What happened to my sideburns after facelift? (Photos)

Facial rejuvenation surgery that involve surgery on the neck and face requires incisions at the anterior portion of the year. This incision can wrap around behind the ear in what way is referred to as the retroareolar area.  The incisions behind the ear are very well disguised especially in women. The incisions in front of the year often require an extension either up into the hairline or up along the side burns. Again these are more easily hidden from view  with the way women wear their hair. For incisions that extend vertically up over the ear, the skin excised will be in the hair bearing  region of the scalp. This may result in the elevation or movement of the sideburns. The benefits are that the scars are nearly imperceptible. A sequella effect can be the movement or alteration of the location of the sideburns.  Alteration of this may be possible by growing hair longer in the sideburn region or with other conservative maneuvers to reclaim this hair bearing area in this region.  Discussions with your plastic surgeon can be helpful and reviewing before and after photographs of patients to review the kinds and types of scars at different time periods in recovery can be helpful in determining whether or not the sideburner movement is the right procedure for you. 

It looks like you have had a significant amount of skin tightening after your facelift.  It appears the surgeon made the incision in front of the ear as well.  In this case, it is likely that your natural sideburn was excised with the excess skin.  However, the sideburn is a continuation of the hair from your temple that extends down to your jawline and beard.  Since it does appear that after your lift, the beard hair follicles are now lifted to the sideburn area of your face, you will likely grow some hair here if you like to wear longer sideburns.  Hopefully this will blend with time and become a seamless, new sideburn.  
Best wishes.

It appears from your photographs that the side burns were lifted up higher and are likely gone at this time and you will have a higher temple hair line. Depending upon the type of incisions used, the hairline especially in the temple area can change. After it is all healed up, one possibility it to transplant those areas with hair from the back of your scalp if your higher hairline bothers you.

 Whether or not your sideburns will return in a normal position depends how much skin was removed during your facelift and where your incisions were placed.  Your surgeon is the best resource for what you can expect.  It looks like you have hair follicles from your beard that will grow in that area. But if all the hair follicles in front of the ear were removed, then hair transplantation can be done to recreate the sideburn. 

The answer depends on the incisional design.  If the incision was carried straight up into the hair bearing temple, some hair bearing skin would have been removed and usually the hairline becomes elevated.  If the incision was placed along the temporal tuft, the hairline is generally stabilized.  It would be best to discuss the type of incision you have had with your Surgeon for clarity. 

There are different ways to treat the area of skin where the side burns are located. It appears as though the skin in which the hair was growing was removed. My advice would be to confirm this with your surgeon. If so, it is unlikely to grow back. Often,we attempt to prevent this by placing the incision at specific locations so we do not have to remove the side burn skin. James Bonaparte

Depending on how the incisions were designed, your sideburns may have been excised.  Growing the hair in this area out will help conceal this issue.  

When we do a facelift the sideburns will be altered - usually elevated superiorly.  If there was little or no hair below the normal sideburn, you may not grow anything back.  I usually have patients grow the sideburn more than normal so we have a better idea of what they will get post-op.  

The best person to answer this question would be your surgeon as he or she knows exactly what was done during your facelift. It appears that the skin with the sideburn was excised but your surgeon will know for certain. 

The location of your sideburns depends upon your plastic surgeon. He may have made an incision that goes in front of your ear and into your hairline, this tends to rotate the sideburn back and up. It looks like from the photos he may have made a high incision on your sideburns, this has the effect of raising them up. If you have a lot of facial hair, you can grow sideburns to cover up the incisions. I tend to make a low sideburn incision for this exact complaint. Most people do not want their sideburns moved or shortened and a potentially slightly visible scar is a good tradeoff.