The Neck is the Key to a Great Facelift

These are dramatic times for the baby-boomer and their quest for graceful aging. As a group, we have become quite accustomed to looking good and stealing the limelight while we still can. Whether we are on film, aging rockers, or in charge at the office, as a group we just refuse to give up and insist on being as timeless as the music and culture we created.

With sluggish jowls, and loss of the cheek volume, a ‘soft lift’ is great in our late forties and early fifties, to refresh and smooth. The ‘soft lift’ keeps vitality and youth in the cheeks and chin. In our later fifties, bigger problems can emerge, and for some the focus is no longer up front and center. Though we still might call it a facelift, the neck is likely to cause the most distress. Turtlenecks and scarves are not the answer.

It seems that the key to a great facelift is actually in the neck, as the visual focus shifts to the chin and below. Certainly by age sixty, the neck is ‘the’ issue for perhaps half of all looking into a facelift procedure. We could of course call it a neck lift, but a smooth transition into the cheek and upper face is also a must, if we are to get from good to great. But if the neck is right, the rest will follow. We get there with a combination of techniques, reduction and contouring of the fat within the neck and chin, tightening the bands within the neck from below, and lifting the neck upward supported by its own special muscle below, the platysma, or SMAS as it is often called. The healing can be a bit longer, but the efforts are well rewarded.

So for you baby boomers out there, go ahead and stick your necks out, and as Bob Dylan said, may you be ‘forever young’.