Facelifts were up (pun very much intended) 18% in 2022.

To demystify the operation,Allurehas commissioned aseriesof stories looking at it from every angle.

The short answer is: A lot.

A photo of a woman’s face with bandages around her head oversized sunglasses on and hot pink lipstick against a dark…

Its rare that something is truly a quantum leap because human anatomy is invariable.

It is the way it has been for the last many millennia.

The real marvel of modernfaceliftingmay be the speed at which innovation travels.

In the past, information didnt propagate even from surgeon to surgeon nearly as well, says Dr. Nayak.

Once upon a time, news spread slowly and spottily, typically shared from podiums at yearly medical meetings.

Catch it if you’re free to.

And quite a few somethings have materialized of late, finding their way into oursocial feeds.

These evolutions in facelifting are yielding next-level results and making the experience more palatable for patients.

At 47, Im firmly in Facelift Country.

At 47, Im firmly in Facelift Country.

The more buzzworthy of the two styles is, hands down, the deep plane.

While deep plane facelifts reposition the SMAS from below, SMAS procedures address this layer from above.)

Weve seen the deep plane method catch fire in recent years with certain Insta-famous surgeons supplying the fuel.

(For the record, each of these unique procedures is a version of the deep plane facelift.)

Weve seen the deep plane method catch fire in recent years with certain Insta-famous surgeons supplying the fuel.

In his opinion, good surgeons using good techniques get good results, no matter what technique they use.

(Dr. Rohrich performs a key in of SMAS lift that hes coined thelift-and-fill facelift.)

It can be downright dangerous for a surgeon to attempt a deep plane procedure if theyre not truly proficient.

Redoing some of those has really been a challenge.

(Thats a lot of witnesses.)

Other surgeons say the same.

Bona fide facelift specialists are teaching on the regular and working to advance the surgery.

So, in front of the ears, surgeons stay shallow until they reach a safe SMAS entry point.

The preservation facelift aims to further shrink requisite skin flaps (what doctors call the skin thats lifted).

When less skin is stripped from muscle, more capillaries are spared, which enhances blood flow to speedrecovery.

Dr. Talei has seen less tissue damage, spider veins, and skin darkening after preservation surgery.

Its been a revelation, he says.

The first scientific study on the preservation facelift is currently pending publication.

The endoscopic (a.k.a.

scarless) facelift

Remember those branded facelifts I mentioned?

The ponytail lift may be the most ubiquitous (and bastardized) of the bunch.

FYI, My ponytail lift isnotathread lift, asserts Dr. Kao.

If you have something thats noticeable, you dont look better or younger, you look like a liar.

I can get it to be invisible, he says, but most people prefer to avoid it altogether.

(Doctors Mani and Kao are widely considered to be the countrys leading endoscopic deep plane facelift surgeons.)

To be clear, the endoscopic facelift is not new.

Theyre not just marketing.

Plastic surgery is a form of deception.

If you have something thats noticeable, you dont look better or younger, you look like a liar.

As this procedures approval rating grows so too does evidence supporting its efficacy.

In 2023, Dr. Kao and Dr. Mani published separate peer-reviewedarticlesdetailing their respective endoscopic approaches.

Dr. Kao offers four distinct ponytail operations, each designed to tackle an increasing degree of laxity.

For a long time, he couldnt see how to do it safely without injuring a major facial nerve.

Eventually, inspiration struck as it so often does: I figured it out in the shower.

Hell otherwise perform a regular deep plane facelift with traditional incisions.

However, navigating an endoscopea skill not every surgeon possessescan prolong an already lengthy procedure.

(I follow plastic surgeons the way normal people do celebrities.)

Inevitably, digastric muscles and subplatysmal fat enter the chat.

(Again, my echo chamber, er feed, may look a little different than yours.)

The digastrics are small muscles in the jaw.

And subplatysmal fat is nestled deep in the central neck.

I follow plastic surgeons on social media the way normal people do celebrities.

He does so in almost every neck lift he performs.

For years, though, only a subset of surgeons ventured into the deep neck.

Dr. Nayak says he sculpts the deep neck foundation in probably 95% of neck lifts.

He, for one, isnt surprised by the booming interest in the procedure.

Things that work predictably and reproducibly gain in popularity, he says.

Salivary leaks, which Dr. Elyassnia likens to seromas, can also happen.

While manageable, they can be a nuisance for patients, he says, requiring extra follow-ups.

Some surgeons have raised concerns about dry mouth resulting from submandibular gland reduction, but Drs.

Elyassnia and Nayak insist that when done properly, the procedure shouldnt interfere with healthy salivary flow.

To read more about facelifts:

Now watch Gwenyth Platrow give a tour of her bathroom: