Are facelift scars normal out side of the hairline and to have hair cut? Can anything be done to ensure the scars go away?

Thank you for your question. I will try to leave some quick points to help you improve your scars. Many people have redness/thickness of the scars after a facelift and in most cases, we can improve these dramatically. 1) Redness - This often goes away with time, however, ask your surgeon about IPL treatment, particularly behind the ears. These can be dramatic and can really reduce the redness back there.2) Wide Scars - Over time, this should improve, however in rare situations patients need a 'revision' of the scar. This involves cutting the scar and improve the appearance. 3) Thick/firm scars - Again, this often improves over time but one option is a steroid injection. I recommend patients consider this if the scar is thick after a few months. It can be dramatic.4) General Scar appearance - One safe method to improve scarring is to use Silicone gel/sheets. These can often be found in drug stores or pharmacies. All the best

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

Thanks for sending your photosYour scars are quite normal. We often treat the facelift scars with BBL(Broad Band Light) as soon as the sutures are out. This helps a lot with the redness. Fractionated laser treatments can help flatten the scars as well as using Silicone gels. These treatments often result in the scar looking better sooner. In the end your scars will heal nicely without treatment as well.It just takes a little longerGood luck!