The two-stage face lift.

Skin under tension with "creep", i.e. stretch. This probably accounts for the fact that by far the commonest postoperative complaint of face-lift patients is of inadequate lift. Creep occurs within a few hours of the operation but is at first masked by postoperative oedema. At the second stage half as much or more skin as was excised on the first occasion may be re-excised. The conservative face-lift incision which spares the sideburns is the most conventient for the 2-stage operation.