The new “new” face- how facelifts and what is considered youthful has changed

Posted on September 27, 2010

I have been blogging ad nauseum about VOLUME.  I almost never do a facelift under the age of 50 anymore, because those women who look “tired,” “older,” yadda yadda almost all need VOLUME. 

When analyzing your face there are two components:

I am a big believer that youthful faces are not hollow and gaunt.  Over time, the world is starting to get it.  I found this article which talked about how celebrities are “out with the gaunt and tight, in with the plump and juicy.”  He discusses how Madonna, Michelle Pfeiffer, Angelina Jolie, and Demi Moore have full cheeks, defined jawlines, and a heartlike shape to the face. “Their faces didn’t seem pulled tight in that typical facelift way; they seemed pushed out.”  (And he also says he doesn’t know who has had work done or not.)

He goes on to discuss how liposuction, the pilates revolution, and good eating have created groups of 40 and 50 year old women who “look better than a 25 year old in a fitted little dress or tight pair of jeans,” but their low fat percentage causes the problem of gauntness.  If you adopt this new “new” face idea, gaunt is not good. 

As we age we lose facial fat.  If you are thin with a low body fat percentage, this will exacerbate the issue.  At age 40 for most of us the root of our face looking older isn’t loose skin.  It is loss of volume.  If you “fixed” it with a facelift, a facelift would make you tight and bony, or it would give you the weird wind tunnel pulled appearance.  So I have shifted my algorithm.  I now add volume first, tighten skin second.

To read the article click below. 

I am into the new “new” face.  I vary from the author a little- I do think you can have too much volume.  I don’t want the “baby and toddler faces.”  I don’t want the overplumped war with a helium tank look.  I am going for that “just right.”  My hope is someone says, “You look 30,” or “You look good for your age,”  not “You look 5. Where is your Fancy Nancy book?”

http://nymag.com/news/features/48948/