Featured Experts
Dr. Usha Rajagopal, a board-certified plastic surgeon in San Francisco
Dr. Catherine Chang, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, California
Dr. Morgan Rabach, a board-certified dermatologist in New York City
All it takes is a quick scroll through TikTok or one episode of Love Island to realize that twentysomethings today look way older than they really are. It’s not breaking news that Gen Z is more open to cosmetic procedures than previous generations—but getting too much work done before 30 seems to be having the opposite of the intended effect.
“There are so many treatments that young people are doing that are making them look more mature. Beautiful, yes, but older. They don’t understand that the more they do to their faces, the more they’re aging themselves,” says Dr. Usha Rajagopal, a board-certified plastic surgeon in San Francisco.
So which treatments have the potential to add rather than subtract years from your appearance? Here, six popular procedures that can make you look older.
1. Buccal fat removal
Young people naturally have fuller faces and rounder cheeks, says Dr. Rajagopal. (Hence the expression “baby face.”) For the majority of us, the natural volume-and-fat loss that occurs as we age eventually makes the face and cheeks look slimmer; this typically occurs by the late 20s or early 30s, she adds. It’s only people who still have overly prominent and rounded cheeks after this age who are real candidates for buccal fat removal. Taking out that fat before then instantly contributes to an aged appearance. “If you perform buccal fat removal in a 20-year-old, they’ll look 30. By the time they’re 30, they’ll look 40, and so on,” Dr. Rajagopal cautions.
2. Excessive filler
Too much filler, namely in the lips, cheeks, and under-eyes, is aging. “Overfilled lips are usually the quickest giveaway that someone’s had work done too early,” says Dr. Catherine Chang, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, California. “While voluminous, plump lips are a sign of youth, they should have natural movement at the corners and be tailored to the appropriate size, based on other facial features,” she explains. Dr. Morgan Rabach, a board-certified dermatologist in New York City, agrees. “A natural appearance is a youthful appearance. Crazy big lips immediately look unnatural and wind up aging you,” she says.
Too much filler under the eyes and/or in the cheeks can also contribute to an aged appearance. “Our eyes get smaller as we get older because we lose fat behind the eyeball and they start to look sunken in. Anything that makes the eyes appear smaller is going to be aging,” Dr. Rabach explains. Overinjecting filler in either of these two areas can end up pushing up the lower lid and doing exactly that.
3. Microbladed brows
“Most young people have thick brows already, so microblading ends up simply being too overpowering,” says Dr. Rajagopal. For starters, it creates the illusion of the brows being closer together when, naturally, they should have some space between them. It also makes them a uniform color when, naturally, brows are lighter at the start, a bit darker in the middle, and then lighter again at the tip, she notes. A superdark, superthick brow looks overly dramatic, like stage makeup, and that’s very aging, she explains.
4. RF microneedling
This is, more often than not, the wrong choice for younger patients, particularly if it’s performed by someone who’s inexperienced. The depth of the fat in the face isn’t as great as in other areas of the body, so if that radiofrequency penetrates too deep, facial fat can be diminished, often unintentionally, cautions Dr. Chang. Dissolving fat in your face is one of the quickest ways to age yourself, so doing this unnecessarily or performing these treatments without careful thought and precision in younger patients can ultimately be extremely aging, adds Dr. Rajagopal.
5. Too much Botox, too soon
You may have seen young TikTokers claiming that using retinoids will thin your skin. It’s an assertion that Dr. Rabach quickly debunks, noting that while retinoids will thin the top layer of dead cells on the epidermis, they thicken the dermal layer—the part that makes skin appear plump and healthy. But one thing that will make skin appear thinner (and older)? Too much Botox, performed too early and too often, she says: “If you’re using it before you have lines at rest, you’re very likely using it too soon.” Over time and with continued injections, it can end up thinning the muscles. This, in turn, makes the overlying skin appear thinner, almost translucent, and generally older.
Dr. Chang agrees, adding that this is especially common in the forehead. Over-Botoxing the forehead can also cause the brows to droop; this results in the eyelids looking heavy, yet another sign of aging, she notes. And in general, while youthful skin is associated with being line-free, some movement is still natural. A totally frozen face is harsh-looking and aging on anyone—but especially for younger people, she adds.
