Shame, Shame

In 2025, the facelift is ubiquitous. Does the stigma still exist?

In 2021, I reported a piece called The Facelift’s PR Problem: Why Plastic Surgeons Say the Stigma is Still Very Real. Recently, something on social triggered my memory of this story, but when I searched for it—nada. The outlet that commissioned the article must’ve taken it down.

Anyway, it got me thinking: In 2025, with the undeniable mainstreaming of the facelift, with age limits seemingly falling away and the once-taboo surgery reportedly becoming just another beautification strategy for anyone who can afford it—has the facelift finally shrugged off its cloak of stigma? Or is what we perceive as greater societal acceptance still just a microcosmic phenomenon, amplified by voices from LA, NYC, and other cities that have forever embraced cosmetic surgery unabashedly?

Facelifts for All?

A few weeks ago, I tuned in to facial plastic surgeon Dr. Elizabeth Chance’s Instagram stories. Dr. Chance is based in Charlottesville, Virginia, but her patients (women only) come from all over the country, making her practice a sort of melting pot of female tastes, desires, expectations, attitudes, and concerns. In one reel, Dr. Chance was talking about how so few of her patients allow her to show their B&As online.

She recounted a pre-op conversation, during which, she asks a patient, “You're sure there's no chance that you would share your photos?” Her patient replies, “You know, I would, if it were just me showing the world. But there's so much judgment for this type of thing.” Dr. Chance agrees and goes on to say, “I have operated on some of the most beautiful, interesting, smart, kind, phenomenal women … and such a small percentage of them is willing to show their pictures. And it's not because they're not proud. And it's not because they're not overjoyed. It's because they fear the judgment of others.”

While I 100% believe what she’s saying, it seems to contradict the current media messaging of: Everyone’s getting a facelift and announcing it in the Wall Street Journal. How do we reconcile the two concepts? When I asked Dr. Chance to comment further, she did me one better and sent (with permission) a snippet of a conversation she’d had with a patient about her reluctance to share her results. This particular patient had a facelift at 51 to address jowling and neck laxity after rapidly losing 70 pounds on Ozempic. And she astutely draws a parallel between the stigma of GLP-1s and that of plastic surgery, noting how a slice of society views both as “cheating.”

But the main reason she gives for not broadcasting her results? The cost. Facelift pricing has become a matter of public record in recent years and is frequently discussed in the comments on doctors’ posts. Understandably, some people don’t want the internet to know they have the means to afford a facelift. “The money is definitely a part of it,” this patient says. As a business owner, she adds, “I’d feel weird if our employees saw me on there and figured out how much it costs.” She goes on to say, “I mean, I’m from New England and people don’t really talk about that sort of thing.”

Minor “medical” procedures may be acceptable, she says, if done to repair a problem, like eyelid ptosis, or to correct sun damage. But a facelift? That’s cause for judgment, because many still see it as “something regular people don’t do.”

She also spoke about cruelty in the comments and how this gives her pause. Dr. Chance mentions another patient who declined to share photos, because she didn’t want unkind comments stealing the joy she feels when she looks in the mirror.

Plastic surgery stigma is deeply complex, as it mingles with feelings of guilt, shame, anxiety, envy, vulnerability, and more. I’m re-publishing my stigma story below (with tiny tweaks), because while the 2021 references may feel dated, much of what my experts express still resonates in 2025.