A friend slipped into the pew next to me at a memorial service. We did the usual cheek kisses and you-look-amazings. But in this case, she really did. In a church whisper she told me she’d just gotten a facelift. “Best thing I’ve ever done. And so not a big deal.” Her jaw was impeccable; her neck, devoid of turkey and wobble. Then the organ started, and we pulled out tissues and proceeded to mourn the dead and our younger selves.
In her late 40s, this friend had her eyes lifted and realized, “I was an idiot” for putting off a facelift. When a 43-year-old decorator friend told me she was going under the knife, I thought she’d lost her mind. “I have weirdly lax skin,” she explained. Shortly after the swelling went down and we met for dinner, I saw for myself that she didn’t look crazy at all. Since then, I’ve been keeping mental notes—binders full of women—adding the 42-year-old British performer who had a rumored facelift and a confirmed baby pretty much back-to-back, the comedian whose face is endlessly dissected on TikTok, and the fashion designer who, even up close, looks like she’s about to celebrate her 35th birthday—again.
