An odd and self-conscious feeling after getting jabs

If you look at the photograph of me attached to this column, you may if you are a regular reader be only too familiar with the appearance of the author.

- BECKY SHEAVES

Does it ever occur to you to wonder if I really look like that, in real life?

Well, wonder no more because, I can assure you, I don't. This picture was taken quite some time ago. Pre-pandemic, pre-menopause. And even back then, my appearance was helped along with professional hair, make-up and lighting.

My kind friend in the art department took my eye bags out in what is known as “post” (aka Photoshop). I didn't ask her to, honestly. But when she showed me the difference it made, well...

It's always a tricky moment for a journalist to ask for a new byline picture. Quite aside from the expense, it's a bit of a faff and smacks of vanity. So I have just pottered along with the same old photograph for years.

And, of course, as time marches on, the incentive to freshen up one's byline diminishes with the appearance of every new crow's foot and wrinkle.

Years ago, I was sent by the Daily Mail to cover one of the first ever aesthetic procedures fairs, which was held in London at the Café de Paris. I reported breathlessly on the astonishing things I witnessed. Chief of which was a woman lying on a bed in the full view of an assembled crowd having fillers injected into her lips. Right there in public!