Hollywood’s best-kept secret: Everything you need to know about mini facelifts

Did they or didn’t they? You know who they are – celebrities who reach their forties, fifties and beyond, yet remain preternaturally youthful, looking as if they haven’t aged a day in decades. Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Jennifer Lopez and Tom Brady are just a few who come to mind. Is it really down to a bit of Botox and a healthy lifestyle as some like to claim, or has there been surgical intervention?

Considering the rising popularity of the so-called mini facelift, it’s now more than likely to be the latter. In fact, this “moderately invasive procedure” – as described by Florida dual board-certified facial plastic surgeon, Miguel Mascaró – could be Hollywood’s best-kept secret.

According to Mascaró, there’s been a significant uptick in requests for this procedure among celebrities. “A thousand per cent,” he says. Others agree. “For the past several years, celebrities have been more ready to do facelifts, rather than things like radiofrequency, and other heat-based treatments,” says Los Angeles celebrity plastic surgeon, Ben Talei. “They ask for mini-lifts.”

Now, according to Harley Street plastic surgeon, Yannis Alexandrides, who has “seen a very big increase in demand in the last three years”, it’s also a growing trend in the UK.

“A-listers are constantly in the public eye so there’s a portfolio of readily available photos on social media, film or television,” Mascaró points out. “People always know what they look like and big changes bring negative attention. Therefore, slowing down the march of time by making small changes is the name of the game. Putting the smoke out before it becomes a fire is exceedingly important.” 

Popular as it may (or may not) be in Tinseltown, this preventive procedure isn’t the sole purview of the great and the good. “The number of inquiries we receive about this surgery is the highest ever in general,” reveals Yannis.

“We have gone through Covid where everybody looks at their face on Zoom and they want to look their best. We also have ‘filler fatigue’ brought on by problems sometimes caused by injectable fillers such as migration, lumps and granulomas.”

A doughy appearance is another hazard of filler overuse, driving up the level of interest in mini facelifts among younger patients. “Many people have moved away from fillers because their face was looking too puffy,” explains New York celebrity plastic surgeon, Sam Rizk. “So, you have women in their mid-forties who got all their filler dissolved. Now they have loose skin which is not going to shrink back.

“They’ve stretched it with fillers and they need to lift it. The mini lift is finding increasing favour among this younger group who may not want their neck done, who just want to improve their cheeks and jowls.”

The proliferation of “Ozempic face” resulting from drug-induced rapid weight loss has also accelerated this facelift trend. Characterised by deflated facial features and loose skin, this is a condition that likewise benefits from a mini lift as this procedure addresses skin laxity, according to Rizk.

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“We do see a lot of people who have gone through this process and we are treating them with a face and neck lift,” says Yannis, adding that in this instance, he also performs micrografting, whereby a small amount of fat is taken from the patient’s body, processed and carefully injected into hollow areas of the face. 

Indeed, the mini facelift trend seems to have lowered the starting demographic for facelifts by a decade. 

“The peak right now for me is around the mid-forties,” Yannis says. “It has come down from what it was a few years ago, which was the mid-fifties. Younger people don’t want to wait. Rather, they prefer to age well and maintain their looks before they deteriorate too much.”

The exact definition of a mini facelift is hard to pin down. You won’t find it in a medical textbook and every surgeon has a different approach. But, the overarching attributes are smaller incisions and a faster healing time. 

The incisions are hidden around the ear. They do not extend into the hairline, as with traditional lifts, leaving the sideburns and hairline intact. As a result of this minimized access, the lift is more localised, focusing primarily on the jowls.

“With a mini lift, you’re mostly addressing the jawline. You’re not targeting the cheeks or the nasolabial folds quite as much as with a more traditional facelift,” explains Mascaró.

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There are multiple variations including a SMAS version which lifts the fibrous tissue and subcutaneous fat and a deep plane adaptation which goes further, lifting the musculature and releasing some ligaments.

For the sake of clarity, Rizk prefers the more descriptive monikers of a short scar SMAS lift or a short scar deep plane lift. In London, Yannis offers yet another modification – the Y facelift which tackles the neck without an incision under the chin, typically a necessity for a neck lift. “The results are very natural and last for a very long time,” says the board-certified surgeon.

It depends on the type of lift. A short scar SMAS lift will last four to five years, while a deep plane version will yield more durable results – about eight years, according to Rizk.

Ideally, someone who’s just beginning to show signs of facial ageing, with moderate sagging in the midface and jowls. The most common indications, according to Yannis, are slackened jowls, deepening nasolabial folds, general laxity of the skin and loss of volume.

“The key with a mini facelift is that you cannot have too much excess skin,” says Mascaró.

According to Rizk, it’s a one-week to 10-day recovery, so it’s a “much faster” recuperation than a regular facelift, which has a minimum recovery time of three to four weeks. “That’s one of the reasons a lot of celebrities are doing it,” he explains. “They look pretty good in a week.” 

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“When I’m working on a celebrity,” says Mascaró, “everything is geared around their shooting schedule in a way that they can recover for a couple of weeks when they’re out of the public eye. No one knows they had anything done and when they go back to work, no one would notice anything except that they don’t age. They look the same. They look great.”

Every plastic surgeon will tell you that good surgery should be undetectable but, still, there are subtle signs if you know where to look – particularly around the ears. There can be some noticeable scarring in the front of the ear and the shape of the ear can also change. Take Tom Brady, for example.

A comparison of photos of him from 2014 and 2024 reveals some scars above his ears and a change in the appearance of his earlobe and tragus, the bit of cartilage that sticks out in front of the ear. “I can only speculate, but I don’t see a scar extending into the hair which makes this a short scar facelift,” says Yannis, in reference to photos of the American football star.

Yannis is also quick to point out some defects with the surgery, relating to the resulting shape of the ear: “We see the earlobe has been pulled forward which is something that happens when the surgeon puts too much tension on the skin, creating what we call [an undesirable] pixie ear appearance.”

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And judging by photos, Yannis believes that Jennifer Lopez may also have undergone a mini facelift as evidenced by some slight scarring in front of her ears – though both A-listers have denied having any plastic surgery.

A strange appearance to the neck is another hazard. “It’s common when you do mini lifts to get very aggressive on the neck and you end up seeing a hollowing in the middle of the neck,” according to Talei. “When it’s done well – whether a mini of traditional lift – you don’t see any of that stuff.”

The price range varies widely depending on multiple factors including location, the surgeon and the type of anaesthesia used (usually twilight sedation or general anaesthesia). Be prepared to fork out between £16,000-£55,000.

Despite the diminutive moniker of “mini”, and sometimes even “baby”, to describe these short scar lifts, there’s nothing cute about them. Ultimately, this is surgery which comes with all its attendant potential complications. Mini facelifts carry the same risks as traditional facelifts, warns Mascaró.

That means the possibility, rare as it may be, of infection, hematoma and nerve damage. 

Moreover, the allure has led to abuse. Is there such a thing as undergoing too many of these procedures? “Absolutely!” says Mascaró, “and that’s something we have seen recently with some celebrities. The key when you are planning on doing these smaller procedures is that you need to wait until there’s enough laxity in the skin.

“If you don’t allow your tissue enough time to gain that elasticity, you’re going to end up pulling too tight and changing the position and shape of your mouth and your eyes, volumising the wrong areas, changing the position of the scars and even worse, leaving very noticeable scars in places where you do not want to see them.”

Ultimately, a mini facelift is a technically demanding procedure on account of the limited access, therefore, finding an experienced surgeon is key. But, judging by its growing popularity, it won’t be a Hollywood secret for long.