Nevertheless, I remained committed to my caretaking duties and was shocked by how many surprises were still in store after all of my research. Here are the 10 no one tells you (or certainly didn’t tell me).
1. Budget Beyond the Base Cost—the Extras Add Up
Facelift price tags range wildly. Steven Levine, MD, the New York City surgeon who performed perhaps the most famous facelift in history last year (yes, Kris Jenner’s) is now reportedly commanding $400,000. That number also happens to be the median cost of buying a home in America. More—way more—realistically, an experienced, sought-after plastic surgeon in the US will charge $40-50,000 for a facelift (including anesthesia and OR fees, but without common add-on procedures, such as a brow lift, lip lift, blepharoplasty, and fat transfer). If you travel to a cosmetic tourism destination, such as South Korea or Turkey, you can expect to pay more like $20-35,000 for a facelift—but the price savings comes with a whole other set of considerations and risk management.
And even if you don’t hop on an international flight, there are many ancillary costs to factor in. Before she ever got near an OR, my very thorough friend did 13 consultations with doctors in New York, Florida, Texas and Los Angeles, plus Zoom consultations with surgeons in South Korea and Turkey. And while that’s excessive, Julie, another woman I know in her late 40s who recently had a facelift, did four. At $250 to $1,000 a pop, those meetings can add up fast. (The fee gets applied to the surgery, if you decide to move forward).
Ultimately, Robin chose Dr. Murphy based on a constellation of factors: his natural aesthetic, his 25 years of experience, his bedside manner (a big one), his pricing, and his recovery plan. “I met with a wide range of surgeons, including some of the now-famous ones such as Dr. Ben Talei [Denise Richards’ plastic surgeon] and Dr. Steven Levine, who charge top dollar,” says Robin, who writes the no-BS, all-transparency beauty Substack Charlotte’s Book. “I liked Dr. Talei a lot, but his price point was too hard for me to justify, although I tried. Dr. Levine was also extremely expensive, and the consultation was about 15 minutes, which was a bit unacceptable to me given the price tag. For something this major involving my face, I needed more time and personal connection than that. A lot of people only focus on the before-and-afters, but I wasn’t doing this unless I felt completely confident and comfortable with not just the results but the person behind them. With Dr. Murphy everything just clicked. It was a very clear yes.”
Post-surgery, all reputable surgeons require you to have a nurse for a minimum of 18-24 hours (at $100-$200 per hour) to ensure that you’re safe, comfortable, taking crucial medication, and doing the proper icing. For Dr. Murphy’s patients, that means 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off for the first 18 hours using a full ice mask (smaller ice packs are used for more targeted areas, if needed). On day two, the icing schedule is 20 minutes on, 40 minutes off during waking hours and by day three, icing can typically be stopped.