Cool, calm and collected, Waterhouse is famous for his confidence with a scalpel – as well as some progressive facelifting techniques. The thrill-seeking surgeon (ask him about his white-collar boxing matches) was the first in the UK to use a revolutionary ‘quilting’ stitch, which dramatically reduces swelling and bruising: ‘I haven’t done a facelift without it for over three years,’ he says. It’s superlative on heavy-set necks (often done in lockstep with the face), but also in combination with his ‘gliding brow lift’ (the skin is released from the muscle, allowing the brow to glide with ease into an elevated position, before being secured with the sutures – which are then removed several days later).

‘It’s the brow lift of the next decade,’ he declares. But Waterhouse is also a master of revisions, and uses fat to great effect – not to fill the face, but to support the jawline, cheek- bones and temples. ‘After all, facelifts can look a little “off” when the patient is very thin,’ he admits. ‘But if, rather than pulling the skin taut, you simply support the tissue with fat, it rejuvenates the face beautifully.’ When he’s not wearing scrubs, you’ll find him administer- ing some excellent injectables at his eponymous clinic.Consultation, £250; facelift, from £13,000; gliding brow lift, from £8,000, including hospital and anaesthetist fees (9harleystreet.com)

Waterhouse goes from strength to strength – as do the facelifts which are now his sole focus. And when it comes to technique, the charismatic surgeon pushes the envelope. ‘Instant gratification is important,’ he explains. ‘Now, more than ever, I’m addressing excess volume in the neck – for example, removing the glands and contouring muscles.’ (The results are transformational.) An early pioneer of ‘quilting’ sutures, which minimise bleeding and accelerate recovery, his surgeries often combine a brow lift – performed by means of his signature ‘gliding’ technique, which smooths wrinkles by releasing the skin before lifting it – with an upper-lid blepharoplasty and fat transfer to the chin or jawline. Sometimes he even removes the buccal fat between the cheekbone and jaw, as ‘it triangulates the face and feminises the appearance’. Innovation aside, patients trust him because he’s wise, straight-talking and blessedly mindful of one’s social commitments. ‘You need three weeks off for a facelift, and add a week for any structural neck work,’ he says. (For a speedy recovery, lymphatic drainage comes highly recommended.)

Norman Waterhouse has been a leading figure in aesthetic surgery in London for the past 20 years. He has an international reputation for facelift surgery, and is constantly developing new techniques and procedures to improve results and minimise recovery time.

Mr Waterhouse operates within a bespoke team to provide peri- and post-operative holistic care, and also offers a full range of non-surgical treatments at his specialist clinic, Waterhouse Young.

His philosophy ensures all clients are assessed on an individual basis and have a care plan designed around their precise needs. This way, the emphasis is always on achieving the best results with the least intervention.