Blue checkmarks abound on each of seven separate Instagram posts from Marc Jacobs.
He’s sharing his facelift journey with the world, a few days at a time.
Reactions have been mixed: His transparency is either laudable or vain, depending on whom you ask.
Marc is indifferent. He doesn’t even see it as an effort to be transparent.
He “loves the results” and is “very happy,” and that’s the story’s end. Or so it should be.
He #f*ckedgravity and is “living, loving, lifting.”
In the process, he also bent reality, at least as far as facelifts typically go.
Marc Jacobs Didn’t Really Need a Facelift
Sixty-six percent of facelift surgeries are performed on patients aged 55 and older.
Marc Jacobs is 58, placing him right within that range.
But age alone doesn’t make a good facelift candidate.
What does? Loose and elongated fascia, skin laxity, jowling, deep nasolabial folds, and heaviness in the neck.
“There is no exact age when the face needs to be supported by a lifting procedure,” says his performing celebrity facial plastic surgeon Andrew Jacono in The Face of the Future.
To each, their own, but most patients who look as age-appropriate as Marc already did wouldn’t typically get a facelift.
“I don’t think I look bad for 58 years old. I didn’t feel like I had to do this…”
Marc Jacobs
Marc said as much himself, telling Vogue, “I don’t think I look bad for 58 years old. I didn’t feel I had to do this….”
Marc Jacobs Paid ~$50,000. You Might Pay ¼ That Price.
Celebrity facial plastic surgeon Andrew Jacono confirmed that Marc Jacobs was given his signature deep plane facelift—the same roughly $50,000 treatment he gave Dr. Paul Nassif (Botched), and Sonja Morgan (Real Housewives of New York).
If your net worth isn’t a few hundred million dollars and that price sounds staggering, it’s because it is.
The average surgeon’s fee for a facelift in 2020 was $8,000, with additional fees incurred for anesthesia, OR or facility use, and recovery garments, which might bring your total up to twelve and a half or fifteen thousand.
Smoking and Surgery
While it’s unclear if Marc still smokes, he did as late as 2018, and in June 2012 he shared this gem of a pull quote:
“Smoking’s the best. Smoking and sleeping are the two best things in the world.”
Marc Jacobs, June 2012
Assuming smoking is still one of the best things in Marc’s world, he’d have to have put down the pack for a good two to four weeks prior to his surgery with master facial plastic surgeon Andrew Jacono.
There is a small chance that the choice of facelift procedure also had something to do with smoking.
“Interestingly, deep plane lifts are the only facelift type that can be performed safely on smokers,” Dr. Jacono notes in The Face of the Future.
And that would explain the bruising.
Or, rather, the lack of it.
“I love the results. I’m very happy.”
Marc Jacobs
Besting the Bruising
In a photograph he posted to Instagram just three days after his surgery, Marc shows little if any visible signs of bruising.
But for most facelift patients, bruising and swelling typically reach their peak on days three and four, and will likely persist for at least several weeks, according to Dr. Robert Improta, writing for the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
So what accounts for the rapid-heal and virtually imperceptible bruising?
Jacono explains, “Because the skin is never separated in a deep plane lift, these patients get less bruising.”
The facial skin and the underlying muscles are lifted as one unit for a better, less stretched, pulled, or windblown look, and longer-lasting results.
“The better I feel about myself, the better I’m able to be to others.”
Marc Jacobs