Facelift surgery is more commonly performed in women than men. While improvement in sagging jowls and loose neck skin is desired by both sexes, women are more likely to act on their concern for a variety of social and psychological reasons.
But when facelifts are done in men, there are several small but important differences that must be respected. First and foremost, men do not want a dramatic change from a facelift procedure. This makes them look unnatural and an obvious walking advertisement (not positively) for having had the procedure. There are numerous examples from famous people that are well known by almost everyone. A subtle improvement in the neck and jowl area is just enough to not make the change blatantly obvious. Secondly, the location of the final scar around the ear is critical to not leave a significant telltale sign. No matter how good the neck and jowl look, a visible scar around the ear detracts from an otherwise good result.
Because of beard skin, men do not have the luxury of always making the incision in front of the ear go inside it as women do. You do not want to pull beard skin inside the ear. Men will not enjoy having to try and shave it plus it puts differently colored skin on the tragus (protruding piece of cartilage in front of the ear hole) which does not look natural. While some plastic surgeons use this approach and trim the hair bulbs off of the underside of the skin, hair growth may not be completely avoided and there still is the skin color mismatch issue.
Placing the incision in the crease right in front of the ear always seem to do well and it produces a consistently good-looking scar. On very careful inspection, this fine line can be seen but the skin of the ear and that of the face is keep separate preserving a natural relationship. Unlike healing of skin brought over the tragus, which often has some minor healing issues, the healing of a completely preauricular incision is always uneventful.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana