What Is the Best Age for a Facelift? Your Facelift Age Guide

Dr. Sumit Bapna · February 3, 2025

Posted In: Facelift • General

Today, the consensus on the best age for a facelift has shifted, as science and medicine join forces for advanced anti-aging understanding. How young is too young? And, when is it too late for surgery? At Ohio Facial Plastics, we consult with patients in their mid-to-late 40s seeking to rejuvenate their skin’s health and vitality while sensibly maintaining their appearance over time. If you have ever wondered, ‘What age should I get a facelift?’ there are a few key factors to consider, including your skin’s condition, aging signs, and personal aesthetic goals.

What Age Should I Get a Facelift? Why Timing Matters

Your skin’s overall health followed by your facial anatomy are the two most important factors considered by a board-certified plastic surgeon when planning a facelift — even more important than your age.

Why? While aging’s effects on skin laxity and texture are universal, the exact reshaping, recontouring, and deep structural influences are guided foremost by your anatomy and genes. These are highly individual. No two patients’ facial structures or genetics are the same.

It’s essential to consult with a board-certified facial plastic surgeon who understands the interplay between facial anatomy and how it influences your own progressive aging, then develops your facelift procedure accordingly. In addition to your age, Dr. Bapna will review your specific:

• Jawline shape, contours
• “Core three” facial ligament structures and health (zygomatic, masseteric, and mandibular-cutaneous ligaments)
• Natural facial and neck fat deposits
• Jowl and marionette line development (labiomandibular folds)

Understanding the Aging Process: What Changes Over Time?

• Skin elasticity decreases. As you get older, your skin produces less collagen and elastin, the building blocks of regenerative, firm skin. Less collagen means less “bouncy” skin and more sagging and folds.
• Connective tissue and muscle strength diminish. The muscle tissue surrounding your face’s core three ligaments dramatically influences your face’s overall shape, yet it loosens and loses connective strength with time.
• Healing takes longer. Skin laxity not only causes sagging of the face and neck. But it also means a longer skin resealing and healing timeline post-surgery as you age.
• Scarring toll. Older skin actually, on average, tends to scar less visibly but is slower to heal and faces increased risks for complications from certain age-related conditions.
• Overall genetic expression. Genetics strongly determine how and when you begin to show deeper signs of aging. More importantly, it influences the health, structure, and aesthetic integrity of your face and neck. An expert facial plastic surgeon like Dr. Bapna understands how to work with your natural features, and how those features will likely express change with time. His facelifts are designed to lift and tighten your appearance in ways that directly complement your natural changes at any age.

Facelifts by Decade: What to Expect

While there’s no one-size-fits-all best age for a facelift, there are several age-related health factors for you and your plastic surgeon to consider.

In Your 30s: Early Signs of Aging

For several reasons, most accredited facial plastic surgeons today consider getting a facelift in your thirties to be, generally, premature.

• Your skin is still set to undergo significant changes, which a too-early procedure can adversely influence. It is therefore more difficult even for seasoned facial plastic surgeons to create lasting, natural-looking shapes and contours when getting surgery too young.
• Scarring can deepen or recolor across decades. Do note board-certified plastic surgeons like Dr. Bapna make strategic incisions to minimize and obscure those major surgery scars. However, having scars present at a younger age, when cell turnover is still relatively active, risks more ongoing shape, color, and texture irregularities.

Most individuals beginning in their late 20s and early thirties start losing around 1% of new collagen production every year. Procedures that restore and revitalize collagen, elastin, and other anti-wrinkle compounds are often a great choice to explore in your thirties compared to a more extreme cosmetic facelift. Again, always consult with a plastic surgeon.

In Your 40s: Ideal Age for a First Facelift?

Forties are considered a great decade to explore a facelift consultation. During this period, you can begin mapping out an ideal facelift plan that minimizes the need for any future second or third procedures, and sets you up for aging gracefully and naturally in your later years.

• Skin still retains solid elasticity in your forties, allowing more natural facelift end results.
• Facial ligament support typically begins to weaken during this decade. This requires more precise surgical adjustments in order to prevent unnatural face and neck muscle tension as tissue is redraped.
• Earlier intervention at this age can better address mild onset sagginess, working as a preventative procedure to combat wrinkles, fine lines, marionette lines, and neck bands.

In Your 50s and 60s: Deeper Aging Signs and Potential for Rejuvenation

Fifties and sixties are considered an industry standard age for getting a facelift. These are popular age ranges where comprehensive approaches to skin rejuvenation going below the surface often carries better lasting results, compared to topical-only skincare.

• Skin tissue has significantly thinned, making it less susceptible to harsh scarring, but also presenting longer overall healing timelines and higher risks for bruising.
• Jawline and jowl re-contouring potential is better at this age to truly reinstate your facial anatomy’s original, youthful shapes.
• Likewise, facelifts in your 50s and 60s can offer significant wrinkle reduction and mid-face volume restoration compared to results from receiving treatments earlier.
• Additional considerations should factor bone and ligament health, as ligament laxity is more pronounced at this time. While rare, this can cause re-sagging after a few years if surgery was not fine-tuned to your facial features.

Over 70: Is It Too Late?

Getting a facelift in your seventies will present special challenges, but for some individuals can still be an impactful and safe choice.

In general, facelifts in this decade performed by accredited facial plastic surgeons are especially important. Working with a facial reconstruction expert can dramatically roll back signs of aging that have deepened with time, including both dynamic and static wrinkles, plus deep vertical and horizontal neck bands. At this age, surgical precision, finesse, and experience really matter.

However, ligament and muscle tissue bounceback is a major consideration. Your plastic surgeon should pay special attention to the following if you’re getting a facelift in your seventies:

• Seventies may present itself as the best age for a mini facelift combined with cosmetic non-invasive skin treatments. This combined offering often improves skin texture and tone both before and after any surgical procedures, boosting results while also helping skin bounce back from surgery faster.
• Significantly reduced skin elasticity as well as weaker, worn ligaments make tissue re-draping possibilities more limited, minimizing the extent of a facelift’s signature tightening and lift. Good results are still possible, but expectations must be aligned.

So What’s Really the “Best” Age for a Facelift? It’s All About Individual Factors

In general, the goldilocks range where it’s best to get a facelift will begin in your 40s and last well into your 60s.

Many factors influence the decision, which is why booking a consultation with a facial reconstruction plastic surgeon like Dr. Bapna is a must. During your consultation, you can hear straightforward, age-appropriate recommendations based on your exact facial anatomy, lifestyle, health, and current skincare routine. From there, you’ll get the most accurate set of expectations around your facelift timeline and best results.

Non-Surgical Alternatives to Consider Before a Facelift

Injectable Fillers

Injectable fillers, including neurotoxins like Botox, are ultra-safe, targeted, and customizable options for reducing fine lines and wrinkles. Most are quick procedures that take under 30 minutes but bring results lasting years.

Sculptra

Sculptra is an FDA-approved collagen injection. Its powerful formula directly combats the main cause of aging on the face and neck — loss of collagen production. It’s a great complementary skin health treatment, especially starting in your 30s and 40s when collagen and elastin stores begin to dip.

Fractional Laser Resurfacing

Fractional laser treatments work energy pulses into your skin’s deep dermal layers, promoting cell turnover and restoring healthier skin from its very foundation. Dr. Bapna and Ohio Facial Plastics offer several state-of-the-art fractional laser resurfacing treatments, all customized to create smoother, more youthful skin with virtually no downtime.

Fractional laser treatments can also be used to smoothen and retone surgical scars, making this treatment a great add-on for patients of any age after a facelift.

Understanding the Right Time for Your Facelift at Ohio Facial Plastics

Dr. Bapna’s double board certification and 20+ years of expertise in facial reconstructive surgery make him the premier facelift provider in Dublin, Ohio and Greater Columbus.

Now is the time to see if a facelift is right for your age.

Book a Facelift Consultation