Nip, tuck and log on: Men and women get facelifts for the same reason

The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons reports facelifts are on the rise. Women still account for most procedures, but the steepest increase – 26 % between 2023 and 2024 – is among men. Motivations for the surgery include “appearance pressure” to “Ozempic face”, where rapid weight loss deflates facial features faster than a leaking party balloon. But what about other reasons, and might they be more unisex than we think?

Ageing is a feminist issue, but the motivations for plastic surgery differ along gender lines. With men, it’s often attributed to professional ambition: the hunter staying in the game. A stark contrast to the popular image of desperate women craving male sexual validation – all but screaming into haunted mirrors like Botoxed wicked queens.

Seriously? It seems more likely in this socioeconomic landscape that for both sexes, undergoing something as scary-serious as a facelift is primarily about career-maintenance. While everyone is busy sniping and speculating about the likes of Madonna and Kris Jenner, does anyone truly believe they give a hot damn if some keyboard-bashing blimp fancies them – when it seems clearly about staying viable, productive, engaged. It could be there isn’t a male/female divide in plastic surgery any more; it’s all about the work, baby.

Some of us cut back on our drinking by popular demand, but others I know relish Chapel Down and other English wines. Albeit blanching at some of the prices, which can be more than £30 a bottle.

Does this go deeper than poor weather, into the realms of outdated ill-informed prejudice? When I read “English wine”, I instantly think “chilled paraffin”; and I’ve never even tasted any. For some, “English wine” is tantamount to an oxymoron. It’s as if we’re permitted to produce beer and cider, but – clodhopping English peasants that we are – we’re not allowed to go near the sacred grape.

We need to work as a nation on our self-esteem. Are we not allowed nice things, or indeed to produce nice things? Why this self-hate for our own plonk?

Yet stories about Nash, including in his 2013 memoir, Wild Tales, don’t suggest advanced views on women. Rather, he seems to have exhibited rude, dismissive attitudes on tour; bragging about not being able to “keep it in his trousers”, tiring, dreary things like that. Stuff that has long made me think to never trust a man in double-denim.

Even with Mitchell, who Nash clearly adores, there’s guff about the late David Crosby passing her on to him. Mitchell once told Nash he “hated women”. Another time, she tipped cornflakes over his head, after which – brace yourselves – Nash spanked her. He says they laughed about it.

Now he’s sending flowers every year. Let’s be kind and blame the era. Like so many men of his generation, perchance Nash chose one woman to idolise, then the rest of womankind didn’t have to matter. Is this what some men mean by “The One”?

Photograph by Getty Images