"I feel bad about my neck. Truly I do. If you saw my neck you might feel bad about it too."

Modern methods are offering more ways to achieve timeless necklines.

Those are the opening lines of award-winning author Nora Ephron's little book about aging, "I Feel Bad About My Neck."

So many women and men can relate. We can freeze-frame the face with Botox, but the neck will undermine our efforts to look tighter, younger, fresher.

"With some women the face looks OK, but the neck makes them look older, especially if there is sun damage or they lost a lot of weight," explains Dr. Simona Paulter, a board-certified plastic surgeon.

"There is a general idea that you can look great with a quick mini-lift, and that is true if the neck is still firm, but if it is wrinkled up it won't look good."

"All face-lifts to some degree offer a neck lift. It's part of the operation," says Dr. Guy Stofman, chief of plastic surgery at UPMC Mercy. "In general, the neck can be a very unforgiving area, and that is why there are so many techniques to address the laxity or turkey gobble people don't like."

It is important to know that no matter how tight it looks or feels after surgery there will be some relaxation.

As far as an ideal age for a neck tweak, that depends on the reason for the laxity. "It could be a 40-year-old with her mother's chin or a 30-year-old who lost a lot of weight or a 70-year-old who wants to look 60," Dr. Staufman said. "We have a lot of different techniques at our disposal today and some less-invasive operations that can make a big difference in someone's appearance at a much younger age."