Mini Lift: Stories

I had a mini facelift and my doctor cut into my scalp, in my hairline, behind the ears. It looks to me like you got a full lift?

I want to have a mini facelift and necklift. I was thinking of going to a facial plastic surgeon because all they do is work on the face. I was going to go with Dr. Gross in Lake Mary so I'm wondering if that is who your doctor was.

I am going in for revision for my ears after facelift, and thankfully no keloid scarring or drain scars, however the photo you have labelled as pixie ear and bubble I think mine are much worse, and my PS says mine are not pixie ear. I have posted photos of mine in "ear deformity after facelift" questions if you would like to view and see responses I have recieved. I will post revised photos at the end of March. All the best to you in your future revision/healing

Hi Toe Tapper, I am so sorry to hear of your hair loss. I rarely bother to sign on to my account here (I can never remember passwords!), but I went through the trouble after reading your experience. My hair has fallen out each time I've undergone surgery. The first time I experienced this was 2005, my senior year of highschool, when I needed brain surgery. At first I thought my hairloss was due to stress. That was until I had a minor dental procedure (not stressful at all) and again my hair began falling out, however not as bad. This past August, I had a sinus surgery, three months later my hair is coming out in handfuls! Since I pretty much ruled out stress as common factor, I began researching the effects of anesthesia, which had been used in all three surgies, on hair and found this “Systemic anesthesia has a profound effect on the body. As you would expect, it pushes the individual into a state of unconsciousness and relaxes muscles. Anesthesia also affects hair follicles. Hair follicles contain cells that are some of the fastest dividing and developing cells of the body. They have to divide fast to maintain the growth of hair fiber. Anesthesia blocks this rapid cell division. While the application of anesthesia to an individual may only be for a few hours, the hair follicles may be affected to such a degree that they shut down hair fiber production and enter a telogen resting state. A telogen effluvium type of hair loss is the result.” {Source: Desai SP, Roaf ER. Telogen effluvium after anesthesia and surgery. Anesth Analg. 1984 Jan;63(1):83-4.} This really helped me understand what likely happened.For me, especially since I've reacted badly to anesthesia in the past, there seems to be a pretty obvious correlation to my hair loss. Even though I dont think stress was the root cause of my problem, stress can compound the problem, so the best thing for you to do is not dwell on it as much as possible. I never went completely bald and if its TE it will grow back. This may or may not be related to your hair loss, but hopefully this provided you with some insight, if not the comfort of knowing you are not the only one watching their hair fall out post-surgery.

It has been five months and still healing.
The Kenolog shot has helped may get more in a month.
But hair is falling out. My ears will never be the same. The scars on my neck are getting better from lazer treatments. But mentally I am a mess. It feels so strange to have to hide my ears I have not put my hair back in public since the surgery.

I'm so sorry to hear about all the healing issues you've had, ToeTapper. I didn't know a Mini Lift left scars in front of the ears! Are you still healing or do you have your final results?