Tightness of facelift results controllable?

To a certain extent, the tightness that the face skin is pulled is variable and a surgeon can pull "tighter" if desired. Best of luck.

Facelift operation involves a few critical decisions and those will determine whether one achieves a great result or just "natural" result. How much to tighten the SMAS and or platysma and which direction to do it in will make the skin resection much easier and obtain a great result.

The "wind tunnel" look with facelifts is a result of doing primarily a "skin tightening" procedure on a face that has a lot of deeper sagging tissue to lift and support.By doing a deeper surgical dissection and lift (a "deep plane" facelift), a much greater amount of lifting can be done, and therefore a more significant change/rejuvenation can be achieved, while maintaining little tension on the skin -- and therefore maintaining a very natural, un-stretched look.Up to a certain point (usually around age 45 -- although excessive sagging occurs at different ages due to genetics and lifestyle) a minimalist, "mini" or skin-tightening procedure can produce a very natural change, since there isn't that much to change in the first place.However, past the age of 45, the deeper structures of the face (fat, muscles, fascia, glands) are sagging significantly as well as the skin. If a surgeon tries to elevate and support all this deeper weight by just tugging on the superficial skin, then that weight pulling down and the surgery pulling up will create a lot of tension which starts looking unnatural. When the deeper structures are released from their underlying attachments, elevated and supported independently of the skin, then the skin can be elevated and repositioned with very little tension.A word of caution with deep-plane facelifts: A similar result can be achieved just by using multiple (not just one or two) sutures, placed into the SMAS (not just the subcutaneous fat), in front of and in back of the ear, that simply pull on the deeper structures. This "snagging and pulling" of the deeper stuff takes tension off the skin as well and simulates, for a shorter amount of time, the results achieved with a deep-plane facelift. However, this type of lift will last only 6 or 7 years vs a TRUE deep plane facelift, which will last 10 to 12 years. A TRUE deep plane facelift doesn't just snag the deeper stuff and hoist it up and anchor it. ATRUE deep plane facelift will actually dissect EXTENSIVELY UNDER all this deeper stuff (fat, muscles, facia), then will elevate and support all this stuff while it heals/fuses down over a LARGE area, thus significantly stabilizing it for the long term. Ask your surgeon which technique he/she uses. If it only takes your surgeon only 1 to 2 hours to complete their facelift, you already know the answer: They are doing a minimalist superficial surgery that not only won't look much better than before their surgery, but it won't last very long either.