Why do facelifts look so unnatural? What prevents plastic surgeons from making seniors look like they did when they were 30?

Question

When a 70 year old gets a facelift and plastic surgery, it looks like a 70 year old who had a facelift. Why is it impossible to convincingly reverse the effects of aging by tightening skin and re-sculpting?

In: 4690

Answer 1

This kind of has two answers.

First is because the human brain has developed to recognize and memorize faces. It’s one of the things our brain is best at. Which is why we see faces where there aren’t any, like the front of cars or in the clouds.

So, you have to be really really perfect to trick the brain, because you’re basically trying to convince the brain at what it is best at, that a face is a natural face. Which in on its own is extremely difficult to do.

But even if you did get the face perfect, you have more problems, the rest of the body.

If you see a 30 year old face on a 60 year old neck, that is going to look unnatural, or a 30 year old face with the hair of a 60 year old, that is going to look unnatural. The human body is one whole thing, so when one part doesn’t seem like it matches the rested that looks unnatural to us.