EVERY night Jo Clarke would look in the mirror and pull at her ‘Turkey neck', wondering what she’d look like without the extra skin.
“I’ve always taken care of my appearance with skincare and supplements,” she said. “But when I hit 50, I realised that nothing was making a difference to my neck, it was crepey and folding in on itself. I was affecting how I felt about myself every day.
“I’d call it my Turkey neck, and it looked like you could make a fan out of it!
“I felt that my neck, out of everything else that happened in my body, was the biggest thing that aged me, and after a lot of research and consideration, I opted for a neck lift.”
The neck is one of the first places to show dramatic signs of ageing. A combination of thinner skin, frequent sun exposure, looking down at our phones, weight fluctuations, and not extending our skincare below our jawline, can all add up to the dreaded ‘Turkey neck’ - a loose, saggy, wrinkled appearance which is very difficult to treat.
Dr Uliania Gout of the LAM clinic agrees that for this area, surgery can be the only definitive solution: “Necks are notoriously challenging to treat. We have to be realistic, as in some cases, surgical interventions are the gold standard.”
Jo admitted, “I’d never thought of myself as someone who would have plastic surgery, that felt like it was for superstars, people in Hollywood, not for real women like me.
“I used to think surgery would make you look like someone in a wind tunnel!
“But how I felt about my neck was affecting me every day. I’d do my make-up nicely, put on my nice jewellery, but then just focus on what was going on south of my chin.
“Every night when I took my make-up off, I’d pull the skin on my neck back in the mirror and think what I’d look like without my ‘Turkey neck'!
“It got to the point where I would only wear roll necks and turtlenecks, I’d never wear a V-neck or anything that showed my neck.”
Having surgery was the last resort: “I’d be moisturising constantly and always trying this new cream or that new cream, I tried sleeping on silk pillowcases, I tried everything you could and nothing made even the tiniest bit of difference.
Tweakment Trials - Botox
“I even researched getting Botox in my neck. I went to one clinic where they told me about a treatment called a Nefertiti Lift, where they inject you multiple times in your neck. That sounded crazy to me, so I said to her, ‘will this definitely work, will this make a noticeable impact?’ And even she admitted that no, nothing will be as impactful as a scalpel.”
Jo spent a few years researching a neck lift and visited Dr Dan Marsh of the Plastic Surgery Group. “When I went to see Dan, it took me over a year to have the operation. I kept thinking, ‘what were the results going to be? Am I going to look like an idiot? Am I going to look like my belly button is sticking out the top of my head? Am I going look super tight and like I can’t smile?’
“I saw loads of surgeons but I liked Dan because he was really real and he said ‘what I will do is make you look fresher, not younger but fresher’, and that’s exactly what I wanted, I didn’t want to look 30 or 40 I wanted to look like me, look my age but look relaxed and fresh, like I’d been in a spa for a month!”
Many people head abroad for cosmetic surgery as it’s cheaper, but this is something Jo “never considered”.
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“It’s tempting because it’s affordable, but I’ve read too many horror stories, and my surgeon said he won’t do corrective work on botched jobs abroad now because there are so many of them,” she said.
A neck lift is a complex procedure, and Jo spent five and a half hours on the table, but her recovery went well. “I can honestly say I felt no pain,” she explained. “They offered me codeine and I said ‘no, I don’t need it’.
“My surgeon said I must have been some kind of super healer. They let me home early, and when I was in the taxi home, the driver said ‘off shopping are you’ and I said ‘no, I’ve just been in hospital getting a neck lift’ and he couldn’t believe it!
“It took around six weeks for all the swelling to go down, but I could still get on with my normal life.”
Now fully recovered, Jo says the procedure has transformed her life and given her confidence back. “It was never about anyone else, and it was never about looking younger; it was about not feeling like I had to wear a turtleneck in June or a big scarf on holiday in Spain!
Getting it in the neck: What the surgeon says…..
Dr Dan Marsh, Co-Founder of The Plastic Surgery Group, answers the most popular questions
What surgery did you perform on Jo?
As we age, our skin loses elasticity and sags, and fat accumulates, resulting in the loss of the well-defined youthful contour of the neck. Muscle bands can also appear. To address the skin laxity on Jo’s neck, I performed a neck lift, or cervicoplasty/platysmaplasty.
How much does a neck lift cost?
It varies from patient to patient but at The Plastic Surgery Group a typical neck lift will cost from £7k to £20k.
What results can someone expect to see from this procedure?
A neck lift will significantly improve the change to the neck that occurs with age, leaving the neck looking slimmer, youthful and with a more attractive contour.
Who is this procedure suitable for?
The ideal candidate for a neck lift is someone who has an excess of skin and volume under their chin and wishes to have a surgical procedure to address these. There is no ideal age to have a neck lift as we all age differently. Both men and women may consider a neck lift. Your surgeon should spend time listening to your concerns and then examine you before determining whether a neck lift is appropriate.’
What exactly happens during a neck lift?
The surgery takes place under general anaesthesia. A small incision is made under the chin to access the underlying structures, and sutures may be used to “lift” sagging structures. I typically carry out deep neck lifts, which address the deeper structures of the neck along with platysma muscle tightening to give the optimal results. An additional incision might be needed behind the ear in order to achieve the best result. In some cases, additional liposuction is needed to contour the neck.
Are they seeing more people coming in to your clinic wanting to treat their necks?
Definitely, we are seeing a 50% increase in people enquiring about neck lifts at The Plastic Surgery Group.
“Twenty years ago, ageing was very different and you’d see women my age with blue rinses and a perm!
“We’re lucky to be our age. I’m grateful to be my age. I just want to be my age without a crinkly neck!
“Having a procedure like this is about saying to yourself, ‘yes, I’m worth spending the money on, I’m taking ownership over something I can change, which is going to make me feel better about myself.’
“The brilliant thing now is every day I get up, go in the shower, look in the mirror and thing BRING IT ON. I’m me again.”
