Month 3, and the scar behind my left ear is a raised pink ridge while the right side has vanished. Will it settle?

Some of you might remember me fretting about my aunts in the autumn. Well, I did it, lift in January, and the irony is enormous: the face looks lovely and natural, nobody has said the g-word (gale), and instead I'm obsessing about the one thing I never thought to worry about. The scars.

Right side: textbook. Fine white line, I have to part the hair and hunt for it.

Left side: behind the ear there's a ridge about 3cm long. Raised, pink, firm, and it ITCHES, usually at night or when my collar touches it. It hasn't opened or wept, nothing dramatic, it's just very much THERE, three months on, while its twin has disappeared. My follow-up isn't for another five weeks and I've started wearing my hair down on the left like some sort of lopsided curtain.

Did anyone else's sides heal this differently? And did the raised one come good in the end?

Mine did exactly this, and behind the left ear too, which apparently is coincidence rather than conspiracy. The skin behind the ear takes more tension than the bits in front, and my two sides were clearly sewn by the same hands yet healed like strangers.

Timeline, since that's what you really want: raised and pink until about month 5, itchy phase peaked around month 4 (the itching drove me madder than the appearance, cold compress at night helped me), then it softened over the summer almost without my noticing. By month 9 it was flat. At a year, silvery. My nurse had me massaging it and using silicone strips through the middle months, but that was my team's plan for my scar, so put yours in front of yours.

Also, five weeks is a long time to sit on a worry. My clinic was happy to look at photos between appointments. Ask; the lopsided curtain is no way to live.

Third vote for "the sides are siblings, not twins". Left took five months longer than right for me. The one that worried me most is now the one I can't find.

Cheryl, first, I'm so pleased about the face itself, and I remember your autumn thread, so this update made me smile.

My own scar story, for the pile: at three months I had a ridge behind one ear that I checked so often my husband asked if I'd lost an earring. At six months I was still checking, but with a finger rather than a mirror because there was less and less to see. Somewhere around month ten I realised I'd simply stopped. That is how scar healing tends to end, not with a milestone but with forgetting.

I've put photos of where the incisions run and what each month of fading typically looks like in the guide to facelift scars, which should help you place your ridge on the map. And do take up Annelise's suggestion rather than waiting five weeks with a worry: clinics expect these questions, mine answered dozens from me. A scar that keeps thickening, opens, or becomes more painful is the version that shouldn't wait for a routine follow-up, and only your own team can tell you which kind yours is from a proper look.

Update, two months on. Sent photos to the clinic the same week (they replied within a day, entirely unbothered, said it was healing normally and gave me their own instructions for it). The ridge started softening in late May and the itching has almost gone. Still pink, noticeably flatter. Hair back in a ponytail as of last Tuesday, which those of you who remember the curtain will recognise as a personal triumph.

The aunts, for the record, remain the only gale-facing members of this family.