Is It Possible To Do A Facelift Without Having Scar in Front of the Hairline?

The "No Scar Facelift" is an excellent way to avoid noticeable facelift scars. We developed this and many surgeons now use this technique where the scar is made inside the ear so it does not show. Your hairdresser often does not even notice this!

There are a lot of very meticulous sutures placed in a face/neck lift  to give the best incision lines and looking as natural as possible. This takes about 5 hrs to do superior quality work. That is why these assembly line like 1 hour facelifts you see advertised on tv all the time give such poor results. Cost is roughly $8800 on special and so worth it. Sincerely, David Hansen,MD

The location of the scar for any facelift, "mini" or not, will be recommended after examination of the individual patient. Those with more than an inch of extra skin to discard in front of the ear might benefit from an incision that goes along the hairline to avoid shifting the sideburn and temporal hairline up and back. There would be the trade-off having more scar visibility. However, the incision can be made with beveling through the fine temporal hairline hairs, and allowing the hair to grow back through the scar, offering some camouflage. Olive toned skin does not necessarily mean more scar visibility.Having a facelift means accepting scars in front of the ear. A mini facelift only means that there is less laxity of facial skin and tissues, the scar is the same.   When the incision is designed to closely follow the curve of the ear cartilage, then goes inside the ear along the edge of the tragus (the flap of cartilage that covers the ear canal), and then exits below the tragus in a natural crease, going around the earlobe, leaving a few millimeters of facial skin attached, then back behind the ear, the scar should heal and be virtually undetectable at social distances. Avoiding tension on the skin, and replacing the earlobe at the correct, natural angle should result in an appearance that does not say "facelift", but looks natural.

I perform mini facelifts and have also incorporated one great non surgical option, which is the Ulthera treatment to tighten the muscle fascia. Raffy Karamanoukian Los Angeles

 

It is possible to have a facelift without incisions in front of the ears - however the results can have less of an impact in the jawline and jowl region.  I perform a retrotragal (inside the ear) incision that allows for great results while creating a seemingly undetectable scar within a few weeks.  This incision works for all skin types, regardless of ethnic background.

Skin type does matter to some degree when considering a facelift. Incisions can be modified to minimize the resultant scar but there has to be some incision and no surgeon can guarantee absolute perfect healing. Certainly during the early healing stages pulling your hair up and back may be problematic. I think you need to interview surgeons and see their representative results but understand all procedures carry some risk.

There is no one answer to your question that applies to every situation. Facelifting is a 3-dimensional operation that involves both reshaping and some skin lifting, which means scars. Everything involves a trade-off, for example part of the scar can be placed within the hair but that can also displace the hairline upward which looks odd. In general, the scars are placed where they are very inconspicuous.

It is important to understand that many surgeons who only perform mini facelifts have only mini facelifting skills.  They lack an in depth knowledge of facelifting required to tailor a facelift in a way that varies from what they do for every patient.  One of the advantages of having a individualized facelift is custom tailoring  including honoring your preferences for scar placement.

The placement of the incision is very important on a mini-lift or a facelift.  Placement of the incision at the hairline preserves the hair bearing skin.  Placement of the incision behind the hairline will displace the hairline back as much as is tightened during the lift.  Raising the hairline is unacceptable in today's world.  You do not want to look pulled or wind-tunneled.  Removal of the sutures early(day4-5) will prevent most cross-hatching and closure of the skin with  no tension  will usually create a fine line incision that is minimally detectable.  Critically examine the side photos of our facelift patients on our facelift photo gallery

There are some midfacelift procedures that do not involve making an incision in front of the ear, however, these procedures rarely provide enough improvement, and more importantly, when performing properly, the more traditional facelift procedures can have incisions that are truly undetectable in as soon as 4 weeks.