Facelift

Dr. Julius Few performs SMAS-based facelift surgery from his John Hancock Center practice in Chicago, offering the standard facelift, deep plane facelift, and mini facelift to address facial descent, jowling, and neck laxity. The deep plane technique lifts the SMAS and the overlying facial soft tissue as a composite, releasing key ligamentous attachments and repositioning tissue along a natural vector with minimal tension on the skin closure. Mini facelift addresses early-stage ageing with smaller incisions. Neck lift can be performed as a standalone or combined procedure. Dr. Few's practice is positioned at the ultra-premium tier of the Chicago market.

Facelift surgery at The Few Institute for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery represents one of the highest-complexity, highest-credential facelift options available in Chicago. Dr. Julius W. Few Jr. is a Harvard-trained, board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon with over two decades of specialised aesthetic experience, and his facelift technique reflects both deep anatomical knowledge and a philosophy of restoring the youthful architecture of the face rather than simply redistributing surface tissue. The practice offers three facelift variants calibrated to the degree and distribution of facial ageing. The standard SMAS facelift accesses the superficial musculoaponeurotic system — the fibromuscular layer that underlies the facial subcutaneous fat — through incisions placed in the hairline above the ear, within the helical crease, and into the postauricular sulcus. The SMAS is elevated, repositioned superiorly and posterolaterally, and secured to recreate the vertical facial vector lost to gravitational descent. Excess skin is conservatively redraped and trimmed without tension. The deep plane facelift extends this approach by releasing the zygomatic and masseteric cutaneous ligaments and elevating the SMAS together with the overlying skin and fat as a composite flap. This allows repositioning of the entire mid-face and jowl unit rather than the SMAS alone, producing more durable correction of heavy nasolabial folds and midface ptosis without any tension on the skin. The mini facelift targets the lower face and upper neck through a shorter incision confined to the periauricular region, making it appropriate for patients with earlier or more localised facial laxity who do not require the full extent of the deep plane approach. Neck lift, which can be incorporated into any facelift or performed as a standalone procedure, addresses platysmal banding, excess submental fat, and loose neck skin through a combination of platysmaplasty, submental liposuction, and posterior skin excision. Given the ultra-premium positioning of the practice — with facelift starting at approximately $50,000 — patients typically choose The Few Institute for complex primary cases, high-profile revision surgery, or when seeking a surgeon with a national and international reputation. Chicago patients at the Gold Coast location benefit from a Streeterville office setting with the full complement of supporting anaesthetic, nursing, and surgical infrastructure required for cases of this complexity.