Your brows are a huge component in your overall appearance. Furrow your brows, and you’ll immediately look inquisitive or upset. Raise your brows, and you’ll look surprised or excited. Because brows are so expressive and almost always in motion, they are one of the first areas of the face to show signs of aging. As you age, you’ll notice fine lines and creases between the brows, around the outside of brows, and above and below the eyebrows.
These wrinkles around the eyebrows are a normal sign of aging, but you may be considering ways to treat wrinkles to get a more youthful, rejuvenated look. Many people with aging skin turn to surgical and non-surgical solutions to help manage their appearance. The brow line is a common area of concern, and there are numerous ways to lift the brows and smooth the skin surrounding the eyebrows, including a brow lift. A brow lift is a cosmetic procedure targeting the skin around the eyebrows and the forehead.
You might be considering brow lift surgery and wondering if there are less invasive options for treating the skin around your forehead and eyebrows. Here’s what you need to know about brow lift procedures, including how much a brow lift costs, the pros and cons of brow lift surgery, and alternatives to a brow lift procedure you may want to consider.
What Happens to Your Skin With Age?
Your skin is in a constant cycle of renewal, but the process slows down with age. Researchers have estimated that by age 25, most people make 1% less collagen every year, a vital protein that helps give the skin its structure. Elastin production also decreases with age, meaning that skin loses it’s resiliency - or ability to bounce back after being stretched. This may cause your skin to appear slack or even saggy.
In addition to the production of collagen and elastin slowing with age, your facial muscles age gradually lose strength and tone with age. Facial muscles provide structure and support for the skin of the face. When muscles lose their tone, the skin that sits on top of the facial muscles appears loose and may be is more prone to wrinkles.
Why Do Brows Drop With Age?
Skin aging causes the forehead and eyelids to crease and sag, which in turn may cause the eyebrows to droop. In some cases, you may experience asymmetry of the eyebrows, when one brow is drooping lower than the other. Drooping brows are usually only a matter of aesthetics, but in some cases, skin aging can cause brow ptosis. Brow ptosis occurs when the eyebrow droops so much that it impairs your vision. If you find yourself having to raise your eyebrows to get a clearer view of something or holding your eyebrow or eyelid open, you may be experiencing brow ptosis.
Whether you’re seriously researching a brow lift or just want to get a feel for treatment options to rejuvenate the skin around your eyes and forehead, there are a plethora of procedures both at-home and in-office that can help you achieve lifted brows.
What Are the Options for Brow Lifts?
There are several popular brow lift options that will help you achieve your desired result. From surgical brow lifts from a licensed plastic surgeon to non-surgical brow lifting treatments, here’s everything you need to know about procedures to lift brows and smooth the forehead!
Surgical Brow Lift Recovery, Cost, and Risks
Brow lifts are cosmetic surgical procedures performed by a licensed cosmetic surgeon. There are various kinds of brow lifts, but most are considered invasive surgeries, requiring general anesthesia and downtime.
Brow lift surgery is generally performed as an outpatient procedure and takes under two hours. After your surgery, you can expect bruising, swelling, mild to moderate pain, and removal of sutures in 7 to 10 days.
Recovery lasts several weeks and involves keeping your head elevated, only performing light activities, and bruising. You can usually expect 1-2 weeks of downtime after a brow lift procedure.
The typical brow lift procedure costs around $3,900 - but this figure does not include anesthesia, operating room fees, and other costs for your procedure. The cost of a brow lift surgery depends on your surgeon, location, and the type of brow lift surgery you receive.
Types of Brow Lift Surgery
- Endoscopic Brow Lift: During this procedure, a surgeon will make small incisions just behind your hairline, pulling the soft tissue of the forehead up and suturing it into place for a tighter, more lifted forehead and brows.
- Temporal Brow Lift: This procedure aims to lift the brow by creating incisions near your temples, where the skin will be lifted and sutured into place.
- Direct Brow Lift: A direct brow lift does not treat the skin on the forehead as much as it repositions the eyebrows themselves. This technique is most frequently used in individuals who have nerve damage or partial facial paralysis. During a direct brow lift procedure, your surgeon will make small incisions directly above the brow to subtly raise the brow before suturing it back into place.
- Coronal Brow Lift: This significantly invasive forehead lift is done by making incisions on the crown of the head (in the shape of a headband). The skin is then stretched into place, excess skin is removed, and the skin is sutured into place. A coronal brow lift is usually a viable option for patients with severe brow sagging and loose, wrinkled skin on the forehead and eyelids.
- Hairline Brow Lift: This type of brow lift is primarily used to correct a high hairline and involves an incision in the middle of the forehead where the skin is pulled together and excess skin is removed.
Because a brow lift surgery is an invasive procedure, it does come with higher risks. The most common risks of brow lifts are scarring, loss of brow sensation and movement, or an intense, itchy scalp. As with any surgery, there is some risk of infection with brow lift surgery. To minimize your risk of negative brow lift side effects, be sure to seek out a credentialed plastic surgeon and follow all after-care instructions to keep your incisions clean and free of bacteria.
Injectables
Sagging skin and drooping eyebrows on the forehead can also be treated with injectables. Injectable ‘freezers’ like BOTOX® temporarily paralyze the facial muscles, freezing them into place. A licensed cosmetic injector or nurse aesthetician can use BOTOX® or other injectables to lift the brows, then freeze the underlying facial muscles to keep brows from falling.
Injectables are considerably less invasive than surgical brow lift procedures. You do not need any anesthesia to receive injections, and getting injections is fairly comfortable. Most patients report mild discomfort or a ‘pinching’ sensation while receiving injections, which subsides immediately after treatment. You may experience some mild redness or swelling directly at the injection site.
After receiving an injectable brow lift, you should not lie down, sweat, or rub at the injection area for several hours. This will help the injectable toxin to ‘settle’ in the muscles and mitigate the risk of migration. If you follow the proper aftercare instructions for injectables, a brow lift with BOTOX® is fairly safe.
Along with requiring little downtime and being fairly safe, an injectable brow lift is much less expensive than a surgical one. BOTOX®, the most popular facial freezer injectable, usually costs between $12 and $14 per unit. Your nurse injector will be able to assess how many units you will need for your injectable brow lift, but the average total cost is between $500-$1200.
The one major downside of injectables as compared to surgical brow lifts is that injections must be maintained every 6-9 weeks on average to maintain results. While a surgical brow lift lasts for years - if not a lifetime! - you will need to continue receiving injections to keep the facial muscles frozen and your brows in place.
Skincare and Microcurrent
If you aren’t quite ready to visit a plastic surgeon for a brow lift or want a needle-free brow lift treatment, consider microcurrent therapy. Microcurrent therapy is a proven method of toning and lifting the skin and facial muscles for a more sculpted, lifted appearance. This tried-and-true treatment is ideal for targeting the brows to raise the eyebrows, tighten hooded eyelids, and smooth the forehead - all from the comfort of home with no downtime!
How Can NuFACE Lift the Look of Your Brows?
NuFACE is the leader in microcurrent technology with over 20 years of expertise. With professional and at-home options, NuFACE can help you get a non-invasive brow lift.
How It Works
Microcurrent technology uses low-level, electrical currents that mimic your body’s natural ionic flow to reenergize the skin and underlying facial muscles. This helps to tighten, lift, and tone the skin and muscles to create a more youthful, sculpted appearance. With a NuFACE brow lift, you will tighten and tone the skin and muscles on the forehead, then tone the muscles beneath the brows, creating a tighter forehead and lifted brows.
The best part of a microcurrent brow lift treatment is that it takes minutes, requires no downtime, and is virtually painless. You may see results with just one brow lifting treatment and may yield more long-term results with continued treatments in just minutes each day.
How To Lift Your Brows With NuFACE
Lifting your brows at home with NuFACE only takes a few minutes with this simple routine. For a guided treatment tutorial, download the NuFACE Smart App and select ‘High Brow Treatment’ from the treatment menu.
- PREP: Begin by cleansing skin with a gentle, oil-free cleanser, like NuFACE Prep-N-Glow ® Facial Wipes. These dual-sided wipes remove makeup and impurities to allow for optimal microcurrent conduction and exfoliate the skin with the beaded microdot side to reveal a fresh, glowing complexion. Spritz Supercharged IonPlex® Facial Mist onto the skin to enhance hydration and prepare for your microcurrent treatment.
- BOOST: Apply a few drops of your favorite NuFACE Ionized Super Booster to your fingertips and gently massage into clean, dry skin.
- ACTIVATE AND LIFT: Before you begin using your device, apply your favorite NuFACE Activator in a mask-like layer to the area you’ll be treating. Using your NuFACE Microcurrent Device, perform glides and holds on your skin
We recommend the TRINITY+ and Effective Lip & Eye Attachment to target the skin around the browline. The Effective Lip & Eye Attachment helps you treat the delicate skin around the eyes while raising brows.
Raise Your Brows
Your skin changes with age - and so do your eyebrows! If drooping brows have you feeling down, consider all of your treatment options to get a brow lift. There are multiple kinds of procedures, injections, and at-home remedies to achieve lifted brows and smooth skin. For a smooth forehead and lifted brows with no needles, downtime, or office visits, consider using NuFACE Microcurrent Therapy for a brow lift you’ll love.
Sources:
[Muscular aging and its involvement in facial aging: the Face Recurve concept] | PubMed
Disclaimer: BOTOX® is a registered trademark of Allergan Inc.
