Facelifts have had a makeover. Once synonymous with the overdone plastic surgery look of pinched skin and taut ears, today’s facelifts have a new look thanks to advancing techniques and open conversations about cosmetic procedures. And doctors say they are now seeing more patients in their 40s and 50s seeking out the procedure.
“The age when people are starting to show interest [in facelifts] is getting younger,” said Dr. Oren Tepper, director of aesthetic surgery at Montefiore and associate professor of plastic surgery at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. “When I first started 15 years ago, it really was primarily patients in their 60s-plus. And then that threshold moved to the 50s and 40s.”
According to the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, facelift patients are trending younger. The academy’s 2024 survey found that patients aged 35-55 now make up 32% of facelift patients. It also found that 67% of facial plastic surgeons agreed that the average age of facelift patients is likely to trend younger. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons’ 2023 survey found that patients seeking facelifts between the ages of 20-29 and 30-39 both increased by 7% compared to the previous year.
The rise in facelifts at a younger age speaks to the procedure’s ability to deliver the more subtle results many patients crave.
“The No. 1 concern expressed to me by patients is, ‘I don’t want to look like I’ve had plastic surgery, but I also don’t like the way that I’m aging.’ And I think this deep plane facelift surgery really fits this niche perfectly,” said New York City board-certified facial plastic surgeon Dr. Sean Alemi. Alemi said he has seen a rise in patients seeking facial rejuvenation in their 40s and 50s in the past two years.
Heather Spindell was one of those patients. The San Francisco-based nurse sought out a deep plane facelift at age 47 to address sagging neck skin. She felt having the procedure in her 40s rather than her 50s or 60s would give a more natural result and reduce her recovery time.
“I didn’t want to look like I had surgery. It took 20 years off, but I don’t look like I had surgery,” she said. But even with her natural-looking results, Spindell said she has no issues telling people she got them through a facelift.
“I have nothing to hide,” she said. “I do think people are more open and willing now. I think there’s so much talk about it out there that more people are looking into it. There’s less of a stigma.”
The deep plane facelift was first developed in the ’90s by Dr. Sam Hamra, but the technique has increased in popularity in recent years, Dr. Alemi said. Deep plan facelifts involve moving deep layers of facial tissue below the superficial muscular aponeurotic system rather than isolating and pulling up the skin, which resulted in the “taut” look characteristic of obvious facelifts.
“Patients finally feel very comfortable, and they feel destigmatized having plastic surgery,” said Dr. Alemi. “They realize, ‘I can have my cake and eat it too. I can have plastic surgery, but not look plastic.’”
And as many patients face “filler fatigue,” facelifts offer an alternative to natural but noticeable results.
“For a long time, it was like, ‘Oh, I’m turning 50. I want my facelift,’” said Dr. Babak Azizzadeh, board-certified facial plastic surgeon and clinical chief of division of otolaryngology at Cedars-Sinai. “Now, they’re in their early 40s, and maybe for five years, they’ve been getting fillers, and they don’t like the look. And they’re asking me to dissolve their fillers, and to do a deep plane facelift and fat grafting for them.”
Social media and celebrities have also opened the door to more awareness around surgical procedures like facelifts. Michelle Wood went viral on TikTok for showcasing the results of her facelift in Guadalajara in June. Many commenters were shocked by the drastic results of the 50-year-old American woman’s procedure.
“We’ve heard so many examples of celebrities and people in the public eye who have either confirmed or have heavily indicated that they are having these types of procedures done,” said Dr. Alemi. “That has led to more conversations between patients and surgeons about people having plastic surgery.”
In May, Kris Jenner sparked speculation that she had undergone a facelift when she appeared at Lauren Sánchez Bezos’s bachelorette party in Paris with newly-smoothed skin. The 69-year-old confirmed to Page Six that she had undergone aesthetic procedures from New York City surgeon Dr. Steven Levine, but declined to share which treatments. Fans have also speculated if Lindsay Lohan has undergone a facelift in recent months, but the 38-year-old actress told Elle she has been taking care of her skin and drinking juice.
The rising interest in facelifts also shares a common denominator with many beauty and wellness trends: the normalization of GLP-1s.
“All of a sudden you have individuals in their 40s, maybe even 30s, that have lost [weight] or are a little bit more gaunt, and they are actually good candidates for a deep plane facelift,” said Dr. Azizzadeh.
Seeking a facelift at a younger age allows patients to have a less dramatic and hence less detectable result, Dr. Azizzadeh added. And while many TikTok users love to speculate on who did what to their face, many patients want their procedures to go unnoticed.
“With the rise of the more natural, authentic, effortless results that we’re getting, people aren’t walking into rooms asking, ‘Oh my god, who’s your facelift surgeon?’” he said. “Just 10 years ago, I remember we would look at people and we were like, ‘Oh, she got her facelift in New York,’ or, ‘She got her facelift in LA,’ and we knew exactly the surgeon who did it. Those days are gone.”
