Raise your hand if you have ever looked at yourself in a mirror or, worse, the small Zoom box, simply to see what you would look like, and then stretched your skin taut over your face. Best wishes: You recently had a facial at home. For a little moment, at any rate.
Read More: Face Lifting
A study by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons states that in 2020, Americans spent $16.7 billion on cosmetic treatments, with facelifts accounting for about $1.9 billion of that total. Facelifts were the third most common cosmetic surgical operation in 2020, with 234,374 done — a 75-percent increase from 20 years earlier. The most common procedures include nose contouring and eyelid surgery.
However, what if you could shape your face from the comfort of your sofa rather than undergoing cosmetic surgery, which typically costs $8,005? There are tons of cosmetic tutorials on social media sites like TikTok and Instagram that explain how to use face tape, at-home microcurrent devices, and facial massage to get a more lifted look. (Yes, it sounds precisely like that. Apply tape. on your countenance.)
Is it possible to achieve results comparable to a facelift at home?
To be clear-cut: No. According to Boca Raton, Florida-based facial plastic surgeon Dr. Jacob D. Steiger, “the ‘at-home face lift’ is a great marketing term.” However, everything you do on your own time will simply be skin care. It is impossible to go deeply enough to repair the facial ligaments.
Ligaments in our faces support the structures of the cheeks, jawline, and neck. These ligaments can begin to sag as individuals age, generally in their late 40s and early 50s. This can cause sagging cheeks, hanging jowls, and the opulent-sounding “turkey neck,” which is a plump bag of loose skin and fat under the chin.
According to Dr. Steiger, a face-lift, also known as a rhytidectomy, is a surgical operation “that lifts those structures in the face” that were giving the illusion of droopiness and “restores them back to their original position.” This might give you a more youthful appearance by giving your face a tighter, more defined appearance.
Yes, you can use injectable fillers to provide the appearance of a lift or have skin resurfacing performed by a dermatologist to enhance the texture of your skin. Radiofrequency treatment, a nonsurgical method of skin tightening, may even tighten issue regions by heating the skin’s deeper layers and promoting the creation of collagen and elastin, two proteins that give skin its firmness and plumpness.
However, according to New York City dermatologist Dr. Debra Jaliman, even that surgery only goes so far. Patients are always told, “Yes, it will tighten your skin, but keep in mind that this is not a facelift.”
And what about taping your skin to fix features and prevent face muscles from moving? According to New York City dermatologist Dr. Michele Green, “old-time actresses used to use this trick a lot.” Unfortunately, she added, “when you remove the tape, it all goes back to your previous state like a house of cards,” even if you could appear more tense for a short period.
How about micro-current gadgets used at home?
Microcurrent facial toners, such as those from NuFace and Ziip, promise to tighten and lift skin by stimulating facial muscles with a low-voltage electric current, which in turn promotes the formation of collagen and elastin. However, experts are divided over their efficacy.
Dermatologist Dr. Rina Allawh, who practices in a Philadelphia suburb, stated, “There’s not a lot of substantial data or any well-conducted studies showing strong evidence that these devices actually promote skin tightening.”
Although some of Dr. Allawh’s patients report seeing improvements, she noted that it’s conceivable that the serum they’re taking in addition to it is partially responsible for the improvement. “A lot of these gadgets have gel primers in them that contain hyaluronic acid, which is a component of fillers that helps plump the skin,” the representative stated.
According to Dr. Kenneth Rothaus, a plastic surgeon in New York City and partner at Modrn Sanctuary medspa, “they’re required to be used frequently and often” in order to see any kind of results because at-home devices use a low level of power (the NuFace runs on a 9-volt battery, while most physician-grade devices typically need around 110 volts). NuFace, a product that advertises itself as “the 5-minute facial lift,” suggests using it five times a week for five to twenty minutes at a time during the first sixty days, and then two to three times a week after that.
Dr. Rothaus stated, “Not many people are really going to be compliant with that.” “The actual world will resemble that coat rack-turned treadmill.”
Strict use, according to Dr. Green, can “temporarily make you look better — but just temporarily.” According to her, such symptoms would usually subside within a few days. “Botox, laser resurfacing, or an actual face-lift are definitely not going to be replaced” by an at-home micro-current device, the speaker continued. “I don’t really see how this could be beneficial in the long run.”
If you do want to give it a try, proceed with caution and take into account whatever prior knowledge you may have about your skin. Dr. Jaliman advised against trying an at-home experiment if you’re prone to sensitivity and discomfort.