Croydon facelift

English

WOTD – 15 September 2015

Etymology

From Croydon, a Borough of London + facelift.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌkɹɔɪdn̩ ˈfeɪslɪft/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

Croydon facelift (plural Croydon facelifts)

1. (British slang, derogatory) A women's hairstyle, associated with lower social classes, in which the hair is pulled tightly back from the face and fastened behind the head, thus pulling the features up and back and giving an effect similar to a facelift.
   • 2010, Charlotte Madison, Dressed to Kill, unnumbered page:

     We climb in, and I plaster my Little House on the Prairie-style cloth hat over my hair so the greasy strands won't get yanked back into a Croydon facelift as I pull on my helmet.

   • 2013, e.c. saunders, Kat Among the Pigeons: A Kat Shakespeare Mystery‎^[1], page 81:

     Everyone stopped drinking to have a look. A girl with a Croydon facelift hairdo and a sequinned tank top began hyperventilating noisily.

   • 2013 July 28, Elizabeth Day, The Observer:

     All of which could explain why, when I had my hair styled in a tight ponytail for the shoot accompanying this feature, most people who saw me thought I looked "unapproachable" (which might simply be a polite way of saying: "You looked like you had a rattail and a Croydon facelift").