Fay Bound-Alberti

Looksmaxxing isn’t just an incel aesthetic but a sign of a deeper cultural problem. My latest for Time magazine on men, mewing and mirrors. /article/2026/05/02/face-value-why-looksmaxxing-is-more-than-hope-and-mirrors/

Chiharu Shiota’s Threads of Life at the Hayward. If you haven’t yet seen it, you have until Sunday. Beautiful, disturbing and echoic of the multiple threads that weave places, people, memories and emotions together.

Firenze

Is loneliness a uniquely modern emotion? Through her research, historian Fay Bound-Alberti explores what it means to be human in the past and present. She reflects on how the idea of loneliness has been shaped by the economic and social pressures of the modern world. Head to @thebritishacademy to discover more from their Age of Self season, exploring how belonging and connection are being reshaped today.

Nothing like an early start at Broadcasting House. I enjoyed talking to Mary, Tom and @michael.pollan about consciousness, identity, and the self this morning. “Start the week” is one of the few radio shows where you can have an in-depth conversation about such things - and yet, there was only time to skim the surface. If you missed it, you can catch up at 9pm tonight or follow this link: /programmes/m002sn8h @bbcradio4

Fabulous to see The Face out in the wild and keeping such good company! At the lovely @booksellercrow in Crystal Palace ❤️

Thanks to everyone who came to my book launch last week - it was such a joy to have a celebratory event focusing on the collaborators and colleagues and friends and family who have made the last few years of work possible. I’m sorry that many of my international collaborators - surgeons, patients, ethicists, psychologists - weren’t able to join, but a glass was raised to you. A huge shout out to the UKRI for funding my research through a Future Leaders Fellowship, though the book The Face: A Cultural History builds on decades of thinking about our minds and bodies and what it all means. Thanks to @penguinrandomhouse and @hachetteus for being fantastic publishers, to my agent @albioneye , and to the reviewers at the Sunday Times, the Financial Times, the New Statesman, and The Telegraph who have engaged so positively with the book and what it is about. So far the book has achieved what I wanted it to achieve: that is, a timely and important conversation about the face and why it matters more than ever - when we have never worried so much about our appearance, or had so many technologies to change it. From mirrors to cosmetics, from fetal scanning to deep fakes, from chin tucks to face transplants, this is a book about how the most intimate yet public part of ourselves has become so linked to our sense of self, and our social value. With thanks to @alastairhilton for lovely photos and @bookbaruk Chelsea for a fantastic venue. We will all be back!

Thank you @fayboundalberti for a great article on male beauty standards and the historical context, it was a pleasure to contribute. I have seen a rise in male patients in my practice in the age range of 40+ who just want to feel their best but driving them to take action could be multi faceted. Much like female beauty standards, trends are a red flag and to be treated with caution, natural rejuvenation and restoring a person’s own contours is the goal over complete transformation. In my practice, my male patients still want to look like themselves - just really ‘well’. For anyone with specific interest in faces - @fayboundalberti fascinating work that is relevant in our very visual modern world. #faces #guardian #fayboundalberti #dansaleh

Men’s faces are in the news again - from Pete Hesgeth’s chiseled jaw that conceals flimsier credentials to Trump’s last-gasp hair and the is-he-or-isn’t-he transformation of Jim Carrey. We are witnessing white male neoliberalism at its finest, as I wrote for @guardian in my latest faces piece. Thanks to @dansalehplasticsurgery 🙏 /fashion/2026/mar/05/there-is-no-shame-in-being-vain-the-relentless-rise-of-impossible-male-beauty-standards?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Another fabulous photo from @felicitymccabe to accompany my personal and historical reflections on face blindness (prosopagnosia) in today’s Telegraph magazine! We are used to presuming we will know people by their faces - but what if we do not? And what if the idea that we should is itself a product of history? I do *know* people - just not in the ways you might imagine. And I seem to be in good company… With thanks to Felicity and to @andygreenacre_ and @louisamcg @telegraph

Who is feeding our children while we are making history?” That was Robert Chelsea’s question when asked about being the first African American face transplant recipient. The “why” is important - because it’s where experimental medicine and healthcare inequalities meet. Robert and I talked to the wonderful Annie Kelly @todayinfocuspod @robertlchelsea88 @anniekellyjourno /society/audio/2026/feb/19/the-guinea-pigs-who-had-face-transplant-surgery-podcast And here is Robert’s GoFundMe: /f/robert-chelseas-journey

In the magazine, 28.2.26: I wrote a personal perspective for the Telegraph about my interest in faces. Face blindness isn’t well known and nor is its history. But I am still struck by how often people misunderstand it; people with face blindness do *know* people - just not in the ways we are expected to, - ie by the specific arrangement of their features. And the presumption that we should? That’s historical too - as I explain in my new book, The Face: A Cultural History. Credit and thanks to @felicitymccabe for her beautiful photos and a fun shoot 🙏 What it’s like to be face-blind: ‘I struggled to recognise my own child’ /news/2026/02/22/living-with-face-blindness/