McKeown Medical
167 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 4SQ
Date posted — 4.06.25
A well-defined jawline is often seen as a hallmark of youth and vitality. However, when sagging begins to blur that definition by creating jowls, softening the chin, or giving rise to a ‘double chin’ appearance, it can have a profound impact on how we perceive ourselves and how others perceive our age.
At McKeown Medical, many of our patients ask: “Is this just genetics? Can I do anything about it?” The short answer is yes. While genetics may set the stage, there’s a lot we can do to combat sagging and help restore a sharper, more youthful profile.
As we age, multiple changes take place beneath the skin that contribute to jawline sagging:
Together, these changes cause the jawline to lose its crispness and create the tell-tale signs of ageing in the lower face.
Sagging doesn’t happen overnight, but its effects can be surprisingly noticeable, especially if you’re genetically predisposed or have lifestyle factors that accelerate ageing. Key signs include:
Some people begin noticing these changes as early as their 30s, especially if they have a poorly defined jaw and chin. Other people, with better bone structure, may not see major changes until later in life.
Your genetic makeup has a significant influence on facial structure, skin type, and fat distribution, all of which can impact when and how sagging begins. If your parents had early jowling or weak jaw definition, you may be more prone to the same.
However, lifestyle and environmental factors also play a significant role:
In short, you may be born with a predisposition, but lifestyle often determines how quickly (or severely) sagging manifests. The good news? This means there’s room for intervention.
While we can’t turn off the ageing process, we can certainly slow it down.
Modern non-surgical treatments can offer subtle, preventative improvements, including jowl lift without surgery options such as:
For early sagging, these approaches can delay the need for surgery and help maintain a youthful profile with minimal downtime.
If sagging becomes more advanced, non-surgical options may no longer deliver the desired results. That’s where facelift surgery becomes a powerful solution. As one of the most effective forms of facial cosmetic surgery, a facelift can restore jawline definition, reposition deeper tissues, and create long-lasting structural rejuvenation.
At McKeown Medical, we offer a range of surgical options tailored to the degree of ageing and individual goals:
Often, a combination of treatments, such as laser resurfacing post-facelift, delivers the best results, addressing both structure and skin quality.
Jawline sagging may be part of the ageing process, but that doesn’t mean it’s something you have to accept. Whether your concern is early-onset jowling due to genetics or more noticeable sagging that’s progressed over time, our team at McKeown Medical can help.
With decades of experience in facial aesthetics, our expert-led approach ensures your treatment is tailored to your anatomy, goals, and stage in the ageing journey. Whether you’re exploring non-surgical options such as jaw fillers or considering facelift surgery, we’ll guide you every step of the way.
Looking to achieve a defined, youthful jawline? At McKeown Medical, our expert team can help tailor your treatment to your needs and goals. Book a consultation today to discuss our available treatment options.
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And this is why combination treatments always win!
This lovely patient is in her 50s and was noticing all of the classic signs of ageing. She was starting to see some jowls forming, the neck was becoming more saggy and she felt she was looking tired.
At this stage in the ageing process it is not one thing that is responsible for causing the tired expression, its a combination of changes that are working together which is why we need a combination of treatments to target it effectively.
We did some sofwave treatment first to tighten the skin on the face and neck. Sofwave is very effective at tightening the skin, but remember: the skin is only the outer layer of the face, so we supported the treatment with some volume replacement in the deeper layers.
I decided to post her selfie style before and afters as well as her clinical pictures so you can see how it looks in real life, as well as the clinical up-close detail. The patient is over the moon with her results.
What do you think?
Here is another beautifully balanced deep plane face and neck lift by the skilful @bramhallplasticsurgery.
The deep plane technique, as the name suggests, works at a deeper level, repositioning the underlying structures of the face and neck rather than simply tightening the skin. By addressing the deeper tissues, we can restore more natural proportions, refine the jawline, and create a smoother, more defined contour beneath the chin - especially when the patient moves or bends their neck forward.
To achieve this impressive improvement in the neck, even in flexion, Russell reduced the deep fat (from under the muscle), trimmed and shaped the salivary glands and reconstructed the muscles of the neck to create a rejuvenated result. This is a much more sophisticated procedure compared with a standard face and neck lift.
At just 2 months post-op, her result is already beautifully balanced. The jawline is sharper, the neck more sculpted, and everything sits in harmony with the rest of her features. Scars are settling well and will continue to soften over time.
She may choose to refine things further with laser resurfacing for skin quality and subtle volume restoration in the mid-face, but even at this stage, the transformation speaks for itself.
Thank you to our patient for allowing us to share her journey.
What do you think?
Thank you to this lovely patient for allowing us to share her beautiful result from the talented @bramhallplasticsurgery.
This patient is just 2.5 months after upper eyelid surgery, and already looking incredibly fresh and natural. The scars are settling very well and will continue to soften over the coming months.
The incisions are carefully placed within the natural eyelid crease, making them very difficult to see once healed. Excess skin has been removed to open up the eye area, while maintaining a soft, natural appearance.
A small amount of muscle was reduced at the outer part of the eyelid to address hooding, without affecting the central area. This helps preserve a youthful fullness above the eye. There has also been a conservative reduction of the lateral brow fat to further refine the contour. This highly tailored, bespoke approach to surgery is the attention to detail that lies at the heart of our clinic’s approach and philosophy.
As with many patients, her anatomy meant these changes developed earlier than expected. In the right cases, surgery at a younger age can deliver a subtle but very impactful improvement.
What do you think?
Happy Easter from our excited little bunnies 🐣🐰
Thank you to our lovely patient for allowing us to share these photos.
This is just 4 weeks after her first session (of three) with Juläine and we’re already starting to see a soft return of fullness and improvement in skin quality.
Juläine is not a traditional filler. It works by stimulating your body’s own collagen production, gradually restoring structure, firmness and elasticity from within.
This is just the beginning. As collagen continues to rebuild over the coming weeks and months, results will become more noticeable with improved support, smoother contours and a natural, refreshed appearance.
The patient is delighted with her progress so far. What do you think?
And this is why HA fillers have never gone out of fashion in our practice!
This lovely patient had all the classic signs of volume loss in her face and there is no other non-surgical treatment that can address this quite as quickly, effectively and non-invasively as HA filler. Of course, it needs to be carefully and sensitively applied.
This patient had a total of 10mls of HA as well as some wrinkle relaxing on the upper face. She is delighted with her restoration. What do you think?
Upper eyelid surgery isn’t just for ageing eyes! Some patients naturally have excess upper eyelid skin from a young age due to their anatomy, like this 29-year-old patient who had a congenital upper eyelid fold and recently underwent an upper blepharoplasty with the ever-talented @bramhallplasticsurgery.
The excess eyelid skin rested directly on her eyelashes, causing irritation and a persistent feeling of heaviness around the eyes which had been bothering her for several years. Upper eyelid surgery can address both functional symptoms and aesthetic concerns, helping patients achieve a lighter, more open eye appearance.
This patient is just 7 weeks after surgery. At this early stage of healing the scars are still maturing and in younger patients this process can take slightly longer. The incision is placed within the natural eyelid crease and as healing progresses the scar typically fades and becomes extremely difficult to see, often blending into the natural eyelid fold.
She`s delighted with the results so far, and we`re grateful to her for allowing us to share her results with you.
What do you think?
Thank you once again to another lovely patient who has allowed us to share her photos with you.
She came to see me wanting a refresh and was open to suggestions, surgical and non-surgical. Her biggest concern however was wrinkles and lines and skin texture problems.
Surgery doesn’t help with this and injectables are limited too - the gold standard here is laser resurfacing, which is what we went with. We did a full field ablation of the full face including her eyelids.
This is her a month or so later. You can see she is still a bit red, especially around the eyes where we went the deepest, but she is already loving life with her new skin.
What do you think?
The non-surgical facelift!
You might have heard us talking a lot recently about combination treatments, using different treatment modalities to create synergy in non-surgical rejuvenation. The reason this works so well is that the different layers of the face age in different ways.
We focus a lot on skin tightening, which is super important, but that’s only the outer layer of the face. Below that the fat, bone and muscle are all changing too.
This lovely lady was relatively new to aesthetics and wanted a more comprehensive rejuvenation without surgery. We decided to do the combination approach using @sofwave.uk to tighten the skin of the face and neck, whilst using HA to restore volume to the fat and bone.
This is her a few months later - her whole face looks tighter, softer, less tired - but in a way that looks completely natural. She is delighted with the result that still looks like her, just a really refreshed version.
What do you think?