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Our faces are perhaps the most important part of our identities. They represent who we are physically to everyone who comes into contact with us. Simply put, people remember faces.
However, faces are the part of our bodies that are most susceptible to change as we age. Our faces will naturally lose the tight skin, defined lines, and smoothness that we once knew. When this happens, our identity as we have known it for years can change right before our eyes.
What’s worse, it’s almost impossible to exercise our faces. If our arms start becoming flabby, we can work out and focus on tightening the skin and gaining muscle. But there’s simply no way to gain muscle in our face or work off excess skin. Our faces simply age and we’re left to deal with it.
If you’re reading this, you obviously know this isn’t 100% true. With modern medical procedures like facelifts, we can regain our once-youthful appearance in a matter of hours.
The thing is, a recent study has proven that the benefits of facelift procedures extend beyond the obvious physical improvements. In fact, facelifts can actually change how we interact socially with others and how they view us, both professionally and personally. Keep reading to better understand how the newly discovered additional benefits of facelifts can truly improve your life!
What is a Facelift?
A facelift is a cosmetic procedure that seeks to create a more youthful-looking face. Facelifts are so popular that over 120,000 Americans have the procedure every year. In fact, it is one of the most popular cosmetic procedures performed in the United States among both men and women. When properly performed, a facelift will:
- Tighten skin around the jawline.
- Eliminate creases in the nose and mouth.
- Remove sagging and excess skin or fat on the neck.
- Tighten the skin around the chin.
- Tighten facial tissue under the skin.
- Smooth out skin in the cheeks.
- Eliminate skin elasticity.
Overall, a facelift seeks to rejuvenate the face while keeping a natural and healthy appearance.
How is a Facelift Performed?
Facelift procedures generally take between two and five hours to complete, depending on the patient. It is an outpatient procedure, so no hospital stay is required. Small incisions are made in strategically hidden areas throughout the face that allow the surgeon to gently stretch back the skin and remove any excess.
Your plastic surgeon will sit down and walk you through the entire process; while it may sound scary at first, it is a tried and tested procedure that thousands of Americans have been enjoying for decades. Generally, the procedure demands around two weeks for a full recovery.
Physical Appearance
The most obvious benefit of having a facelift is an improvement in your physical appearance. Your face is the most important part of who you are. If you think about it, your face actually defines you as an individual in many ways.
As we age, our face — and thus our identity — changes. While everyone ages at different rates, no one looks young forever. It’s only natural to suffer from wrinkles, sagging skin, and droopy eyes. Thankfully, a simple facelift can restore your face to a more youthful appearance and help you look as young as you truly feel.
Here are some of the major benefits of having a facelift procedure:
Youthful Appearance: Plastic surgeons who specialize in facelifts are able to make your skin look younger, more rejuvenated, and healthier. After the surgery, your skin will look like it did when you were in your twenties!
Face Contours: Studies show that people generally rate individuals with distinct facial contours as more attractive than their peers. Defined jawlines without excess skin and smooth eyelids and cheeks are all objective signs of beauty. But these facial features are hard to maintain as we age. Thankfully, your face’s natural contours that you had in the past can be brought back out again with a simple facelift.
How You Feel: Ever look in the mirror and ask yourself, “When did I get so old?” It’s okay, we’ve all been there. Growing old doesn’t just change our skin; it changes the way we feel as well. Once we start to realize our skin is changing and we begin to feel older, others will notice as well. This naturally causes us to be concerned about our appearance and lose confidence in ourselves. Thankfully, facelifts have been proven to improve how patients feel as well as look. A facelift will increase:
Self-esteem and Confidence: Nothing boosts your confidence like knowing you look good. Disagree? Then why do we dress up for job interviews, weddings, and work? We want to express to the outside world that we are energetic, confident, and ready to lead by looking our best whenever we can. If it’s so accepted to improve our clothing to boost our confidence, why can’t we improve our skin as well?
Well, with a facelift, you can! It’s common knowledge that once patients see the results of their facelifts, their confidence gets an immediate boost. That old person you saw earlier in the mirror is gone; now you recognize that young and energetic person staring back at you.
Whether you want to start meeting new people again, call that old high school fling, or try for that new promotion, a facelift will give you the confidence you need to try new things in life and succeed.
Career Success: We live in a world where the confident succeed and the not-so-confident fail. Confident people are leaders, risk-takers, and game changers because they believe in themselves and are comfortable with the way they look and feel . Honestly ask yourself, have you ever seen an overweight politician? Most are attractive and healthy-looking, which helps them command respect and earn admiration. On the other hand, people who are unsure of themselves or wary of how others view them rarely jump at a chance to be in the spotlight.
After your facelift has you looking and feeling better than before, you can use that newfound confidence to propel yourself and your career to new heights. While you’re up in front of the office pitching your new idea, you can focus on your presentation and not on the way you look. You’ll know that everyone in the audience is wondering how you kept your skin looking so good for so long instead of staring at your double chin. If only they knew!
How Others View You – A New Study
As hard as it is to admit, people do judge us based on our looks. The older we look, the less capable and competent people think we are. Wrinkles and saggy skin are a loudspeaker, announcing our age to the world. The older we look, the more it causes others to think that we don’t have the same energy that we once did — but this isn’t the case!
Those who have facelifts understandably wonder what others think of them compared to before. Do they think we look healthier? Younger? More energetic? Perhaps not surprisingly, this information is extremely hard to come by; not many people have the courage to tell you they think you look worse than before or that perhaps they never noticed you before the procedure anyway. Thankfully, this mystery has now been solved.
In April 2017, the Journal of the American Medical Association conducted a study seeking the answer to this very question, and their results were stunning. The study sought to determine if facelift procedures affected rates of attractiveness, success, health, and perceived age in random observers. Here’s how the study took place.
The Study: The surveyors took photographs of twelve different white females before and after their facelift procedures, making a total of 24 photos. The surveyors then randomly took six pre-op and six post-op photos of the twelve females.
They then showed these twelve photos to a group of 504 people: 165 men, 333 women, and 6 of unknown gender between the ages of 18 and 70. These 504 people were then asked to grade the perceived age, attractiveness, success, and health of each person in the photo.
Results: Across the board, the photos of the women taken after their facelift procedures were found to look younger, healthier, more attractive, and more successful. In fact, the average age of a post-facelift photo was estimated at 4.6 years younger than the pre-facelift photo. The study concluded that the random observer views a person more positively after their facelift procedure based solely on their looks.
What This Tells Us: This study tells us what former facelift patients already knew, but up until now could not prove: that facelift procedures make people look younger, healthier, more successful, and more attractive to the average person. Besides the physical and personal benefits, facelifts provide social benefits as well.
The Benefits of Facelift Procedures Go Beyond Physical Appearance
A facelift procedure will make you feel better about yourself, but with good reason! You feel more confident because you can tell that those around you perceive you as healthy, young, attractive, and successful.
Even if you do not feel more confident after your procedure, others will still be impressed by your youthful appearance. In the study, the participants based their observations solely on photos. Now imagine if that photo was accompanied by your newfound confidence.
After a facelift, you will stand taller, speak more clearly, and be more confident in your endeavors. Add to that the objectively proven benefits that a facelift will have on your appearance, and you have unlimited potential for newfound success and new relationships.
What This Means for the Future of Plastic Surgery
Society has increasingly begun to accept that plastic surgery provides benefits beyond merely physical changes. Some say that in the past, it was frowned upon to admit that we wanted plastic surgery so that others would think more highly of us. Those who wanted plastic surgery had to explain how they personally wanted to feel better and didn’t care what others thought.
But this is beginning to change, and the new study by JAMA cements the new wave of thinking. The evidence is there: attractive people are more successful in their careers, social life, and dating; in fact, attractive people are also more likely to be found not guilty at trial. The benefits of looking young and healthy are explored more and more every day.
Plastic surgeons are beginning to understand that their craft goes beyond physical appearance and ultimately changes people’s subconscious views of their patients. These thoughts aren’t solely limited to attractiveness, but encompass success and health as well. Their patients will actually achieve better outcomes in life because of the plastic surgeon’s work, and that is something that should be acknowledged and respected by the profession.
It’s Okay to Admit You Want to Change How Others Perceive You
It is as simple as that. If you want plastic surgery because you want people to think you’re younger, healthier, and more attractive overall, call a plastic surgeon today. The results of plastic surgery are no longer measured solely by the physical results of the procedure, and the motivations shouldn’t be either. It’s okay to recognize the subconscious results that plastic surgery will have on those around you. The truth is, whether or not you want people to think you’re younger, more attractive, and more successful, they’re going to, after a facelift.
Thanks to the recent study by JAMA, it’s been proven what many former facelift patients already knew: in addition to helping you look younger and feel better, a facelift will cause others to subconsciously believe you are healthy, attractive, and successful. The benefits of a facelift go well beyond the merely physical alterations and can have a deeper, meaningful impact on your life.
However, deciding to undergo a facelift is still a life-changing decision that should be given serious thought. This is especially true now that we know a facelift can improve our lives beyond simply helping us look younger. If you’re debating making the change to improve your life and how others view you, contact a plastic surgeon today to discuss your options.
