Facelift Scars

This is an example of the scars after a facelift procedure

Note that the most visible aspect of the scar is always in front of the ear. You can see this as a fine red line. The redness will fade with time, leaving only a fine white line which will be even less visible. It's important to note that scarring is variable from patient to patient.

Tension is bad for scarring. This puts the plastic surgeon in a position where they need tension to create the lift, but the places where tension (pull) is placed will scar with less fine scars. Here are the strategies that plastic surgeons employ to minimize this problem:

Strategy One

Distribute tension across many layers. A big part of the procedure is the tension placed on the muscle layer. The muscle layer does not scar on the outside, and the lift obtained from that will not contribute to scarring during a facelift.

Strategy Two

When pulling skin, the place of tension — even if much more minimal than in the more important muscle layer — is placed in a hidden location. During a minilift procedure, these locations are the hairline and behind the ear, both of which hide scars very well.