I've recently come to the conclusion that a perfect skincare regime will not do much to make your face appear younger overall. It is the manipulation of the deeper connective / structural tissues via plastic surgery that allow for truly dramatic results. Have you ever seen any of the absurd before and after shots of people who underwent plastic surgery in South Korea? This thread on purseblog is quite illuminating. Here is a Before and After of a 51 year old woman:
Before
After
Eyelid Fat Grafting Before and After:
She had three main operations done.
1. Full face fat grafting. This was done at MVP clinic in South Korea. The results from the eyelid grafting in particular were incredible. It does come with a couple of caveats, however. In the extreme case, it can result in permanent blindness because the requires an incision into the supratrochlear artery. This is a risk with fillers as well. Additionally, several follow ups will likely be necessary since ~40% disappeared after the first year alone. The after photo was taken after two touch-up visits.
2. Chin shaving - this is traditionally done via osteotomy, however she had it done via ultrasonic knife or "sonopet." This was performed by Lucian Ion in the UK and apparently results in less trauma and pain, and much quicker recovery time. Don't know much about the process beyond that.
3. Rhinoplasty + lip lift. Both were done in the UK. Lip lift was performed earlier this year, but the rhino took place 15 - 20 years ago. Not sure if she had anything done more recently.
She also had a hair transplant done using the follicular unit transplant (FUT) method whereby hair follicles from the back of scalp were transplanted to the front to improve her hairline.
Re: Skeletal changes that take place in the face / skull
Age-related bone loss is not uniform and occurs in specific regions of the skull. This article provides a good overview of some specific skeletal changes that take place with age: https://www.ncbi.nlm...pubmed/22580543.
Do note, however, that Certain parts of the skull continue to grow and thicken with age. From the paper:
More than 40 years ago, Enlow [16] followed the growth of the facial skeleton longitudinally from infancy to young adulthood by means of serial cephalometrograms and noted that the entire face becomes longer vertically, deeper in the anterior posterior plane, and wider in the transverse dimension. The following specific changes occur with growth: increasing protrusion of the glabella; expansion of the supraorbital ridges; lateral translation of the orbits; increase in the depth and lateral expansion of the cheeks; increase in length, width, and vertical dimensions of the nose; and increase in vertical height in the occlusal region associated with increased chin prominence.
As far as subcutaneous fat loss, I purchased this Gluteboost product last week. It is marketed as a butt enhancement cream, which supposedly contains 5% Volufiline and 5% Voluplus. I have started applying it twice a day along my infraorbital rim, laterally to my malar eminence, and then superiorly to my temples. No idea if it will work, but I will continue use for ~6 months and see if it helps at all.
Of course, all this is not reason to abandon an aggressive skincare regimen. There are limits to plastic surgery and an impeccably grafted face can only do so much if skin has been neglected its entire life. I don't think these results would have been possible had the quality of her skin been in the gutter. In this woman's case before pic, you can see that her skin prior to the operation may have not been flawless, but it didn't appear to be in particularly poor condition. So the takeaway seems to be that good / decent skin is a prerequisite for the stunning rejuvenating transformations that can only be achieved via talented plastic surgeons.
, lol).
