If the area under the chin and the anterior platysma muscle is all that needs to be addressed, a short incision just behind the chin crease is all that is needed. Some surgeons may also choose a tiny incision behind each earlobe to help sculpt the fatty tissue beneath the jawline closer to the ears (when needed).
But, if you have loose facial skin, jowls, loose neck skin ("turkey neck") and are a true facelift candidate, then you must have an incision in front of the ear. The rest of the incisions are (should be) totally hidden and therefore not an issue (if properly positioned and performed)! More about that in a bit.
The incision in front of the ear should fall in the normal curving contours of the cheek skin-ear skin interface, and should NOT pull or distort the earlobe. If you have a hanging earlobe before surgery, you should NOT have a "pixie" earlobe after surgery! BTW, the earlobe is totally unsuitable as a structure to which the cheek is attached--the earlobe will pull forward, develop a wide white scar in front of it, and be visible across a room! Bad doctor! (Actually, bad technique!)
Some doctors like to talk about their "hidden" facelift incision in front of the ear; actually, this is just the tiny portion of the incision by the tragus, which is the protruding cartilage bump just in front of the actual ear canal. The incision is made just behind the tragus, and the tightened cheek skin is folded over the tragus and sutured just out of view behind the little bump of cartilage--viola: the "hidden incision. When this is performed perfectly, it preserves the shape of the tragus and does indeed hide this 3/4 inch of the entire front of ear facelift scar. Unfortunately, even with good surgeons, this tiny folded flap of skin loses circulation, dies partially or completely, and then the tragus is pulled forward as scar tissue contracts, blunted or flattened with a widened scar on its edge (losing its nice normal rounded shape), and no longer covers the ear canal, which now looks like a "gun barrel." This ugly deformity is another one visible across a room! I can much more reliably leave the tragus anatomy, position, and normal skin covering alone by avoiding all tension on the earlobe or tragus with deeper sutures that secure the SMAS (Superficial Musculo-Aponeurotic System) to the temporal fascia (just behind the temple in the hair-bearing scalp), and the mastoid fascia just behind the earlobe. That way the skin edges "kiss" gently together without tension and with a nearly invisible scar when fully healed, leaving all of the natural facial landmarks in their normal, natural positions (earlobe and tragus), with hidden scars, and without tell-tale signs of having had a facelift!
As for the scars in the hair (both in front and behind the ear), as long as the incisions carefully preserve the hair follicles,and are accurately approximated with fine, long-acting dissolvable sutures, normal hair growth is preserved and a hairline scar is hidden between the adjacent hair follicles. The behind-the-ear scalp line must be carefully preserved so there is not a notch in the normal hairline that is another of the across-the-room giveaways. and should be positioned HIGH behind the ear so that it crosses the bare area where it is covered (hidden) by the upper part of the pinna, NOT behind the earlobe over the mastoid and along the hairline. This scar is often explained to prospective patients as "necessary" in order to remove the excess neck skin. What it really does is to leave more "across-the-room" OMG scars. This, I assume, is why you are even asking the question--you have seen examples of this incision placement and the resultant ugly and visible scars, and don't want this yourself. You are correct, since the short anatomy and technique lesson I have tried to describe can be performed by any plastic surgeon who CHOOSES to utilize this slightly more judicious incision placement and a two-layer skin closure that takes all tension off the skin surface, A fine, nearly imperceptible scar results in the vast majority of patients.
Then, you only need the rest of the lower facelift/necklift to be performed to the same higher standard--not fastest, but truly the best!