About Renew You

For years people kept asking whether I was unwell or worn out when I felt perfectly well. It was not tiredness. It was my face sliding downward: the jowls forming, the neck going slack, the jaw losing its line. No cream, facial, or amount of sleep was ever going to put that back, because the problem was not on the surface. It was the deeper tissue letting go.

I am Paula Winters, and Renew You began as my own attempt to understand what could be done about that.

Why I built this

In my late fifties I started looking seriously at a facelift, and I hit the wall everyone hits. On one side, clinic pages full of glowing promises and soft-focus photographs. On the other, forums swinging between delight and disaster. Between them, almost nothing that answered the plain questions I actually had.

What does a facelift lift, and what does it leave untouched. Why did one surgeon offer me a deep-plane lift and another a SMAS one, and was that a real difference or just wording. How rough are the first two weeks, honestly. And the question the brochures always dodge: how many years before it all quietly comes back.

So I had the operation, kept notes from the inside, and turned what I learned into the site you are reading. It is written from my own experience outward, then handed to a surgeon to check.

What this site covers

I write about the facelift and facial rejuvenation in plain, specific language, starting from real experience rather than a sales pitch:

• Facelift surgery: techniques, candidacy, recovery, risks and cost, the full picture in one place
• Deep-plane versus SMAS facelift, what the two approaches actually change and whether one wins
• Facelift recovery week by week, the swelling, the bruising, and the slow reveal over months
• Am I a good candidate for a facelift, who it suits and who it does not
• How long a facelift lasts, why the “ten years” figure is a range, not a promise

I do not diagnose, recommend particular surgeons or clinics, or handle emergencies, and nothing here replaces a surgeon who can examine your own face.

How the clinical side is kept honest

I am a patient, not a doctor. Every article that touches the medicine is checked by a consultant plastic surgeon, Mr Alexander Frost, FRCS (Plast), before it is published. The lived experience is mine: the recovery, the mirror, the reveal. The clinical facts, the way techniques are compared, and the figures on longevity and complication rates are signed off by someone trained to perform this surgery. How that works in practice is set out in the Editorial Policy.

Get in touch

I would genuinely like to hear from others weighing up or recovering from a facelift. You can reach me through the Contact page. Please also read the Medical Disclaimer: this site is general education and one person’s account, not medical advice and not a substitute for your own surgeon.