Well, we have held out for another week, even if I suffered a bad hair day during the hurricane last week.

Young men today often shave their heads when their hairline recedes but sadly don't fool us old timers. In my 20s and 30s I had a full head of jet black hair and was sometimes wrongly accused of dying it. However, looking at my Dad I knew what the future held and embrace my challenged hairline and the grey hairs today.

Frankly I think stars that try to still look young with cosmetic surgery are rather sad, but it is nothing new. Stars like John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart and Bing Crosby decided the public would not like to see them without a wig. Terry Wogan had three wigs of different lengths so it would look like his hair was still growing. But oddly, Yul Brynner and Telly Savalas became 'sex symbols ' by shaving their heads.

Times do not change and I struggle to think of big stars willing to appear on screen with receding hairlines or even wearing glasses like many people.

I have to steer clear of commenting on female stars lest I am accused of sexism but my tip is looking like you are in a wind tunnel is not a great look.

I once chatted with a now forgotten Hollywood star who started his career at Elstree Studios. I refer to Ray Milland, who became a leading man in the 1930s in Tinsel Town and won an Oscar. I got to meet him towards the end of his life. Ray recalled his film career began by chance.

"I was hired at Elstree to do some work and the young man cast in a new film broke his leg," he told me. "In panic they replaced him with me and then Paramount spotted me and I was whisked off to Hollywood as sound films were coming in and my voice was acceptable.

"By the late 1940s I was losing my hair so the studios insisted I wore a hairpiece. By the 1970s I decided to show I was bald in a gigantic hit called Love Story and I graduated into old and guest star roles."

I wonder what stars today will admit to wearing wigs or having facelifts to maintain their careers in our now youth-obsessed media. My old Gran used to say they are mutton dressed as lamb.

I once met a big Hollywood female star whose age of course I knew, but her face was wrinkle free with nip and tuck. Alas, her neck and hands made it nonsense. I love people looking their age and who have earned their laughter lines. Youth belongs to the young and let us old timers celebrate. You can imagine I am no longer invited to so-called celebrity events when I greet stars by saying 'your cosmetic surgeon has done a great job', albeit with gritted teeth (which luckily are still my own and show my old age). Until next time, whatever makes you happy as life is short and my prostate requires me to sign off.

  • Paul Welsh MBE is a Borehamwood writer and historian of Elstree Studios