A Real Facelift Before and After, Plus a Two-Year Update!

Two years ago, my friend Erin opened up on the blog about her entire facelift experience. Those posts continue to be some of the most read on the blog and I believe it’s because she pulls back the veil on an experience that most people choose to keep quiet.

The silence is strange, especially because more than 15 million cosmetic procedures are performed just in the United States each year. These numbers are increasing, with over 2 million people getting procedures in 2020 alone.

So, even though plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures continue to be popular – there’s still a hush hush stigma to trying to maintain your youth for as long as possible. Erin boldly decided to share her journey and many readers have responded with gratitude for her openness, asked questions as they embark on their own journey and also shared their own experiences. This community of women sharing is something I find so empowering for all of us.

That’s why today, we are going to recap her facelift experience, share the before and after pictures, PLUS share her two-year recap of what it’s been like after her facelift INCLUDING pictures of what she looks like now!!

Let’s get to the good stuff!

Erin’s Pictures Before Her Facelift:

Erin and I met at a Peet’s Coffee two years ago to talk about why she wanted a facelift and what her goals were with the surgery. She willingly let me snap a few pictures of her face before her big day and we made plans to keep in touch throughout.

While she is, inarguably, beautiful before her surgery, she did have a few pain points that she personally hoped to address with her facelift. Here’s her why in her own words on the day we met:  “When I look in the mirror, I don’t look the age I feel. I go to the gym, I’m very social and active, I am doing public speaking to promote my book and doing tarot card readings at festivals, but when I look in the mirror – I feel like my face looks like it’s melting. I want to look the way I feel.”

She said, “You spend a lifetime being a wife and mom, putting others first and then you’re 60-years-young, and you want to do something for yourself, too.”

After a lot of research and consulting with doctors, she realized that the best thing to do would be to do the full facelift at once so everything could heal, rather than doing individual surgeries to address smaller concerns.

If you’re in the beginning stages of looking into a facelift, she shared a lot more details about her experience finding a doctor in this post here.

Erin’s Facelift Goals:

When it came time to itemize specifically what she wanted to improve, this was her list.

• Turkey neck
• Jowls around the mouth
• Wrinkles in the under eye area
• Brow lift
• Wrinkles between the eyebrows (the 11s)

After consulting with her surgeon and establishing a plan for her problem areas, it was decided that she would have the following procedures:

• • Facelift/Necklift – Rhytidectomy with SMAS/Platysma
  • Endoscopic Brow lift
  • Blepharoplasty – Lower eyelids

Erin boldly shared regular updates with me on how she was healing after the surgery. To read her journal entries and see graphic pictures of what she looked like post-surgery during her first week of recovery, please read this post here.

To read more of her recovery during week two, with even more pictures, read this post here.

Erin After Facelift Pictures:

After Erin had a chance to recover, she was ready to meet up and show me her new (to her) face. This was 12-weeks post-surgery. The bruising was gone and while it was still the same beautiful, vibrant Erin, she definitely had a tighter, smoother, younger looking face. The before pictures are on the left and the 12-week post surgery photos are on the right.

I was able to ask her how she felt about the results and if she was glad she did it. Even though the recovery seemed painful and harrowing, she was adamant that she was very glad she did the surgery and wouldn’t want to go back to how she looked before.

She said she did feel more confident and feel at peace with her looks. Plus, she appreciated how sharing her experience allowed her to connect with more people and help other women who were contemplating the same thing.

She also said that the worst part was the anesthesia for her. Interestingly enough, I’ve received emails from people  who have read earlier posts about her facelift journey and they said that there are doctors who use laughing gas and various other homeopathic remedies to avoid anesthesia altogether! So, as time goes on, more methods are being discovered that give future facelift patients even more options.

Erin’s Facelift Update: Two Years Later

It’s one thing to see how someone is doing just months after a new cosmetic procedure, but what about years later? How does the surgery age?

Let’s take a look at her now!

As always, she looks fantastic! I loved checking in with Erin to see how she’s feeling two years after her facelift. I’d like to share her thoughts on her experience in her own words:

1. I’m still glad I had my facelift. I have felt better about myself and my outsides go more with my insides.
2. There are still places where it feels numb on my scalp and behind my ears. Sometimes a strange feeling, difficult to describe.
3. I was hoping for perfection and there are still areas that I wish would have come out differently, but that’s me being unrealistic. Another human being operates, and none of us are perfect. Each person’s skin has a mind of its own.
4. And on that thought, I believe our skin never forgets how old it really is. I was surprised how relaxed my face and neck got after the surgery. 6-8 weeks out, it’s so tight. You think it’s going to stay that way, but it relaxes, along with the neck.
5. Overall I’m happy, and don’t dread looking in the mirror like I did before the surgery.

More of Her Facelift Story:

If you’ve found Erin’s honesty about her facelift helpful and interesting and would like to read more about her journey, including her tips for how to prepare and what to expect, there’s more!

This post is a condensed version with a 2-year update. The original veresion was a 4-part series we did together two years ago. To read her entire journey start to finish, check out these posts:

• Why Erin got a facelift: part 1
• Week 1 recovery – what it’s really like: part 2
• Week 2 recovery – what it’s really like: part 3
• Facelift Finale – Recovery after 12 weeks

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A huge thank you to Erin for being so willing to share her update with us. She truly is one of a kind.

If you’d like to learn more about Erin, Erin G. Burrell is an author and a Tarot card reader. Her book, That’s Why You’re Here, is available on iTunes, Audible, and Amazon. You can connect with Erin through her website or email.

Have a fabulous day,

E