Should a Face-lift Cost $3,000—or $300,000?

Hindustan Times

6 days ago

The true cost of a face-lift is increasingly difficult to pin down.
The face-lift—once the embarrassing butt of Joan Rivers jokes and the well-kept secret of society types—is now unabashedly normal. With prominent women including Kris Jenner and Barbara Corcoran, as well as more everyday types publicly copping to surgery, face-lifts have become a collective obsession in 2025. And with that comes rampant speculation about their price. Should a Face-lift Cost $3,000—or $300,000?
'The most common question that we get is, 'How much is this going to cost?'' said Dr. Anthony Youn, a plastic surgeon in the suburbs of Detroit.
It's a question that's increasingly difficult to answer. The range in prices for face-lifts is extreme, with cheap jobs in Turkey, Mexico and Brazil running as little as $3,000, and some of the most elite New York City and Los Angeles surgeons charging over $300,000. Befuddled by the gulf in prices, women flock to social media, group chats and whispered confabs to debate whether you get what you pay for—or if the luxury jobs are a case of The Emperor's New Face.
'It's bananas, truly,' said Melinda A. Farina, the founder of consultancy Beauty Brokers Inc., which advises patients on cosmetic procedures and doctors. 'I know doctors who charge $12,000 for a deep-plane face-lift, and I know doctors who charge $350,000 for a deep-plane face-lift.'
'Face-lift' is a blanket term for several procedures that might perk up the face, often done in combination with one another. Someone might get a lower face-lift combined with a blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery), or a 'mini lift,' a less invasive procedure that tends to focus on the lower face. SMAS face-lifts target the superficial muscle and tissue layers, while a deep plane involves complex deep dissection.
Surgery prices can be opaque. Most of the doctors I spoke with were hesitant to put a simple price tag on services, given differences in anatomy and complexity. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons quotes the average American face-lift as $11,395 for the fee alone, which can result in a total cost between $20,000 and $50,000 with anesthesia and facility costs.
Where you get the work done matters. Anesthesia and operating room fees tend to be cheaper internationally, and in more rural areas. An American woman named Michelle Wood recently went viral documenting her face-lift and recovery in Guadalajara, Mexico, which cost about $15,000. American doctors tend to be wary of budget jobs abroad, especially in regard to risks and recovery. Six-figure face-lifts are largely a New York City and Los Angeles phenomenon.
Perhaps no one has done more for the 2025 luxury face-lift than Jenner. Jenner confirmed she had a face-lift with Dr. Steven Levine, a top New York surgeon whose face-lifts can get easily into the six figures. Levine's office, which did not respond to requests for comment, has been bombarded by face-lift hopefuls since Jenner.
High prices can be a way of managing inbound requests, said Farina. She said she noticed prices rising during Covid, when more people staring at their own faces on Zoom meant more demand for procedures that doctors couldn't immediately satisfy. 'I think the increase in prices was more of a deterrent. Like if we raise the fees, that's going to eliminate the less desirable patient pool that we want to bring into our practice.'
Covid was also a turning point when doctors became more active on social media, raising their profile and, in turn, prices, according to Farina and Youn. Big press moments or celebrity endorsements can also send a doctor's prices upward.
Kris Jenner confirmed she had a face-lift with Dr. Steven Levine, a top New York surgeon whose face-lifts can get easily into the six figures.
So do you get what you pay for? There isn't a straightforward answer. 'The price doesn't always match the level and expertise that goes into the surgery—but often it can,' said Dr. Ashkan Ghavami, a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills.
Ghavami offers multiple levels of face-lifts at his office, with the most complex interventions generally getting into the six figures. 'Certain procedures and techniques are definitely worth it,' he said. 'People are paying $50 to $75k for a purse they could lose, and you're asking to pay maybe $100,000, $150,000 for the right face-lift technique—It is your entire face.'
Dr. Lara Devgan, a New York City plastic surgeon whose surgical schedule books out a year in advance, said it was difficult to discuss pricing because what we call a face-lift could involve several smaller procedures. Together, these procedures could fall somewhere in the $100,000 to $350,000 range at her office, resulting in what she calls a 'very beautiful, ineffable, indescribable' outcome.
Ghavami said there was also an element of self-selecting prestige at the upper level of plastic surgery. 'It's a little bit like the Hamptons, the country-club thing. It's kind of an elite club—these doctors can't be open to the public.'
Plenty of Americans who want plastic surgery but don't care about being part of an elite club are getting face-lifts in the United States. One of the rare surgeons who posts his prices on his website, Youn in Detroit charges around $25,000 for a face-lift. He said patients wait over a year to see him.
Marilyn McKenna, a 55-year-old personal trainer in the Seattle area, said she had a ballpark idea of spending around $50,000 on her Los Angeles face-lift with Dr. Daniel Gould. She ended up paying $45,900, and was happy with the result. 'I buy my workout clothes at Old Navy, but I'm not really trying to save money on a face-lift,' she said.
The costs of a face-lift don't end when the surgeon cleans her scalpel. While many choose to recuperate at home with the help of family and friends, one can also opt for round-the-clock private nursing, which can run $100 an hour or more. Kelly Greytok, an in-demand private recovery nurse who said 95% of her business is face-lift patients, charges $300 and up an hour. She travels everywhere in the U.S. and internationally, and will stay with patients for a minimum of three days. She said for one recent Midwestern job, the patient spent more on the nursing services than the face-lift itself.
Luxury postoperative care centers are thriving, especially in the tony parts of Los Angeles. Many are linked with hotels, and have the ability to whisk celebrities and high-profile patients directly in through discreet entrances. One, Immortelle, operates out of the Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverly Hills with pricing starting at $3200 per night for services including concierge pharmacy services, reiki therapy and lymphatic massages.
Prices aren't likely to stabilize anytime soon. Budget jobs and ultraluxury procedures, as well as the public's fascination with them, will continue to proliferate.
'You'd never write an article about how much it costs to renovate a kitchen,' said Devgan, pointing out that a kitchen renovation could mean replacing the microwave or 'gutting the whole thing with Carrara marble.'
Write to Rory Satran at [e-mail]