October 30, 2026 | Facelift, Facial Rejuvenation, Neck Lift
Kris Jenner, 70, at the All’s Fair premiere in Rome on Saturday, about eighteen months after a facelift Hola dates to “last year.” In April the internet said the lift had slipped; I wrote SMAS versus deep plane then. Now it says she stole the show. This post is not about her. It is about the clock every facelift patient lives on.
When Is It the Real Result?
What I told NewBeauty in Boston when they asked about the Jenner photos: “two, three months is kind of the honeymoon period for the facelift. That’s when she started posting and announcing that she had the facelift.”
“But on top of that, she had plenty of filters. Those looked amazing. They looked almost unrealistic, which they were.”
“And then when finally a year later we see a picture of her that, you know, they caught without her even being able to pose, you really see the real person.”
The Settling Timeline
| When | What is happening | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| Week 2 | Bruising fading, sutures out. | Swollen, tight, a little numb. |
| Week 3 to 4 | Swelling at its most uneven. | The week most patients second-guess themselves. |
| Week 6 | Most swelling gone. | Your best for an event. Not the result. |
| Month 3 | Firm areas softening. | The honeymoon face. |
| Month 6 | Fat grafts have declared what survived. | Volume is now honest. |
| Month 12 | Swelling gone, skin relaxed onto the deep work. | The photo I take. |
| Month 18 | Nothing left to hide behind. | The result you live with. |
In my words to patients:
“It does take patience because you’ll be swollen. You’ll have bruising. It takes a couple of weeks for people to be comfortable with other people seeing them. So, usually, two weeks, and then if you have any very special events, usually it takes six weeks to really look your best.”
“After surgery, firm or hard areas are fibrosis and edema, a normal part of healing. I have patients massage these areas, a lot, and I tell them it keeps getting softer over about three months. It is a lot better at three months than at three weeks.”
Our pre-op nurse, before every facelift: “For the face procedure recovery, that one is more like a psychological healing. The reason why, because the face is something that we can’t hide. When we do our body, we just put the garment and loose clothes and nobody notices. The face we can’t. So the majority of our patients, around week 3 to 4, they’re regretting what they did. I like to let you know, because once you remember what I tell you when you’re healing, you’re like, okay, she did tell me.”
“You might be one of the lucky ones that don’t swell up a lot, you might be one of the not so lucky that swell up a lot. It varies per patient. Just remember, if you’re very, very swollen, you’re not gonna stay like that.”
Our nurse practitioner, on the side that looks different at the first visits: “You’re always gonna have that one side that’s gonna be a little different than the other depending on the asymmetry of your face. But then again, it’s just so premature right now, because everything’s very swollen, everything’s very irritated. They just removed sutures, so it’s gonna look very red. So we have to let it heal, let the swelling continue to subside.”
“Since it’s pretty raised, we still have to wait until it heals completely, because it’s going to start to fade off where you hardly are going to be able to see it. Trust me, it’s going to get much better. But right now, because they removed the sutures, it’s more visible. We have to trust the process, let the swelling go down, and then you see how it starts to heal. It’s going to be very fine.”
The rest of the first months: is this normal after surgery.
What Holds and What Drifts at 18 Months
Neck and jawline hold. The midface shows the technique. Skin and weight keep their own schedule.
On volume: “Even though we know the patient is going to keep fifty to eighty percent of the volume, that percentage is quite unpredictable, so we are always overfilling.” And: “The good thing is that whatever does stay is going to be quite permanent, and of course maintaining your weight is going to help with that. We know that with aging, fat will decrease in the face regardless, so it is a procedure that we probably have to repeat in the future.”
On weight, from a read I did on another face this fall: “as surgeons we know that 10 or 15 pounds makes a huge difference in the face, whether you gain it or lose it.” And “A facelift will change the position of the tissues,” not the amount of them.
The mechanics of the midface are in deep plane facelift and inside the hairline.
Why the Technique Matters More at Seventy
“So we have to have realistic expectations, especially when you’re a lot older.” As I said on the same couch, “if you operate on somebody that’s 30 or 40, it’s not the same as somebody that’s 70 or 80.”
“I think the deep plane lift and the endoscopic deep plane lift are great procedures, which create very natural and long-lasting results, and we’re seeing patients completely avoid the noninvasive procedures and go straight to the surgical procedures early on.”
“The differentiator is how much excess skin there is. If there’s substantial excess skin, then we do a deep plane open facelift with an incision in front of the ear. If there’s not a lot of excess skin, we can get away with doing everything through the incisions behind the hairline. Nevertheless, a full facelift is always going to have the endoscopic portion of the forehead and brows.”
“In my practice, I’ve really seen a huge increase in face procedures, specifically the deep plane face lift and deep plane neck lift, as well as the total endoscopic deep plane face lift, otherwise known as the ponytail lift. These face lifts are often combined with facial fat grafting, upper and lower eyelid surgery, microneedling with radiofrequency or laser resurfacing, sometimes an upper lip lift, fat transfer to the lips, and earlobe reduction.”
“I think patients are becoming a lot more willing to undergo facial procedures, including facelifts, because the results now are actually natural and do not change their overall appearance. So they still have a self identity after these procedures and they’re recognizable; they’re just looking ten to fifteen years younger.”
Who Is a Candidate
Jowls, platysmal bands or a dropped midface, with the skin to match, and the patience for month eighteen. Texture alone wants resurfacing; volume alone may want fat grafting.
What a Facelift Costs Here
“As of this writing, a mid facelift, which is the mini or S-lift, starts at $10,500. A lower facelift, which covers the lower face and neck, starts at $15,500. A full facelift starts at $20,000. A neck lift on its own is $8,500.”
“Those prices are minimums, and they include anesthesia, the surgical facility, medical tests, garments, and recovery products. Because pricing does change, please confirm current pricing at agulloplasticsurgery.com/fees, which is the page we keep updated.”
“With most facelift procedures we also do fat grafting. We usually recommend Morpheus8 with Iriescence PDGF, or the Sciton MicroLaserPeel with Profractional, depending on your skin type.”
Current numbers: fees. Full breakdown: what a facelift costs. Commentary: drworldwide.com. Maintenance: the Southwest Plastic Surgery post.
Why Choose Dr. Agullo
Dr. Agullo is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Surgery, completed his plastic surgery fellowship at the Mayo Clinic, and serves as Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. Ponytail Academy, Pittsburgh (intermediate) and Santa Monica (advanced). Castle Connolly Top Doctor thirteen consecutive years, 2014 through 2026. Every facelift is done in the practice’s QUAD A accredited surgery center, and the twelve-month photos are the real photos.
Ready to Talk?
Bring a photo from ten years ago and one that bothers you now. I will tell you what a lift would move, what it would not, and what month eighteen looks like.
Call (915) 590-7900, text 1-866-814-0038, or book online at agulloplasticsurgery.com. #StayBeautiful
Find me at @RealDrWorldWide on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, @Agullo on X, or @AgulloPlasticSurgery on Facebook.
