Facelifts and Fillers

Nearly half of us have admitted

that we would consider getting cosmetic surgery.

So that means either you or the person sitting next to you

have thought about it.

Going under the knife or the needle

to improve our looks is no longer the preserve of Hollywood.

It's not cheap, erm, but it's worth it.

In Britain we now spend an eye-watering

£3.6 billion a year

on cosmetic treatments and it's growing all the time.

We've spent the past nine months

inside one of Scotland's most exclusive aesthetic medicine clinics

to meet the people who spend their hard-earned cash

on Botox, fillers, fat freezes, face-lifts and hair transplants,

to meet the everyday people fuelling this multimillion-pound industry.

I think everyone has some form of insecurity.

I actually hate causing people pain.

WOMAN SCREAMS

I'm thinking..."Two hours from now, two hours from now..."

If people knew how it could make you feel...

everybody would do it, trust me.

Dr Darren McKeown is throwing a party for his clients

and those thinking about getting something done.

For potential patients it's a chance to talk treatment.

For Darren, it's about boosting the profile of his clinic.

As you get older, your eyebrows don't sag, they get higher, OK?

Next time you go visit your gran or your mother in the nursing home,

have a look at their eyebrows.

So when you use Botox to lift the eyebrows, you're not rejuvenating

the face, you're inadvertently ageing the face.

At just 34, Darren is at the top of his game,

with a clinic in London and a busy practice in Glasgow's city centre.

Whether you want to look younger, have more hair or just

plumper lips, Darren can help, and every month hundreds of Scots

cross his threshold looking to fight the ageing process.

-Good to see you.

-How are you?

-Good. Do you want to come through?

-Yes.

'Becoming a cosmetic surgeon was my childhood ambition.'

It was a thing I always wanted to do when I was growing up.

As a child, I was fascinated by beauty

and the concept that you could surgically create beauty.

It was one of those kind of odd, weird childhood obsessions.

And I think people thought I would grow out of it, but...

evidently, that never happened!

So the ideal female proportions should be

the distance between the chin and nose is one-third the distance.

-The height of the nose is a third and the height of the forehead is a third.

-Oh, really?

After I graduated from medical school, I began the initial

training in plastic and reconstructive surgery in the NHS.

But the field of minimally invasive aesthetics

continued to grow, and more and more I became experienced with it

and realised what I could achieve without surgery,

I decided that that was what I wanted to do long-term.

-Are you doing it?

-Mm-hm.

-Oh, well, that is numb, then.

I can't feel anything.

'It's about the long-term relationship you have with the patient.'

There is a really important element of psychology

in what goes on in cosmetic practice.

In fact, 99.9% of it is all about the psychological

impact of each treatment.

At the end of the day, we're not doing the treatments to make

people look better, I'm doing the treatments to make them feel better.

When I'm assessing someone,

when someone comes to see me for a consultation, what I'm trying

to get around in my head is not, "Can I make you look better?"

The real question is, "Am I going to make you feel better at the end of this?"

Oh, yeah, I can see a difference! That looks great, Darren.

-I think that looks amazing.

-Worth the pain?

Yeah, but it wasn't really painful.

Dr Darren's clinic is a family affair. His mum, Susan,

is the office manager and responsible for,

well, basically everything.

Most people, they don't realise that I'm Darren's mum,

and he does call me Mum in front of clients.

Sometimes clients don't pick it up.

He also calls me, "We'll go out and see the boss."

And clients have been in, like, two or three times

and all of a sudden they go, "I can't believe you're Darren's mum."

Was Mum not working here the day that you

-were in for your consultation?

-No, it was just Susan, I think.

-Oh, that is Mum!

-Is it?!

-Yeah!

-HE LAUGHS

Goodness me!

My job involves a bit of everything.

I'm technically the clinic manager.

I make sure that Darren's got everything in his room that he

needs for working.

And I also do all the booking.

So just generally everything that goes on in the clinic.

'I'm quite willing to take part.'

Even giving my fingers to get squashed.

INTERVIEWER: Who's in charge?

SHE LAUGHS

I'll try these in the hall.

In here Darren is definitely in charge.

Which is fine, that's all right.

You know who's running the business, so I do things he wants me to do.

He's my boss. It's like any other job.

-But outside of here, I'm the boss.

-DARREN CHUCKLES

Susan's job description includes moral support.

The patient coming in today is 63-year-old Senga,

who's become a regular face at the clinic,

despite being severely needle-phobic.

I mean, I'm... I've always been terrified of needles.

Always.

Darren carefully marks where he's going to inject filler.

Specific wrinkles that I think we can soften.

That's about 10, 11 jabs you're going to get me into.

-It's probably more than 11.

-HE LAUGHS

-Oh, Darren!

You'll be fine. You've had more than this before.

Your struggling will stop.

-See, it's me started!

-No, you're going to be fine.

AAAGH!

AAAGH!

SHE GROWLS

GROWLING CONTINUES

-Is that sore?

-SHE GROWLS

-Are you sure?

-SHE GROWLS

SUSAN LAUGHS

I don't know if I'm convinced.

LOUD STACCATO GRUNTING

-That's one side done.

-Oh, for fuck's sake!

SUSAN LAUGHS

You can't stop now and have half a young face and half an old face.

-Ohhh...

-You're all right.

SHE GRUNTS

-Done.

-SHE GRUNTS

-See, that was no' bad.

-THEY LAUGH

Now, I think you just cost me a pair of shoes.

I think I need to buy my mum a pair of shoes to say thanks

for holding your hand.

Oh, I know! I know!

Look there. Oh, Darren, that's great!

I've had my neck done, then I got my eyes done, upper and lower,

because they were away down there.

And then I've had... Botox and fillers.

And a wee bit of liposuction there.

I think that was to take the fat out from there. But...

What a difference. I mean, my chin was down there!

What a difference.

INTERVIEWER: What do you think you've spent?

I think I spent about.. between 13,000 and 15,000.

It's not cheap. Erm, but it's worth it.

You've got more confidence.

You can look at people straight in the eye, erm...and talk to them.

Whereas before, I was...

..I sort of covered my mouth when I spoke because of my chin and that.

But, no, I'll talk to anybody now face-to-face.

All I'll get now is maybe a wee bit of Botox

and a wee bit of filler - that's all I need.

No more surgery.

Then again, never say never.

SHE LAUGHS

Knowing me!

Never say never, Senga.

Senga's fear of needles is a bit extreme.

For most, a few Botox or filler injections are no big deal.

But Darren also offers much more invasive procedures,

such as a revolutionary new kind of face-lift.

50-year-old Liz in on the verge of taking the plunge.

When I take my face back slightly, like this,

I can see the girl that I once was.

Darren said to me that there is a procedure that can actually just

lift, tighten this slightly,

and you can see it's so much more defined.

And that's the way I want to look.

I don't see it as vanity.

I actually see it as basically trying to preserve what I've got.

Years ago they say that Marlene Dietrich used to put

tape behind her ears

and that she used to wear her hair down over her ears

so that no-one could see it.

So, really, if you think of that, since time began, women have been

doing that. But that was only offered to the rich and famous

and not like a housewife,

a working-class woman from Blantyre, so to speak.

So things have changed a lot.

Come in, have a wee seat.

-Just watch.

-OK.

-If I put my face down...

-Yeah.

-Can you see the way that all falls?

-Yup.

-And I don't want it to fall.

Yup.

That feels better already.

-HE LAUGHS

-I can just walk around like this.

-Absolutely!

Just hold my face up!

Erm, OK,

there is now a reasonable amount of loose skin, OK?

And that's what's causing the sagging appearance that you've got down here.

I think we're at the stage now here,

where there's not a great deal we can do that is going to have a

-meaningful impact non-surgically.

-Mm-hm.

We need to do something a little bit more invasive

to get you the kind of result that I think we both want.

There is going to be scarring.

Something that's there for the rest of your life,

but it's going to be done in such a way that it's

so inconspicuous that in day-to-day life, no-one's going to see that.

That sounds amazing.

In an under-regulated industry, with the easy availability of Botox and

filler and an increasingly relaxed attitude to using them, there's

been a real rise in the number of poorly executed procedures.

Lynn, who is in her 40s,

has had multiple rounds of filler injected into her face.

But the fillers have filled Lynn with,

if not dread, then disappointment.

The end result isn't what she'd hoped for,

and she's come to see Darren in the hope that he can reverse

the treatments she got elsewhere.

When I look in the mirror,

I don't see myself as being the age that I am.

So now when I look in the mirror I think, "Oh, my God." You can

really see the creases and the lines

and I kind of just want to change all that and look a bit younger.

'She's had problems with too much filler being injected.'

The treatments have been repeated too frequently

and the filler has all been placed in the wrong position for her face.

It's actually created a very bottom-heavy appearance, which is

dragging down and making her look inadvertently older,

rather than the real objective of these treatments, which is

to make them look younger.

So I'm injecting an enzyme.

The idea is that this material is going to break down any

filler that's in here. And I can actually feel it softening already.

Which is encouraging.

Fixing Lynn's face will involve many visits to the clinic.

Once the existing filler has been dissolved,

Darren starts to add his own.

The final stage will be a painful chemical peel

to renew her damaged skin.

When you first start getting treatments, you're trusting

the practitioner because he's the one that is trained to do it.

So you expect them to give you proper advice

and appropriate treatments.

So you're sort of taking the lead from them,

and I think it's probably that naivete that I had

and maybe their naivete as well,

that they weren't sort of doing what should have been done at the time.

INTERVIEWER: Do you feel better now you can start to see...?

Yes, I feel much better now I've got cheekbones.

THEY LAUGH

Despite his success in this field,

Darren is no stranger to procedures which haven't turned out as hoped.

I was 17 when I went to medical school

and I was 18 when I had my first rhinoplasty,

an operation to change the shape and size of the nose.

I regretted it as soon as the plastic came off

and there was just this really small, narrow nose,

erm...

down the middle of my face,

which instantly just looked far too small for the rest of my face

and completely out of keeping with the rest of my features.

Erm... I remember just thinking, "Oh, gosh."

I would have given anything at that minute in time to go back

and undo it.

A year after that, I then had a permanent implant

inserted in my top lip, and a couple of years later I had some fat

taken from my tummy and injected into my cheeks and face.

That's probably the biggest regret that I've got now,

is that I did things fairly early on at a stage

where I didn't really need it,

and I'm now very conscious of the fact that it doesn't look

natural all these years down the line.

And I'm really paranoid about it

because I'm sitting in consultations with patients, almost preaching

to them about the natural look and saying, "Please don't do this.

"This will look unnatural. Let's do this.

"Let's avoid that because it might not look right."

And I'm sure some of them must be sitting there thinking,

"But hang on, look at you!

"Look at your face. That's not really..."

And it's a difficult situation to deal with.

I think that really influences my approach to the way

I manage my own patients, especially the younger ones.

I see a lot of people who come to me

and I can see characteristics of myself 20 years ago in them. Erm...

And I know that if they jump on the bandwagon

and get involved in cosmetic procedures too soon, that they

are eventually, they will live to regret it.

The patient in today is a 23-year-old student who has made

an appointment at the clinic to talk about getting some Botox.

I think it's becoming increasingly more and more popular.

People are more influenced by what's in the media

and want to look good, achieve a certain look.

I think this is one of the ways to do it.

INTERVIEWER: Are you worried about looking old, ageing?

Yeah, I'm worried about the ageing process.

I've got quite a lot of fine lines, wrinkles around the eyes,

and I've got a bit of asymmetry to my face as well, so...

That I feel is noticeable.

Where do you see the asymmetry?

-Sort of in the eyebrow and going down to the eyelid.

-OK.

The whole brow on this side sits probably in a region

of about half a millimetre lower than that side, OK?

The differences between both sides, though, are so subtle that I think

the best way of dealing with that is in the way you pluck your eyebrows.

Trying to achieve that degree of change with an injectable...

Half a millimetre changes, they're not necessarily achievable.

Give me a big smile again, please.

So that's you on maximum smiling

and I would rate them as grade one out of five.

Erm...

And you've got literally nothing at all when your face is at rest.

So I...I wouldn't really recommend any treatment round there just yet.

And actually, from having a look at the condition of your skin

just now, I don't think you're going to be

ready for a treatment like Botox for at least another ten years.

-Oh, right!

-All right?

If I don't need it, I don't need it.

He said I've got great skin and that's a bit of a boost to me.

That my skin's in good condition and is going to be in good

condition for a long time is a really nice thing to hear.

Cosmetic practice is all psychology to me.

It's nothing to do with the way the patient looks.

The primary outcome is how the patient feels about themselves.

I want to not just make people happy for right now,

I also want to help them make decisions

that I think are going to also keep them happy

long term into the future.

And one of the big concerns that I have

is that a lot of young girls

who are doing things to their face right now,

they see short-term benefits but they're really going to regret it

when they get 10, 15 years down the line.

This goes for men too.

Graham has popped into the clinic for a check-up on a hair transplant

he's recently undergone there.

But he's had a lot of other work done elsewhere,

and is happy with a more extreme look.

Quite a few times I've been to Darren and he said, "That's

"far too much," or "Don't do this," and he also wouldn't do that to me.

But a lot of it, if it was real proper surgery,

I would definitely listen to him,

but when it's fillers and things like that,

that maybe I just want a wee bit larger than he would do, then I

just think they can be dissolved if they're really, really bad, I guess.

But this is the mistake that he makes.

Most people who come to see me want to blend in.

They want to look good for themselves but want to blend in.

Graham quite likes having things that make him stand out,

with the lips and the cheeks...

I wouldn't say... I would just think that it's... I don't really know.

Maybe not to look like I've had work done,

but I actually don't think it does.

But I guess it's because it's over time, the filler has built up

and built up, that you just get used to looking at something and think...

..that you, I don't know, you just...

You just want more added in and you think it might look better

and it maybe just becomes too extreme for some people.

INTERVIEWER: Do you think you lose objectivity?

Yeah, probably.

-With a lot of things.

-Yeah.

35-year-old Bob is also in to see Darren

about a hair transplant.

He sings in a band

and is worried he'll lose his mojo along with his locks.

INDISTINCT SINGING

It kind of affects my confidence.

Makes me a bit nervous at times of people looking at my hairline,

and also just the kind of culture nowadays, you know,

that folk are doing things about their appearance,

and I don't think there's anything wrong with that as such.

How much hair you can have up here depends on how much hair you've

-got at the back.

-Mm-hm.

-OK?

The density of the hair at the back of your head

-I would say is about average.

-Mm-hm.

Possibly a little bit below average, OK?

So you've not got a massive amount of hair that we can borrow from, OK?

-OK.

-So any hair restoration procedure is never going to give you

-a full head of hair.

-Mm-hm.

You've got an option of either having a thin scattering

at the front and the back or, if you would prefer - and it

would probably be my recommendation -

to focus more on the front of the head.

It's a long procedure.

We normally start at about half-seven, eight in the morning

and we rarely finish before six, seven o'clock at night.

So you can be here for nearly 12 hours.

Bruising, swelling, itching - all these things are normal.

It's not a pleasant experience and by the end of the day,

most people are thinking, "Dear God, why have I done this to myself?"

-Does it sound terrifying?

-I have to be honest, a wee bit...

Some of it does sound a wee bit kind of, you know, concerning.

But the reality is, when you do this, you've done it

and there's no going back, so you need to know the absolute

cold, hard facts before you decide that you want to do it.

You have to be 100% certain.

Darren speaks from experience.

He had his own hair transplant when he was in his 20s.

A hair transplant is one of the most physically demanding

procedures Darren carries out.

It can take up to 12 hours and costs around £6,000.

It's a wee tiny bit disheartening that I'm not going to get,

you know, complete coverage.

INTERVIEWER: What about the day itself?

Yeah, it sounds quite long and quite, erm... Yeah.

That's probably the kind of worst thing about it, you know,

I'm going to have to kind of have a good think about that,

whether I want to put myself through that.

-Am I actually doing this?!

-SHE LAUGHS

For patients new to the clinic, it can be a daunting first step.

It took Botox virgin Susan, in her late 40s,

years to pluck up the courage to call Dr Darren.

-Here.

-Yup.

-Here.

-Yup.

-And just here is really annoying me.

-Yup.

-Because I'm 47 now and this here is going this way.

-Yup.

For Susan, it's a whole new world.

And a slightly alarming one.

-It's a lot of dots!

-No, it's not!

Botox is one example of a new class of drugs.

It was initially designed by ophthalmic surgeons

who specialised in treating squint.

And one of the side-effects that they noticed was that

when they were injecting this drug into muscles inside the eye,

that the wrinkles around the eye started disappearing.

And, erm...

..the rest is history.

Done!

-What did you think?

-Nothing like what I thought it was going to be.

A wee bit tender around the eye.

-I'm too busy thinking about the next bit.

-No, no.

-INTERVIEWER: Are you worried?

-Yeah.

Filler, I guess, is a bit like Polyfilla, except instead

of filling out holes in the wall, you fill out holes in the face.

That's you done.

-SUSAN:

-No going back.

SHE EXHALES

It was...much better than what I thought it was going to be.

But it's just the whole unknown. This is my face.

I'm just trusting...

..his expertise and that he knows what he's doing.

As long as we've communicated clearly that you wanted

-the Katie Price look...

-SHE LAUGHS

Aaaagh!

It's amazing!

One... I mean, I... I'm actually quite shocked...

-..just how quickly...

-Yup.

-And this here...

-Yup.

You want to still have a bit of...

what time has gave you, I suppose, a wee bit, but I'm shocked...

absolutely shocked that that's as flat.

The desire to look good is big business

and Darren wants to expand from the surgery into the supermarket.

He's in London for meetings about a new skincare range he is developing.

It's something he actually hopes will encourage people to get LESS Botox.

The great thing about the brand is, you know,

with a word like "Stop" for the name, you know,

we've had the advantage of being able to be really quite

single-minded and perhaps bold with the way that we've worked with it.

-Yup.

-To create this almost kind of call-to-action approach on the pack.

Yeah, the key thing behind the word "Stop"

is I want people to stop doing unnecessary procedures.

If you're having a bad hairdo,

-the answer is not to inject Botox to stop that.

-Yeah.

I'm so pleased that we've got that colour happening on our packs.

-It had to happen somewhere.

-It's just brilliant.

It had to happen somewhere.

Erm...

Yeah, I kind of almost wanted the whole pack that colour,

but I actually, I've gone for the band.

-I think the band is really classy.

-'This is my sideline.'

But it's all relevant. I think Botox has become a status symbol.

There is a section of the population out there who don't want Botox

to look natural, they want Botox to look like they've had Botox.

It's almost like wearing a T-shirt that says "Dolce & Gabbana"

across the front.

-Yeah.

-Erm...

You're saying, "Look, I've got... I paid this money.

"I paid a fortune for a T-shirt that I could have

"got for a quarter of the price somewhere else,

"but I got the expensive one that's got the expensive brand on it."

# All the beautiful people...#

Darren has been offered a slot on shopping channel QVC

to launch his skincare products.

# Everyone looks the same. #

Before they sign the deal, though, he has to do a screen test.

Something he feels is a little out of his comfort zone.

I'm quite anxious about how it's going to come across.

I don't want to be here doing something that's going to

compromise me professionally.

I don't want to sit in here looking like some sort of used-car salesman.

It would be good to see the texture of the cream, putting it on the

-back of your hand and just showing us how it sinks into the skin.

-Yeah.

When you do that, just hold your hand

nice and steady for the camera.

All skin types.

Great.

Joining me now is a guy that I've really enjoyed talking to

and I know you're going to really enjoy hearing from.

-It's Dr Darren McKeown. How are you, sir?

-Nice to meet you today, Mike.

-It's got a lovely smooth texture.

-It's smooth, soft, evened out...

I'm going to be getting myself some of this, I have to say.

I'm 44 this week and, you know, all the signs are there, so...

-You don't look a day over 34.

-HE LAUGHS

You're a very kind man.

Listen, if you want to get yours,

make sure you apply today under the 30-day-money-back guarantee.

-Hello!

-Hello!

-Hi, guys.

-How was that?

-Yeah, it was OK?

-Yes.

-What did you think? That's the most important...

-OK!

LAUGHTER

-He's hedging his bets there!

-I think you might have been a bit nervous.

-Yes.

A little bit, and I'm not surprised because you've never done

this before and it's a whole different world.

Erm... I love you, I love your personality.

I think you might just need to relax a little bit,

-just kind of relax those shoulders.

-Yup.

-Erm...

-Most definitely you've passed to go on air.

-OK.

-That's for sure.

So if you could do a little bit of work. Do you know something

-you didn't do?

-What?

-You didn't pick it up once.

-I didn't?

-No, you didn't.

-LAUGHTER

-Well done, congratulations.

-Thank you.

-Really nice to have met you.

-Nice to meet you.

By the time I come back for the next one, I'll have a new face!

'I felt a bit like a rabbit caught in the headlights.'

The job that they want me to do is to big myself up and big up

my product, which is not something that, you know, naturally...

Er...

It's not something that I guess you're really taught growing up.

You're not really taught to do that growing up in the west of Scotland.

You're more thought to be self-deprecating.

So it's kind of almost going against what has been ingrained in me

since childhood.

Back in Glasgow and back to the day job.

Darren is trialling a new skin-tightening machine.

He needs someone to test it on.

And who better than his mum?

The machine works by creating a series of wounds under the skin.

This triggers a healing response in the skin.

The theory is sound, but Darren wants to make sure

it won't be too painful a process for his patients.

INTERVIEWER: Do you often get Susan to test things, Darren?

-Erm...

-Everything!

-It's all in the name of duty.

-Yeah.

All in the name of BEAUTY.

It's all very well looking at clinical studies that appear

to show that things work,

but actually testing them on someone who's actually

representative of women coming through the door is invaluable.

-How was that?

-OK. It's all right.

-I'm watching your toes.

-NURSE LAUGHS

Because when the toes start to curl is when I know you're lying.

SHE WHIMPERS

-All right?

-Mm.

MACHINE BEEPS AND WHIRS

SHE WHIMPERS

Darren has known many of his patients for years.

Christine is a retired dance teacher and model.

She reckons she was the first person in Scotland to get Botox

back in the '80s.

I did this for the newspapers when they started doing

Botox in Scotland, so this was the gentleman putting the needle in.

Actually, they put it in the wrong place

and I had a wee droopy eye for a wee while.

I left school at 15 and I didn't have any O-Levels, and the

headmaster said that all I was good at was putting my lipstick on.

And then I opened up my business when I was 16,

and it was really successful.

I gave up three years ago

and that was 45 years I had done at this school.

But it was just great. You met so many fantastic people.

I just loved it all. It was a great time.

I won Scotland's Seaside Queen and I was a Royal Navy pin-up.

They used to meet me off the train with a guard of honour

and all this thing.

But I don't look back and think,

"Oh, I wish I looked like that again."

I'm fine.

The only thing I would really like to have done is something to

do with the lines in my hands.

I would love that, because I think that's quite an ageing thing

when people see somebody older, the hands are quite a telltale.

And that can be filled in so it would be more plumped up.

INTERVIEWER: Is the intention to look as young looking at possible?

Yeah, I think as young as possible without overdoing it.

It needs to be quite subtle. And then people...

I mean, I always add a few years on to my age and people go,

"Oh, you look great for that age."

Like I say, I'm not bad for 80.

Nice to see you. Thank you.

-That sore?

-Mm-hmm.

-Really sore or just a wee bit?

-Just a wee bit.

-OK.

-And that's just one bit.

-I hope not.

-That looks great already, actually.

-It does.

So if you look at that hand and compare it to that one,

-it just looks a little bit more plump.

-It does.

I think we've taken five years off your hands, I have to say.

Hoo! Thank you very much.

The people who come here, we get to see them on a regular basis

over a long period of time,

so they become sort of... almost become your friends.

-That's it, yeah, I agree.

-So it is a little bit more relaxed

and I guess what we're doing here, you know,

we're not in a normal doctor surgery where you're giving people bad news.

We're doing something that's positive, that's having

a positive impact on people's life.

As cosmetic surgery becomes more and more common,

couples are increasingly visiting the clinic together.

Husband and wife Jonathan and Dawn are the latest couple

to consult Darren to go under the needle together.

-Jonathan's rather squeamish.

-Yeah.

-He won't look at this.

Do you know what? It's normally the husbands or the boyfriends that

end up fainting. No-one ever faints on the table, it's always the man

-that's over in the corner.

-Jonathan, look away.

The key thing with a man's face

is that less is always more.

-Very good.

-Yeah, it's got to look natural.

I shall see you on Sunday.

Dawn runs a dog-grooming business from home and Susan isn't

the only female in the McKeown household

who likes to look after herself.

Meet Maisie, Darren's dog.

You don't look so cute now, Maisie. No.

-Why do you do it?

-Vanity.

Purely for vanity.

It makes me feel good. If I think I'm looking good, I feel good.

Definitely gives me a confidence.

It's getting more and more popular and it just seems to me

that's the way it's heading.

It will just be the norm that everybody goes

and gets Botox, fillers, a little bit of light surgery.

I don't mind people knowing that I've had work done.

It's offensive, you kind of want people to know that you're spending

this money to upkeep your looks.

I think, what's happening now is parents are doing it,

the children are seeing the parents doing it

and the children are then... they're going to follow suit.

It's just going to be...

..popping out for your groceries and pop in and get my Botox done.

Opinion is divided, however, when it comes to Dawn and Jonathan's sons,

who have different views about whether these treatments

are a good idea.

The pressure from magazines, TV, celebrities,

all that, saying that you...

In a way, saying that you have to look young,

you have to look beautiful, you have to look not you.

Eventually, you get to a stage that you have to do it.

I don't think that it's really being dishonest to yourself.

I think it's you just doing everything you can to keep

yourself feeling happy and better

and making yourself appear nicer to everyone else.

I don't think that's dishonest, I think it's...

what everyone wants.

What kind of consultation are you looking for?

-I'm just going to start by the most painful part.

-Removing my make-up?

-You don't look like a farmer.

-I know.

My husband's away just now, so he's not back until Thursday.

-I've not even told him I'm coming here.

-Oh, my goodness.

I can hear your toes curling in your shoes.

You can, I know.

It's an ageing process and if we can hold it back a little bit,

then, you know, it's worth...

it's worth it for me and I'm quite happy to do it.

No embarrassment about it whatsoever.

The machine takes a lump of tissue into the chamber

and freezes everything down to minus ten degrees.

Your skin can survive but the fat cells can't.

Quite a few. You've not to say no.

The big, deep line's not as deep as it used to be.

No, it's not.

I probably fill about half a dozen lower eyelids a day.

It shouldn't be satisfying but it kind of is.

It's like squeezing a big spot.

The ideal male face,

the width of the jaw should be about the same width as the cheekbone.

I just want to look as young as possible, that's the bottom line.

I don't think anybody, realistically,

if they're true to themself, want to get old.

You don't want to look like everybody else that walks

-out my door.

-No, no.

-You want to walk out looking like you.

Uh-huh, just enhanced.

I'm going to move him and that's us done.

As easy as that.

I'll probably do it for ever now. It's like a drug, isn't it?

Once you feel good, you know, why not?

-My Facebook yesterday went mental.

-With?

-Because I put like a before-and-after picture.

-Oh.

Honest to God, I had about 80 messages.

The whole of my lunch I just had to sit and answer everybody.

-This is the most painful bit.

-CARD MACHINE BEEPS

Brilliant.

Yeah, lovely.

Fab.

With a mixture of excitement and trepidation,

Liz arrives for the day of her face-lift.

It will take three hours and cost £5,500.

We go through our life's journey and you're somebody's wife,

you're somebody's daughter, you're somebody's mother

and you tend always to be doing stuff for the main people

that's in your family to keep your family unit safe and good

and - "I want that and I want that and I want that."

This time I'm actually just doing it for me.

My daughter is absolutely against it.

She said to me, "I don't know why you're doing this.

"I don't think you need to get it done

"and I can't believe that you're actually going to get this done."

And I think that's her being totally, brutally honest

and I admire her for that. However, at 28,

I probably thought as well, "I would never get that done."

These procedures are carried out by Darren's colleague,

surgeon Amir Nakhdjevani.

Amir has pioneered a new technique that lets him

perform the procedure under local anaesthetic.

The advantage is that, as Liz is awake throughout,

it drastically reduces downtime.

The downside is that, well, Liz is awake throughout.

It's a slightly surreal procedure but Liz seems to be bearing up well.

Right now I'm speaking to the angel Raphael,

because he is the healing angel.

I'm saying, "Make this happen very quickly."

Oh, mamma mia.

I'm actually having a conversation in my brain...

..and...

I'm thinking,

two hours from now, two hours from now.

-Yes, yes.

-It'll be over with, it'll be over with.

So this bit is the muscle layer that we're going to tighten

and you can see what it does to the jawline.

It is a surgical procedure, by all means.

This is not a nonsurgical technique and people need to be aware

of that because, with any surgery, there are risks

but what it does do is it makes the downtime a lot less

so that people can get on with their lives and, you know,

they have work commitments, social commitments and all those things.

It's not acceptable for them to be away for four weeks or six weeks.

So you can see...

..you can see Liz now feels a lot lighter.

SHE GIGGLES

The only joke in here is, depending on how much comes off,

depending on how well Maisie is fed tonight.

Yup, that's done.

Are you looking 12 years old yet?

I would say you're about 15 from here.

Amir, you need to pull a bit tighter.

-INTERVIEWER:

-What are you hoping to get out of it?

I just want to look fresher. You know?

I'm 50, I've got a daughter at 28, it's not as though I'm trying

to peel away the years because - do you know something? -

it is what it is but I just want to look a wee bit fresher.

Everybody wants to look their best and they feel that, you know,

they still have a lot to give and I want to enjoy life.

Something like this makes that quite possible.

And people who don't understand about plastic surgery,

they think it's all about vanity and it's about just, you know,

getting on with your life and, you know,

if it doesn't affect you, you don't need to have it done.

This is what people want, it's not what they need.

You're done.

-I'm done?

-All done.

-See? Now you can have a sigh of relief.

-Ready?

-Yeah.

-So you've got to see past the swelling.

-OK.

Thank you.

Oh, my God, what a difference.

That's totally away.

I don't have that.

Back to your normal routine.

(I'm so excited.)

Even although you hurt me a couple of times...

..I love it, thank you so much.

I don't have those pouches any more.

They're away.

Aww, you did so well.

-See you later.

-Bye, girls.

-Bye.

-Good result.

-Yeah, really good.

Erm, she seems really happy, which is the most important thing.

That's what makes it all worth while.

Make-up artist and beauty writer Craig has known Darren

and Susan for years.

-You look well.

-Thank you very much.

-You've lost weight.

-Trying hard.

Yeah, personal trainer.

It would be kind of nice if I had...

-You know what I'm going to say.

-I do know what you're going to say.

Slightly more volume in my lip.

But that's... How long has that been since I've had that done?

It's been a while but the chronological time doesn't matter.

What matters is how much filler is still left in there.

-They're perfect.

-Is it? Right, OK.

-It is perfect.

For me, this is just like going to the dentist or going to get

a manicure or whatever, it's just part and parcel

of your beauty routine.

Some people might think it's vanity.

Some people may think it's vanity but a haircut's vanity, buying

a pair of shoes is a necessity but if it's a nice loafer, it's vanity.

Your car's vanity, your home's vanity.

There's a very fine line between necessity and vanity and, for me,

this is both.

It's who I am, it contributes to what I do, it gives me

confidence to do what I do.

It's such a personal thing and you cannot put it in a box.

-That's you all done today.

-Is that us done? Fantastic.

-Another five years off.

-Bring on Ibiza.

Darren has decided that being a TV presenter isn't for him

and has enlisted his friend to help out.

Craig is one of my patients who's been coming to me for a few years.

I think he would be better suited to doing the bits that

I'm maybe not so comfortable with.

That is a universal product and it's just getting that to come across.

I think a lot of people are still quite snotty about QVC thinking,

"Oh, who buys from TV shopping channels?"

But the reality is that lots of people do.

And it's a really good way of launching a product

and I'm fortunate that I've got the opportunity to do that.

So, somehow, some way,

I just need to work out how to make it work in a way that

I feel comfortable with and in a way that delivers the results

that both me and QVC want to do but in a way that's not going to

compromise me or make me feel really awkward about what I'm doing.

After you.

-It's launch day at the QVC studios.

-You sure you're all right?

Yeah, I'm fine, aye.

You're doing so well. No pressure but you've got to make me

a millionaire in the next eight minutes.

In eight minutes? Make it out to ten.

-Can you hear OK?

-Yeah, I can hear what's happening, yeah.

While Craig sweats about his performance,

Darren is firmly focused on the sales figures,

which are fed through to the green room in real-time.

The sales look awful for the hour, awful.

Ten seconds.

Five, four, three...

Here on QVC, we love to welcome a new face, a new brand, a new product

and we are really excited.

Here are the details on this for you right away.

We have the UK launch, if not the worldwide launch, on this.

You get this smooth, even canvas that reflects the light,

so you've got a brighter, more radiant and even skin tone.

Dear God, look at those numbers!

Come on, come on. Look, look!

OK, we are now limited stock on the current...

This is selling so, so quickly.

Look at the... You'll break my neck!

That is about to... No, it's not about to sell out, it has sold out.

Oh!

That's it.

DARREN SQUEALS

Amazing result.

I've got a couple in my bag, so...

Ship them, ship them!

Oh, everybody, you want to see the texts, the phone's no stopped,

text, text, text.

-I am so proud and happy for you, darling.

-Oh, I'm glad.

-Did she say she recorded it as well?

-Yes.

"We'll be watching it another ten times before bed tonight."

-Her and your dad going crazy?

-Your poor mother, she been on yet?

She's messaged. She's Facebooked.

-You know how she's a Facebook fan now?

-Mm-hmm.

Erm, she's probably going to send some emojis,

that'll be the next thing.

Bob has decided to go ahead with the hair transplant.

-Right, sir, that's us ready.

-OK.

-Are you ready?

-Yes, I'm ready.

As ready as I'll ever be.

It's probably going to feel like you're wearing a helmet.

-Does it feel as though your head's ten times the size?

-Yeah.

It kind of is.

If Botox is a sprint, this is a marathon.

A gruelling 12-hour procedure lies ahead.

All performed under local anaesthetic.

A strip of donor hair is removed from the back of the head

and cut up into individual transplants which are painstakingly

inserted into thousands of holes at the front of the head.

It's physically and emotionally draining for Bob.

Hopefully not.

But it can happen.

It happened to me. I looked an absolute fright after mine.

Absolutely hated it, said it was the worst thing in the world.

"Why have I done this to myself?"

And, at the time, would have given anything to be able to undo it.

But, actually,

now it was by far and away the best thing I've ever done.

We are supposed to, or we have traditionally been supposed to

just accept baldness as it happens, we're not supposed to care about it.

But we do.

I remember being in the pub one night before I had the transplant

and I was washing my hands at the sink

and this random stranger who I never knew looked at me,

shook his head and said, "Mate, just shave it off."

And I was supposed to laugh it off.

I could have actually poked his eyes out.

While Darren makes thousands of incisions into Bob's scalp, his team

of technicians cut up the follicles harvested from the back of his head.

It's a race against time as, the sooner they are transplanted,

the greater the chances of success.

I think everyone has some form of insecurity, you know,

or something that makes them a bit nervous or a bit kind of...

And that is mine, it's appearing to have this kind of...

to be going bald, you know what I mean? At a young age.

I mean, I'm 35 years old.

Some people may see that as young, some people may not but...

Yeah, I still see myself as young, I don't like to look old, you know?

It's about four o'clock in the afternoon

and so far we've got in about 800 of the 2,400 grafts that are going in.

So we've probably got another two, maybe three hours to go.

Hopefully we'll be finished at about six or seven o'clock tonight.

He's doing really well in terms of pain.

His pain management has been fine,

he's just getting to the stage now where he's really knackered

and you can see that he's really knackered just by looking at him.

He's just generally sore all over from sitting in the same position.

So far, the procedure has taken seven long hours

and it's still not over.

Ugh.

The thought of another two hours of this...

I always feel terrible when you get to this stage

because I know exactly what it feels like.

It's kind of like, if you're running a marathon

and you kind of hit the wall, if you know what I mean,

that's kind of what it feels like to me.

I've hit a wee bit of a wall at the moment but I'm all right.

It will be fine but the thought of sitting back down, lying back

down like that again for another two hours or something is not appealing.

Just make sure that all the grafts are sitting in the right direction

and then clean up.

Then you can go home.

-He's just glad it's over, aren't you?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-How do you feel?

-All right, fine.

Come back and do it all again tomorrow?

Lynn is back in for the next stage of her restoration project -

a painful chemical peel to renew skin damaged by excessive sunbed use

when she was in her 20s.

You've got quite a few fine lines and you've got

a loss of elasticity in the skin.

And some uneven pigmentation

and all of that is absolutely classic sun damage.

It's not much fun and there's no point in trying to sugar-coat it.

She's probably going to spend the next couple of days thinking,

"What the hell have I done to myself?"

But I am fairly confident that, in two weeks' time

when it's peeled off and she's looking at the nice, fresh skin,

that she will actually be happy with it.

So a necessary evil.

-All because of the demon sunbeds.

-Yes.

We see quite a lot of sun damage in Glasgow, which is ironic

considering that we very rarely see any sun.

But it is purely the effect of the sunbed culture that we have.

We're using an acid to remove some of the outer layers of the skin

so that, when the skin heals,

it heals in a more youthful condition than when it started.

It's tough going as the acid burns through the layers of Lynn's skin.

-How are you feeling?

-Fine.

-Sure?

-Yeah.

-It's quite horrendous but it's manageable.

-What's that?

-I said it's quite horrendous but it's manageable.

-OK.

I actually hate causing people pain.

And I know how important it is to them as well, you know.

We tend to make it all a bit fun and light

but, actually, there's a reason that we're putting acid on her face

and putting her through this pretty horrific process.

It's because there is genuinely something that does upset her about

her appearance and I want to fix that for her.

Is it really blue? REALLY blue?

The acid is mixed with a special blue dye that lets Darren see

how well it's working.

It will fade in the next 24 hours but the downside is that she

leaves the clinic looking like an extra from the next Smurfs movie.

Three, two, one.

I need to go to my car like that!

You never said it would be THAT blue.

-I'm going to give you...

-A baseball cap and a mask?

It will fade, I promise.

No, I think there's a couple staring over there.

What are your plans tonight?

I think staying in, not answering the door.

Craig, following his success as QVC's newest star,

is back in the clinic.

He's getting excess skin from his eyelids removed.

-How are we feeling?

-A wee bit nervous. A wee bit nervous.

-I've got a severe overhang, always have.

-It's not that severe.

-It is.

-He's got a tiny little bit of excess but it bothers him.

And he... Well, you can tell them what you said to me.

-He hated it when he saw it on QVC.

-Yeah.

When I saw myself on camera, there was a side shot and that's

when it became really, really obvious

-that I had to do something about it.

-It wasn't that bad.

OK, when your eyes are closed, as you can see,

there's quite a lot of skin.

Yeah, you get a lot more stuff than I do.

You're allowed a lot more than I am.

I think I'm persistent.

I get told no.

-How am I looking?

-Great.

-Beautiful.

My mum has never noticed and she's known me for 30...nearly 38 years.

My mum has never noticed my lips, she's never noticed my chin,

she's never noticed my jawline.

She knows I have Botox and she always says my skin looks great

and it's dead smooth. My dad's a wee bit horrified.

He kind of thinks, "Why are you playing with your face?"

He just thinks...

his sons look great the way they are.

He loves us for who we are.

But the thing is, he's never noticed. He'll know now.

Actually quite a few follicles that are all starting to come through.

Almost an inch worth of growth in some of the earliest ones

that have come in.

This is still very early days but

it's really good progress for where we are.

I think that just in these last couple of years

since you've had football players going through this procedure

that, you know, even your kind of more West of Scotland men and even

your more kind of laddy kind of beer-drinking guys have taken to

the idea that, you know, that it's acceptable to have a transplant.

I'm not saying that I'd be one of those people now that would be

going and getting plastic surgery or any of that kind of stuff,

it wouldn't say that would be me.

I wouldn't say that the people that do go for that kind of thing

either, I don't have any criticism of them.

I think if you want to improve yourself and we have the technology

and the means to be able to improve theirselves and how they look,

you know, I don't see a problem with that.

It's the world we live in.

The world's a fast-moving place where everything's available

to everybody, whereas before it was just the certain few that got

through that opening in the door.

So it's really nice that somebody like a normal woman like me,

that sells cars, is a mum,

can come and be with professional people that'll no change you,

just make you a wee bit softer and a wee bit happier.

So I always like coming here.

-Prozac in the needle.

-Exactly. Exactly.

Obviously, since starting the treatment with Darren,

the most prominent thing is probably my cheekbones

are obviously much higher. The bags under my eyes have less,

just due to my tear-duct troughs being filled as well.

My skin at the moment is still not great but it obviously will

improve once the chemical peel has completely taken effect.

Once that's back to normal, and, obviously, once

I've got make-up on, I think I would feel more like myself.

Like, you know, what I think I'm going to look like

when you look in the mirror.

I think everyone's always kind of seeking for perfection, so,

you know, unless you are realistic, you would kind of keep chasing that

dream of perfection and it might never be there.

The definition in your jawline looks amazing.

We've got rid of those little jowly bits here that you

used to have and the contour in your neck is much smoother.

Let's have a wee look at the scars. The scars are healing beautifully.

Going back 30, 40, 50 years ago,

women did live in a different society to what we live in now.

However, I think women now make their own choices, they make

their own money, they can spend their own money how they see fit

and, if that then makes that woman feel better about herself,

why not?

You can send me to the moon, so why can't I get rid of my jowls?

CAMERAMAN LAUGHS

I'm no really bothered what people think.

I did this for me is, do you know?

Probably my son and my family get a better version of me

than was there for a few years ago

and I know that sounds really silly but, if you're really happy,

then it sort of comes out into your outer circle of your family,

so if this is what it takes, then let it be.

-Let people do what they need to do to make themselves happy.

-Good.

Thank you.

# I fell in love again. #