Professor Laurence Kirwan, one of the world’s leading plastic surgeons, who has appeared on BBC Breakfast to comment on the PIP breast implant scandal and who wrote in the Mail on Sunday (British newspaper) how cosmetic surgery can prolong life, has said that more and more young women between the ages of 35 and 40 years have cosmetic surgery.

Professor Kirwan says that the number of women between 35 and 40 years who have cosmetic surgery every single year for 5 years has risen by 5%.

He says that most young women opt for ‘liquid lifts’, injections of facial fillers, which typically consist of hyaluronic acid, a gel-like substance that occurs naturally in the skin and helps retain moisture to make cheeks look fuller and lift sagging jaws. The ‘liquid lifts’ together with Botox freeze the muscles to lift drooping eyebrows by interfering with nerve transmission.

Younger women tend to choose a short-scar facelift (SSFL), whereby the skin is pulled upwards and then pulled back over the bony structures of the face, whilst fat pads that have dropped with aging are repositioned into their proper place. This new and nonintrusive procedure only has a maximum two-week down time costs about £10,000 ($16,000) with results lasting for as long as 10 years.

Kirwan says:

“This is a miracle treatment for many young women wanting to cut off the effects of ageing at the pass. They don’t want to wait until they look older. They strike in advance. It is the perfect choice for those seeking to turn back the clock. It redefines the lower face, jawline and upper neck. It lifts the mid-face and the only visible sign it leaves is a 0.4in scar tucked into the crease where the ear joins the cheek. The rest of the incisions are hidden in the hairline and the back of the ear.”

Many younger women also choose mini-facelifts, like the one-stitch facelift whereby the surgeon removes a semi-circle of skin at the hairline at the top of the ear, which pulls up the skin and tissues over the cheeks as the wound is stitched together. This 30-minute procedure is performed under local anesthetic and costs about £2,000 ($3,200) but only lasts 1 year.

This procedure instantly ‘refreshes’ a woman’s look and because it only leaves a small scar hidden in the hairline, nobody will ever be any the wiser.

Professor Kirwan, who is a member of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, explains:

“Surgical techniques have become significantly more refined in the past decade and the surgery is tailored to the individual while retaining a very natural result.”

According to Kirwan, the demand for plastic surgery has increased by 250% in two years, with facelifts currently being amongst the top three procedures at his surgery.

The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons published new figures that show a 4.7% to 4,700% rise in demand in 2011 for surgical facelifts performed by their organization members.

“The growing acceptance of Botox and fillers by women under 30 has made the step-up to cosmetic surgery much less scary,” explains Kirwan, continuing that younger women recommend cosmetic surgery to their friends, with the result that more and more younger women choose to have surgery.

He says:

“If it’s the done thing in the young social circle and the results are fantastic, then this is playing a major part in why so many younger women are opting for cosmetic procedures.”

Written by Petra Rattue