A growing number of women are turning to the Deep Plane facelift, a more complex surgical technique that can cost up to 130,000 shekels and lasts about four hours. The procedure, which can produce natural-looking results that last roughly a decade, has recently gone viral, with examples ranging from Zehavit, a 41-year-old interior designer and mother of a toddler, to Kris Jenner.
Zehavit had the operation about two and a half years ago and says her face has continued to improve since then. She says the transformation was so pronounced that she stopped wearing makeup entirely, saying, “I can afford not to wear any makeup at all. Other than moisturizer, I do not put anything else on. My face simply looks good enough.” Although most facelift patients undergo surgery only after age 50, her result reportedly erased about 10 years from her appearance.
The article explains that Deep Plane surgery is different from older facelifts because it goes beneath the skin and even below the muscle, rather than simply tightening the surface. Surgeons work through small incisions in the neck and around the ear, lifting the platysma muscle, removing deep fat, reconnecting the muscle, and repositioning deeper facial tissues to restore a more youthful jawline and neck angle without the “pulled” look of traditional facelifts. The technique has existed for about 35 years, but improvements over the past decade have made it especially popular in the United States and then in Israel.
In Israel, Zehavit paid about 80,000 shekels, a midrange price for the category. Doctors say a combined facelift, neck lift, lip lift, brow lift, eyelid surgery and fat injections can reach 130,000 shekels, while the same work in the United States can cost up to 1 million shekels. The procedure is now the fourth most common cosmetic surgery in Israel, after liposuction, nose surgery and eyelid surgery, and only about 20 Israeli plastic surgeons are considered highly experienced in the Deep Plane method.
The piece also contrasts Deep Plane surgery with the simpler SMAS facelift, which is believed to be what Jenner underwent last year. SMAS does not separate muscle from bone and usually holds for only three to four years, which is why Jenner has reportedly been comparing herself with actresses such as Denise Richards, who had a Deep Plane facelift with more durable results. The article notes that 53% to 54% of women experience short-term post-surgery depression lasting three to four weeks, alongside weeks of swelling and bruising, while emphasizing that the operation is meant to restore confidence rather than make patients look like someone else.
