Sienna takes a shine to the ‘Croydon facelift’

The fashion world is loving the artistic top-knot modelled by Sienna Miller on the cover of the new US Vogue.

According to the magazine, many hours of preparation and debate went into this coiffure: "A bad bobbed wig is tried and discarded. A chignon is deemed too ladylike. Only when [power hair stylist du jour] Didier Malige scrapes her [Sienna's] hair back into a vertical ponytail, cockatoo-style, does everybody nod seriously in agreement."

A fabulous tonsorial trend was born. But it seems to have escaped the fashion world's attention that this stunning new 'look' has been around for a while in the guise of the notorious 'Croydon facelift'. A term coined several years ago - around the time people started talking about 'chavs' and council estate chic - the hairstyle is also known as the 'Essex facelift'.

Vogue’s scraped-back hair-do was born on the council estate, says viv groskop

It consists of pulling the hair so tightly back that the features of the face are pulled taut. In severe cases it can cause the hairline to fall out.

Usually modelled by so-called 'pramface' types (harassed teenage mothers who wield their buggies with a fixed, aggressive expression), its most famous fans are Little Britain's Vicky Pollard and Catherine Tate's 'bovvered' teenager Lauren.

Both Victoria Beckham and Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Tweedy have also been ribbed about betraying their 'chav' roots by sporting Croydon facelifts.

Sadly, this reference appears to be lost on Planet Fashion where the scraped-back hair-do is popping up in ad campaigns for Valentino, Jimmy Choo and Aquascutum. In some cases the effect is so severe that the models' eyebrows appear half-way up their foreheads. Vicky Pollard must be loving it.