Request for a second opinion: Horizontal bands across my neck after facelift and neck lipo, is this normal? (Photos)

Thank you for your question and sharing your photographs.

The swelling and lumpiness in your neck appears to be in the lower part of the pocket of dissection (undermining) that your Surgeon has used to improve the contour of the neck. Most likely, it is driven by the fluid that has collected with gravity, and sometimes it follows the contours of where the drains have been placed.
At this stage, it is common for the contours to show irregularities in particular if there has been some more bruising. There seems to be more significant early bruising on the left side of the jawline and it appears associated with more substantial swelling in the neck.
It is very likely to look great at 3 to 6 months and although the waiting game is difficult for everybody, aggressive intervention at this stage with steroid injections is more likely to be problematic than helpful in particular in someone with relatively soft skin.
There are a number of products that have been shown to reduce the swelling quicker like Arnica Montana cream, and treatments like manual lymphatic drainage or low power laser which is used by physiotherapists.
Even if you do nothing about it the healing process will deal with it at reasonably good rate.

Thank you for your question. At three weeks, it is still possible to have moderate swelling after a facelift (or any surgery for that matter). Remember, our timeline for judging results is several months. I would strongly urge you to stay in contact with your surgeon and have faith in him/her. Remember, they have been through the recovery process hundreds if not thousands of times, and have seen any number of variations in the recovery process.

You can certainly get neck irregularities after surgery which is often the result of immature scar bands. I would agree with your surgeon about massages at this point as these almost always resolve over time. When there are persistent neck irregularities I usually see it occur in people who smoke, otherwise they tend to resolve. Hang in there!