Facelift 8 weeks ago. Left side looks concerning. Very red. It's as if it's stretching the scar. (Photos)

Your incisional scars seem to have widened. While it might affect the final look of the scars and need a scar revision in time, it should not affect the overall results of your face lift. Christian Drehsen, M.D.

Plastic surgery scars require attention after surgery so that they remain cosmetically-appealing and barely noticeable. In our office, we use a protocol for scars that minimizes their activity in the 6-8 weeks after surgery. If you have late plastic surgery scars, you may also require laser and RF therapy to help reduce the longterm effects of the scarring. Keloids, hypertrophic scars, widened scars, red scars, and hyperpigmented scars all require scar modulation with topical creams followed by lasers and RF therapy. Topical skincare should be directed to a specific need, whether for pigmentation or hypertrophy and our office can guide you through the process to obtain the correct Plato’s Scar cream or Melarase cream for hypertrophy and discoloration. In terms of lasers, we would employ the vbeam laser for redness, Venus Viva RF, PRP microneedling, chemical peels, and Morpheus 8, fractional erbium, or fractional co2. All of these have their individual benefits. Most of all, we recommend you visit a solid plastic surgeon who understands surgical scar revision, laser therapy, and RF therapy for scars.

Best,
Dr. Karamanoukian
Realself100 Surgeon

Thank you for your pictures and questions. There is some reddening of the scars and this can be normal in early healing. Follow your surgeon's recommendations on scar management and this will improve with time. There is also some widening of the scar and this is likely due to tension on the incision. This will not improve with time and may even worsen. If you are still not pleased with the results of the scar at one year, you can discuss a scar revision.Hope this helps!

HI, I would not worry too much now. Scars can be quite red during this healing period. It is impossible to say whether you are losing some of the effect of your facelift in terms of tightening, but I see no evidence that you are. Continue to keep in touch with your surgeon. Overall , I think that you are doing well.Best,Dr.Christine Rodgers

At this point, you are very early in your recovery.  Redness is a normal part of recovery. Removal of exposed buried sutures will not detract from your result.  Make sure to follow with your surgeon.

Thank you for your question. Your scars are red which is normal at this point during your recovery process. It can take 3 months for the scars to soften and become less red. It is really a full 9-12 months for the scars to fully mature. As far as the sutures, it is normal for some of the deeper sutures at "spit". This is very common and will not hurt your final result. Hang in there. 

Greetings, the postop anexiety is extremly frequent in plastic surgeries, specially when we notice that somethings goes out of the parameters we think (cause we search trough the web and videos) our outcome will be. The healing process is not the same for everyone, the quality of scaring differs in an outstanding manner from one person to another. Specially among caucasics, healings is not always that good. What we can see is that you haved healed hence the scar is still active (red) when you put pressure with your finger it blanches. This is the image of a broad or wide scar. It´s not hypertrofic or queloid. This means you have to be patient until remodeling of the scar is complete. Sometimes scar creams or gels can help, like kelocote or kitocel. 

and hair will not grow from scar... so focus on healing as there is nothing that can be done at this point in your recovery.  Know that you will not lose the impact of your facelift results (but you will continue to age and wrinkle with time).  You should be able to discuss your concerns with your surgeon so talk to your surgeon and get any reassurances you need from him/her.  And know what the revision policy is so you won't be surprised by costs when the time comes.

Your surgery was 8 weeks ago - you are still early in the healing process, especially as concerns the redness in a scar. If the scar is thickened, or burns/itches, there might be some inflamed thickened collagen (hypertrophic scar) but only your surgeon can tell on direct exam if there is any cause for concern.

mctania,Be patient, it is very early to evaluate the final results of your facelift as you are still in the normal healing process of recovering.  It is unlikely that this will cause you to loose the affect of your facelift.  To alleviate your anxiety, speak to your surgeon about your concerns.  Best of luckDr. Edween