- Gender
- Female
Description
6 weeks post-surgery facelift/neck lift
At six weeks, most visible swelling has resolved and incisions, typically placed along the hairline and around the ear, have largely faded to a thin line, but the deeper tissue layers repositioned during a facelift or neck lift, including the SMAS layer and underlying connective tissue rather than just the skin, are still settling into their final position. That process continues for several months as the tissue heals and any residual swelling in the deeper layers fully resolves. Skin elasticity and firmness also tend to keep improving over that time, since skin continues to adapt and tighten onto the repositioned underlying tissue well past the six-week mark, which is part of why a facelift or neck lift is generally judged on a longer timeline than other procedures. Numbness or tightness around the jawline, ears, or neck is common at this stage and typically continues to improve as nerve sensation returns over the following months, though the pace of that return varies from patient to patient.
Dr. Bellamy has published more than thirty peer-reviewed articles and book chapters in plastic surgery and has said that direct, ongoing communication with patients from consultation through recovery is central to how he practices. For a procedure with a staged healing timeline like this one, that means setting expectations up front for what's already visible at six weeks versus what's still to come over the following months, since patients who don't know to expect continued softening can sometimes misread an in-progress result as a disappointing final one. Facelift and neck lift are frequently evaluated together rather than separately, since changes in the lower face and neck tend to progress together and addressing only one can leave the other looking out of proportion with the rest of the result. More on how the two are typically assessed together is on the facelift page.
