Threadlifts: More Than Just Stringing You Along

Hair should be dyed and shampooed the night before, since hair washing is not permitted for at least three days afterward and coloring not for six weeks.The procedure itself is simple and performed right in the doctor's office. The first step, which requires the patient's active input, is to determine the directions (or vectors) of pull necessary for eliminating the jowls and drooping. A map of these lines is drawn on the brow, face, jawline, and neck with a surgical marker. Next, the entire length of each vector is anesthetized with local anesthesia (usually lidocaine with a small amount of epinephrine to constrict the regional blood vessels and diminish bruising).A long, very narrow needle is then inserted through a tiny puncture at the hairline and threaded in a zig-zag fashion underneath the skin along each of the mapped lines as the overlying skin is pulled taught over the advancing needle. The exit points are the jowls and folds that need the correction.Once all the threads are positioned, the patient sits upright and the doctor contours and massages each one into place and then snips off any excess flush with the skin. The cosmetic results are immediate.Strips of flesh-colored paper tape, which are removed in three to five days, are applied over the vector lines. They are placed more to remind patients that they must treat their skin gingerly like a china doll for the next few days. During the first week, the use of an inflatable travel pillow for sleeping is advisable in order to minimize inadvertent pressure on the treated areas.A full-face procedure usually takes about an hour and a neck, jowl or brow lift alone, each about twenty minutes. The total number of threads needed depends upon the number of sites Best Eyelash Tinting in Staten Island requiring lifting.Post-procedure discomfort is unusual, and usually handled by two extra strength acetaminophen tablets (Tylenol(TM)). Some bruising and slight swelling are common, but easily coverable with makeup. Applying ice can be helpful for reducing the swelling and any soreness. Doctors sometimes prescribe arnica capsules to limit bruising and oral antibiotics to reduce any chance of infection from the puncture wounds.Complications of threadlifting are uncommon. Puckering of the overlying skin sometimes is visible, but this can be easily managed with massage. Sometimes a tiny end of the thread may work its way out of the exit site. This is simply trimmed off flush with the skin.Immediately after the procedure, the skin is typically, smooth, tight and unjowled at the exit sites, but may be lax and corrugated ("bunched") closer to the hairline entry points. This is not permanent and is no reason for concern. In the course of the next seven to fourteen days, the skin undergoes a process called "tissue creep" in which the bunched areas gradually slide forward, smoothing themselves out along the lengths of the underlying threads.Because the threads are most vulnerable to slipping or dislodging during the first few days, heavy exercise should be avoided for about two weeks, or preferably three weeks afterward. It's not so much that the physical exertion itself is harmful. It's rather that most exercises cause people to grimace, and it is these facial motions that may negatively impact on the results.