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Sign up for the Slatest<\/a> to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily.<\/em><\/p>\n If an extraterrestrial had a baseline familiarity with New Year\u2019s resolutions and a stable internet connection to Earth, they might surmise the No. 1 resolution for us silly humans in 2025 was a snatched face. Who among us, this year, has not been confronted with the question \u201cDid they have a face-lift?\u201d\u2014if not over dinner, at least in a news headline? From Lindsay Lohan<\/a> to Kris Jenner, face-lift rumors in Hollywood became as ubiquitous as the unfurling of a red carpet. Other names on Hollywood\u2019s 2025 Did They?<\/em> list include: Bradley Cooper, Brad Pitt, and Anne Hathaway, and even younger celebrities like Emma Stone (37) and Jennifer Lawrence (35), who raised eyebrows due to their raised eyebrows. Jenner confirmed<\/a>\u2014on her own terms, albeit after much speculation\u2014that she received a face-lift from New York\u2013based Dr. Steven Lavine ahead of her 70th<\/sup> birthday. Lohan, in conversation with comedian and actress Chloe Fineman for Elle<\/a>, said her rejuvenation is the result of carrot, ginger, lemon, olive oil, and apple juice.<\/p>\n The operative word in this year\u2019s speculative chatter is did,<\/em> as in, \u201cDid she even do anything?\u201d which is even harder to surmise when some at the center of speculation are already<\/em> young, at least compared to the traditionally assumed age for face-lift patrons. It\u2019s worth noting that getting a face-lift or any other cosmetic procedure is technically <\/em>no one\u2019s business. But the tenor of the speculation\u2014and the barely detectable results of the work\u2014have led us into a new era where subtlety reigns supreme. Remember 2024\u2019s quiet luxury craze? 2025 took that trend and added sutures. This has been the year of the quiet face-lift.<\/p>\n Face-lift <\/em>is a blanket term for a surgical intervention most commonly used to reduce the appearance of aging by tightening skin, thus smoothing wrinkles and rejuvenating the face\u2019s contours to communicate: Hello, world, I\u2019m young and full of collagen<\/em>. But much like a patient\u2019s skin, the term has been stretched, stitched, and twisted, as new styles and innovations enter the medical (and thus the cultural) zeitgeist. This year, aesthetics\u2019 It Girl was the deep-plane face-lift: the process<\/a> of going beneath the superficial musculoaponeurotic system and releasing some of the face\u2019s ligaments. In layperson\u2019s terms, this method doesn\u2019t rely on skin tension, and the results can be startlingly natural\u2014the white whale for anyone going under the knife, and the thing that drives Instagram surgeons and the masses to hit record and cry with awe, \u201cWhat the f*ck is her secret?\u201d While injectables, like neuromodulators (Botox) or hyaluronic acid fillers (Juv\u00e9derm, Voluma, Restylane), are used for mild-to-moderate face reshaping and line reduction, the storied face-lift is the most long-lasting solution for sagging skin in a plastic surgeon\u2019s repertoire. But it\u2019s not a permanent fix: Receiving a face-lift in your 30s means another face-lift in your 40s, another in your 50s, another in your 60s\u2014scar tissue accumulating\u2014in perpetuity to maintain the results. Still, the siren\u2019s song of drum-tight skin continues to pique the masses\u2019 curiosity.<\/p>\n When I think back to meandering grocery store aisles or checkout lines in the early aughts, I remember how the face-lifts of old were deemed a spotlight on insecurity\u2014the telltale sign of (almost always) a woman growing long in the tooth, grasping at a means to maintain youth, to be worthy<\/em> of the public\u2019s attention. In 2025, though, with advancements in aesthetics and technology, the face-lift is welcomed with open arms\u2014as long as the results appear natural. No longer a spotlight, face-lifts are more akin to a Birkin: classically chic, Pinterest-board-ready, and most vitally, at least if you\u2019re a denizen of BeautyTok, aspirational.<\/p>\n Thanks to our ongoing crisis of media literacy<\/a>, these very real, very intensive surgeries have been distilled into before-and-after images in a flurry of quick-hit, wait-for-the-big-reveal TikTok videos. According to the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, there has been an explosion in appetite for face-lifts, especially in younger prospective patients\u2014as many as 32 percent<\/a> of face-lift procedures are performed on those aged 35 to 55. As dermatologist Dr. Shereene Idriss commented<\/a> on a viral reel of a young woman getting a deep-plane face-lift at 30 years old, \u201cWe\u2019ve lost the plot on aesthetic procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n