The neck lift

Many people arrive talking about the face and pointing at the neck. It is one of the most common patterns in facial ageing: the jawline softens, the skin beneath the chin loosens, and two vertical cords appear down the front of the neck.

What is actually happening

Three separate things usually occur together, which is why one treatment rarely fixes everything. Jowls form when soft tissue from the cheek descends past the jawline. Neck bands appear when the platysma muscle separates down the midline. Fullness under the chin comes from fat and loose skin softening the angle between chin and neck.

What the surgery involves

Depending on what is found, a neck lift can include tightening the platysma muscle, addressing fat beneath the chin, and redraping loose skin. Incisions are placed around the ear and sometimes a small one under the chin, in the natural creases where the eye does not travel.

Why it is usually done with a facelift

Because the jowl descends from the cheek above, lifting the neck alone can leave an odd result: a tidy neck beneath a heavy lower face. This is why a neck lift is so often considered alongside a deep plane facelift, where the deep layer is repositioned and the jawline is restored from above as well as below.

What about non-surgical options

Energy devices and injectables have a genuine place in early or mild changes. What they cannot do is lift tissue that has truly descended or repair a separated muscle. The honest comparison is in non-surgical options, assessed honestly.

Recovery follows broadly the same shape as a facelift, set out in recovery, week by week. The fuller explanation of the anatomy is in neck lift and jawline, explained.