Nose jobs, breast augmentations, liposuction—plenty of Plastic Surgery procedures exist purely to enhance the human form. Often the objective is not to reconstruct or crank back the clock, but simply to beautify by amending the raw materials. Then there’s the facelift, which has been forever and firmly regarded as a rejuvenation operation—a sort of last resort, reserved for those struggling to identify with aging reflections. But lately, with celebrity glow-ups spurring constant speculation and the virtues of the deep plane facelift going viral, some surgeons are reporting a shift in the way the public views the veteran procedure. For a new wave of patients, the goal of a face lift is not to reclaim a former face, but to design a face that’s more beautiful than any previous iteration. Beyond merely repositioning tissues, this version of the facelift fine-tunes features, creates symmetry where it’s lacking, and softens transitions (from chin to jaw, for example) to enhance proportion and shape.

It’s a concept that resonates across generations, whetting appetites and driving demand.

Since “beautification facelift” isn’t exactly a textbook term, every surgeon has a different take on it. And the line between rejuvenation and beautification can be a bit blurry, given that the former often contributes to the latter. That said, the beautification lift is not a preventative procedure. Nor is it a euphemism for the earlier-than-ever facelift. While it is true that people are seeking facelifts at younger ages—roughly one third of facelift patients are between 35 and 55, according to a recent report from the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery—responsible surgeons don’t perform facelifts prophylactically. To get your face in the door, so to speak, you must have something to treat—even if it’s just early laxity, a hint of a jowl, burgeoning neck bands, bothersome nasolabial folds, or a genetically blunted jawline.

Anecdotally, surgeons find that patients who have facelifts earlier in life, when their tissues are robust, often enjoy better , more durable results and a faster recovery than their older counterparts. They seem to age at a slower rate, too (though they might wind up getting another facelift in the future).

The beautification facelift, defined. Let’s start with the basics: A facelift classically takes aim at the lower face and neck to deliver, above all, a crisp jawline and smooth, contoured neck while removing excess skin through incisions around the ears. Modern facelift surgeons lift in a mostly vertical direction to counteract the effects of gravity and time. Addressing the upper face requires a separate procedure, a brow lift, which is commonly done alongside a facelift, in order to avoid an aesthetic mismatch.

So too is judicious fat transfer: By carefully distributing miniscule amounts of fat throughout the face, surgeons can replace lost volume, obscure temple and under-eye hollows, and soften transitions—between the lower lids and the cheeks, say, or the chin and the jawline—lending a more seamless finish to the face.

Behind the rise of the beautification lift. Surgical advancements have, no doubt, contributed to the facelift’s rebrand by creating the supernatural, next-level results we see in Hollywood and on social media. And this helps to normalize the facelift, fueling greater interest across age groups.

But there’s another influential force at work here: Over the past few years, surgeons have witnessed GLP-1 medications, like ozempic.

Criticism and controversy. Ethical doctors say, No, when a treatment isn’t warranted—or if a patient has health issues, unrealistic expectations, or shows signs of body dysmorphia.

The bottom line. Beautification by facelift: Revolutionary or not, this phenomenon is giving the centenarian operation new life. While some argue that beauty is akin to rejuvenation, others maintain that beauty is distinct from youth, and that achieving it often requires more than putting fallen tissues back where they belong. It means adding color and brightness to the canvas of the face, without rendering any part exaggerated or unrecognizable, in order to cultivate a harmonious outcome ("quiet face lift"). Of course, it takes a skilled surgeon, with a keen eye, to literally create beauty by performing a curated assortment of procedures, centered around a facelift. And every doctor has a different concept of beauty, shaped by their culture, upbringing, and taste. For a look that’s true to them, patients must find a surgeon whose vision aligns with their own.

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