‘She looks 20 years younger,’ said the ever-young Paul Newman.
On her photograph she did look radiant, but, with or without wrinkles this lady has guts. Didn’t she bravely publicise her mastectomy operation plus a drug and drink addiction? Good luck to her.
I know I could never face a surgeon’s knife while enjoying good health. Women courageous enough to do so deserve to look younger. Dental trips every six months are all the pain I’m willing to stand for the beauty stakes.
Then there’s the price. New York plastic surgeons charge, yet experts claim the cheaper offers should be viewed with suspicion. Naturally, cost depends on how imperfect one has become. ‘I’m absolutely delighted my husband agreed to it,’ gurgles Mrs Ford. Mine would need a second mortgage.
Having my face lifted would be like wallpapering a room only to discover how shabby the furniture and how faded the curtains now look. All my other defects would be cruelly exposed. I could do with 2lb slicing off each thigh, and my body stretching another 6in, which could reduce my weight problem slightly. On off days there’s a certain tattiness of hair to contend with. Yes, it’s all very uplifting being made to look young and vigorous externally – but can one live up to a younger image.
Another point which rankles – it only lasts four years, then has to be repeated. How much stretching will skin take? If you start at 45, by the time you are 60 your face could be almost see-through. Imagine - a transparent nose! Beauty comes from within – but literally!
When Peter O’Toole had his nose chopped his eyes seemed to move closer together. I liked Cilla Black’s the way it was. Tom Jones’ throbbing hips drove fans wild, but at the height of his fame he bought a new nose. Most film stars achieve fame because of their looks, when money starts pouring in, they flee for a face change. Marti Caine gained a new profile, then lost her husband'
Gladys Cooper had her share of wrinkles in later years, but they didn’t disguise her everlasting beauty. Age even enhanced Dames Edith Evans and Sybil Thorndike. I’m living in hopes it will do the same for me.
But you don’t have to be good looking to survive. I don’t feel neurotic about my grey hairs. I prefer to spray them with silver and make a feature of them. Good carriage helps. ‘If a woman walks smooth and free it produces a happy figure,’ Cary Grant once said. My children can always tell the difference between dad and me as we walk past their bedroom doors. ‘We can hear your tights swishing together.’ I’ve never been able to lose the infernal ‘swish.’ There’s too much of me concentrated in one area, my face is shrivelling at the edges, but even if I could afford a cosmetic miracle, it would be a waste of money.
One hour with ‘my lot’ and the wrinkles would come sagging back. I once complimented an old friend of 76 on her unlined face. She was furious, ‘I hate to be told that at my age, I’ve had plenty of struggles whether it shows or not,’ she fumed.
Remember Samuel Johnson’s words: ‘A man is generally better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table than when his wife talks Greek’ – or looks eternally young, he might have added if he’d been presented with a face-job bill!
