Why Do Celebrity Facelifts Look So Bad?

You only see bad bad plastic surgery. There are plenty of celebrities who have had plastic surgery and you will never hear about who their doctor is, because they quietly get their work done and don't publicize it. They just look great for their age.
Many well publicized cases of plastic surgery gone wrong are the result of silicone face and lip injections performed by dermatologists or unscrupulous practitioners.
Celebrities in the limelight live under tremendous pressure to be beautiful and thin. They will literally do anything to maintain the spotlight. Plastic surgery is a mainstay of many of their programs. Hopefully they will choose an ethical surgeon who doesn't prey on their insecurities and tells them no when it is appropriate.
Los Angeles in general and Beverly Hills specifically area is a big area and there are many good plastic surgeons who quietly do their work on celebrities and you will never know it is happening.

The most important thing to recognize is you only notice the facelifts that look bad. Plenty of celebrities and non-celebrities have facelifts and even some of their close friends and family are unable to tell. There are some patients who simply go too far and multiple procedures that are unnecessary can give an unnatural appearance - this is especially easy for celebrities who have nearly unlimited budgets. Finally, just because a celebrity goes to a certain doctor does not mean that doctor has any more skills or experience than less well-known surgeons. In fact, in some cases, these doctors might not even have the basic credentials expected of a physician in their specialty.
In summary, there are a number of different factors that may contribute to noticeable plastic surgery in celebrities. Be sure to find a surgeon that you trust and can show legitimate before and after results.
All the best,

Although we might assume that all celebrities are wealthy and can hire the best facial plastic surgeons when they are seeking solutions to aging, that is not always the case. First, not all celebrities are wealthy. Second, even wealthy people sometime shops for “bargains.” However, when it comes to facial plastic surgery, price should never be the primary or even secondary consideration. The cost of a bad facelift is higher than just the embarrassment of having that “wind-swept” look you refer to. Patients who are unhappy with their initial surgery often need to purchase revision surgery, which of course obliterates the “savings” from the prior procedure and still may not result in a natural look.

I believe many celebrities look poor secondary to having to many aggressive surgeries.  Many Times, they will have 2-4 facelifts.  

Whether you are a celebrity or a layperson, take the time and energy to interview several board-certified facial plastic surgeons who have training in facial aesthetics and choose the one you believe will give you the best results. The time you expend on finding the right person to perform this complicated and potentially life-changing procedure is the greatest “bargain” you can find

The truth is the good ones look very natural and you can't even tell any lifting was done.  Bad ones get all the bad attention.  Good plastic surgery is "invisible".

This is a question I get asked out a lot. I do point out that you are only noticing the bad results and that very many celebrities, actresses and models have had a stick surgery that goes unnoticed. The type of results you are talking about usually occurs after either poorly performed surgery in patients who continue to push for more and more change, leading to multiple procedures. Whilst these celebrities may have sizeable disposable income is and can afford 'the best', most of the mistakes made in plastic surgery occur before entering the operating room. Celebrity status and significant wealth are no guarantees of sound judgement.

A well-performed facelift will notresult in a “pulled look”. There are many celebrities who have had faceliftwith youthful and natural results. The bad one are so obvious that become a hottopic and joke for media. Things can go wrong once there is a miscommunicationbetween the doctor and the patient. Expectation are not properly addressed orchecked. Some of the facelift surgeons apply too much tension and impropervector on their muscle tightening sutures resulting in pulled look. I apply agradual tension during my muscle (SMAS) tightening. At the temple region I onlyapply about 20% tension to the muscle, and as I descend toward the mandible andthe jawlines tension on the muscle reaches 100%. Neck requires much highertension, depending on the amount of laxity. In 2011, I published my uniquefacial tightening technique in the AJCS evaluating 1500 of my patient’s results.
Please look at the before and afterpictures of your doctor, that is a good indicator of how they perform theirsurgeries. Be aware of the surgeons who give you a menu list of things that youactually don’t need and those extra suggestions may lead to artificial look.

There are certainly some celebrities that look weird after plastic surgery.  But there are many more who have undergone surgery and you can't tell because it looks natural.  I think some celebrities go overboard and have too many procedures and too much injectables such as Botox and fillers.  If you select the right surgeon, you can expect a great result that will look natural.

Best to consult with a board certified plastic surgeon.  You should discus your expectations with him/her.   You will therefore have the best chance of getting the result you desire.

It is a very interesting phenomenon that some of the world’s most famous celebrities have the worst facelift results. It is indeed tragic and does not bode well for plastic surgery. Good plastic surgery is one of subtle finesse and will help refine someone’s youth as well as to maintain their own unique facial beauty and not create “distortion”. I see this in secondary facelift patients in which they have lost their identity which is tragic. In good plastic surgery, we shouldn’t even notice that it was done. We should just see that the patient looks much better or more youthful. After all, as Board Certified Plastic Surgeons, we are into “facial protection” and not the “witness protection” program in restoring facial rejuvenation. The goal is to find an experienced plastic surgeon that will give you an optimal result without changing your looks entirely and help you look as good as you feel. This is also valid when using facial fillers and Botox where we often see people that look distorted due to overly done faces, cheeks, and lips.

What you are seeing are the worst of the worst results. These results are a combination of what the surgeon sees as an acceptable outcome to a facelift and what the client/patient has asked that surgeon to produce. Both parties should probably take a step back and have a good look at the outcomes.
Although there are many talented surgeons performing facelift surgery with beautiful results, there are many who have marketed themselves to such a degree that they have created a perception and buzz that is often times undeserved.
Celebrities are like the rest of us when it comes to their health care. They rely on word of mouth, only on a much more grand scale. They would not think of going to doctor #2 when doctor #1 did so and so's facelift, even if they have never seen the results. Do your own homework.