And then, before she turns 50, she will invest in a surgical solution.
As she explains: Its low intervention until the facelift.
Filler reversals are on the rise too.
DETAIL WORKWhere fillers blur, a well-executed facelift sharpens features while preserving movement.Vogue, January 1988
Paul Baeka former K-pop star who founded the skin-care brand Matter of Factheard the same pitch.
But, of course, we all know that faces are a little bit more complicated than grapes.
For those issues, filler can feel like a Band-Aid.
The face just gets bigger and bigger and bigger, the actor tells me.
Parsa has seen it too.
He blames both the cadence at which injectables are administered and the inherent properties of the molecular compounds involved.
Over time, tissue gets stretched, he says.
Its a slow change, so [patients] get the filler face without even knowing it.
And then theres the additional inflammation that fillers themselves can cause.
Thats their nature, Parsa adds.
He theorizes that injectables can even interact with the lymphatic system.
And while misapplied filler can be dissolved, Parsa is skeptical of that process.
Where does all the molecular facial padding go?
We were told that these products last 6 to 12 months, Parsa points out.
Two decades later, thats less clear.
One plastic surgeon I speak to tells me she still finds decade-old filler lodged in patients tear troughs.
Ive never been a filler girl, says tech entrepreneur and communications impresario Brooke Hammerling.
The effect was jarring.
You could be 30.
You could be 65, she says.
You cant tell the difference.
When she decided she wanted to do something about her sagging skin, fillers were a nonstarter.
Theres six or seven different lifts, Chang explains.
She tends to opt for a deep plane approach, but sheand her most practiced peerscan customize the process.
How much are we lifting?
And in what vector?
How tight are we tightening the sutures?
What shadow points in the ear are we selecting?
Where are we placing those incisions?
Theres an artistic element, and each doctor has her own signatures.
The science has evolved; the creative aspect of these procedures has come to the fore too.
(In the past, the price of lifted skin was at least a month of hibernation.)
Within six weeks, not even klieg lights show a hint of suturing.
The people Hammerling talks to about her own procedure fixate on how much she still looks like herself.
Her proportions, the character of her faceits still her own.
And in contrast to fillers, which require constant upkeep, a facelift can last a decade or more.
Hammerling no longer has to evaluate her face in a dermatologists office on an annual or biannual basis.
She isnt tweaking and futzing only to realize that those subtle adjustments have made her unrecognizable.
Thats the pleasure of the facelift.
She made a drastic step, and now shes done.
Still, even those who opt for a lift post-retirement can leave satisfied customers.
I speak on the phone with a woman well call Susan, who just turned 80.
Years ago, she decidedafter a lifetime of swearing off interventionto get a neck lift.
It wasnt like I looked different after, she explains.
I didnt want to look different.
But people did think I looked refreshed.
Something for her cheeks?
I said, Barbara!
But when the woman turned around, it wasnt Barbara at all, but Barbaras best friend.
Susan can still summon her shock.
The women had used the same doctor and had come away looking identical.
Susan marvels: The two of them had gone and gotten the exact same face!
