The face lift is one of the most popular and satisfying procedures that a person can have. During the last few years the demand for this surgery has risen immeasurably, and a growing number of the recipients are men. In fact, the words "face lift" have become almost synonymous with plastic surgery, and the reasons are readily apparent.

The face lift seems to rejuvenate. It beautifies sagging and wrinkled skin. It rehabilitates. It makes people feel better about themselves, which helps them to lead more productive lives. In the youth-oriented culture that dominates our society, this can be an important consideration.

Americans are not only living longer, but they are healthier in their old age. With the recent emphasis on physical fitness, our senior citizens are becoming more active and outgoing. When people begin to feel better, they want to look better, too, and this usually means younger and more attractive.

Also, surprisingly, more and more young people are having face lifts and eyelid surgery. They see the early signs of aging and want to remove them. In rare cases the lift may even benefit a person in his or her thirties.

There are several ways to do a face lift, but the most common involves lifting only the skin by making a rather lengthy and shallow incision that cuts down through the superficial fat. The incision begins in the scalp, somewhat above the ear and well within the patient's hairline. Then it travels downward, directly in front of the ear, eventually curving underneath the lobe and up behind the back of the ear. From there it runs straight across within the hairline toward the back of the patient's head.

There is a variation of the incision where a small part of the incision is brought just inside the ear, as opposed to being made entirely in front of it. This allows the scar to be partially hidden, but the pronounced piece of cartilage in front of the opening to the ear will probably be distorted, since during the procedure it will be covered with facial skin. This extra thickness usually leads to a strange and blunted appearance, a dead giveaway that can be can be noted from across the room. As the conventional scar in front of the ear is barely visible anyway, the trade off is hardly worth it.

After the incision is made, the skin is lifted away from the underlying fat and muscle in the face and neck, and all bleeding points are meticulously stopped.

With the temple, face, and neck skin freed from their connections, the patient is ready to be "lifted." The surgeon pulls the skin backward and/or upward until he draws up the right amount. This traction stretches out most to the facial wrinkles and flattens out the nasolabial fold. In addition, it smoothes away drooping jowls and removes any hanging skin from the patient's neck. Sometimes stitches are put into the muscles to pull them back as well.

Once the skin has been drawn up tightly, the resulting excess is trimmed off at the incision line, and the remaining skin is anchored down. Sometimes small suction drains are slid beneath the undermined skin to deal with possible oozing. When the procedure has been completed, the surgeon carefully closes all of the incisions with fine sutures and will wrap your face and head in a mass of bulky bandages.

You will be allowed to return home or to your hotel room a few hours after the surgery. You then return to the doctor's office the next day to have the bandages and drainage tubes removed. The sutures are removed after one week, but eyelid sutures (if, as often is the case, the eyelids are done at the same time) are taken out a little earlier, usually after three days.

The resulting scars are almost always thin and imperceptible, but at first they may appear to be a little reddened. This condition should gradually fade until the scars become imperceptible. Rarely, a patient might develop thick scars, but in that case, they could be revised later.

While postoperative pain is considered rare, a few patients ache a little behind their ears, and some develop a tight feeling underneath their necks that soon goes away. Most patients don't take any pain medication at all. Thus, you will feel fine the day after the operation and be able do most normal activities. Just don't do any real exercise for three weeks.

There might be some numbness, because the procedure necessitates cutting some of the tiny nerves that bring sensation to the skin. While most of the feeling should come back quickly, on rare occasions it may take a few months.

You should be able to wash your face and hair within the first week, and makeup can be applied at the same time. The makeup (including makeup for men) will be a real blessing, because you're sure to develop some swelling and discoloration. The time for most of the black and blue and swelling to disappear is generally about two to three weeks, but some tiny bumps under the skin may persist for a while. Since all individuals heal at a different rate, it's impossible to predict just how long yours will last. You may have just a little discoloration, or you may have a lot. Many patients can camouflage with makeup after one week, most can do so after two and everyone can after three weeks.

It should be noted that the face-lift procedure leaves some permanent effects on men. As part of the beard-bearing facial skin is pulled behind the ears, they will now have to shave there. Also, the space between the sideburns and the ears will be obliterated, and the sideburns are narrowed.

It should be noted that the face-lift procedure leaves some permanent effects on men. As part of the beard-bearing facial skin is pulled behind the ears, they will now have to shave there. Also, the space between the sideburns and the ears will be obliterated, and the sideburns are narrowed.

But bad complications are rare. Infection is virtually unheard of. Nerve damage should not be considered a risk because a competent surgeon would never injure a nerve that controls your facial muscles. If a nerve were to be permanently injured, that would be negligence, so choose your surgeon carefully.

A few patients suffer from small areas of skin loss behind the ears, but as this normally heals fast, this is considered a minor problem. Loss of a lot of skin from the face is extremely rare. It can happen because in doing a face lift, all of the little blood vessels growing into the skin from the underlying muscle must be cut when the skin is loosened so it can be pulled back adequately. The skin lives because of the blood supply which runs through the skin. If this is inadequate, some of the skin could die, which would result in very unsightly scars. This is really only a possibility with very severely sun-damaged skin or if you smoke cigarettes, because of the destruction of small blood vessels nourishing the skin.

The most inconvenient complication is postoperative bleeding (hematoma). It happens to less than one out of every one hundred patients who have the lift. This could occur regardless of the surgeon's skill. While it's never life threatening, if the hematoma is large it must be evacuated and the bleeding vessel closed. This will necessitate a return to the operating room or the facial skin can be permanently injured.