No matter how much you want it, the prospect of a facelift evokes fear, shame, and embarrassment. Perhaps the hardest thing about cosmetic surgery is admitting that you find something about yourself unacceptable, that you don’t measure up, and worse, that you care. How uncool!
Nearly five years after that first lift, when a recurring sinus condition required an operation under general anesthesia, I reasoned, why not have a few aesthetic adjustments on areas I hadn’t dealt with before? In my experience and after talking to hundreds of women, once you have plastic surgery all the fears you had beforehand—and everyone has them—drop away. So, after that first time, you do have to be careful not to be too open to plastic surgery.
But I hadn’t had a brow lift during the first surgery because you would have a scar in your hairline from ear to ear and could lose hair along the scar line. A few years later, though, a new scarless endoscopic brow lift had been invented. You would just have five little incisions and they would heal over—today, I have no idea where those scars are; they are completely gone.
So I chose to have an endoscopic brow lift to raise my brow slightly and smooth out the scowl etched there, making me look angry when I’m not, and a minor refinement on my nose. I remember a doctor I interviewed later saying, “If you do one thing, you get a good result. If you do two things, you get a better result. Do three things, you get a great result.” One important note, though—do too much at once and you’re really lengthening the amount of time you’re under anesthesia, which can increase risk and should be discussed with your surgeon.
For round two, I was not curious to try another surgeon. My original facelift doctor had done well by me. Why switch? Many women feel the Astroturf is greener elsewhere, even going to another city for a facelift. And it’s fine to travel for the best care, but today, with excellent doctors in every part of the country, you shouldn’t have to go that far to find a good plastic surgeon. Wherever you are, you’ll want to make sure your surgery is done in an accredited operating room. My anesthesia was administered by an MD anesthesiologist, but there are also many nurse anesthetists that work regularly with plastic surgeons. At the end of the day, just don’t shop by price for anesthesia, that’s dangerous—shop by experience. [Editor’s note: Kron wrote an Allure article on “Finding Dr. Right—and Avoiding Dr. Wrong” with tips for choosing a surgeon.]