Brow lift or surgical brow lift: the right technique to brighten your gaze

What is a brow lift (surgical brow lift)?

A brow lift, also called a surgical brow lift, is the procedure that raises drooping or overly low brows to open up the eyes. It restores the natural distance between the lashes and the brows, often reduced by sagging forehead tissue, and gives the eyes back their original openness. Depending on the case, it is used just as much to enhance eyes that have always sat too low as to rejuvenate a face marked by time.

• Anesthesia: local, most often
• Duration: about one hour, as outpatient surgery
• Social downtime: 8 to 15 days if bruising occurs
• Results: long-lasting, stabilizing at around 3 months
• Price: €2,000 to €5,000 depending on the technique

A brow can be viewed in three parts: the head, near the nose, the body, in the middle, and the tail, on the outside. In the aesthetic ideal, the tail sits slightly higher than the head and body, which gives the eyes their natural openness. It is precisely this architecture that a brow lift corrects once it has dropped.

Is this for you?

Good candidates for a brow lift are not defined by age alone. Low, flat brows, or a brow tail that dips down toward the outer corner of the eye, give the eyes a look perceived as sad, stern or tired, even in someone who is well rested and in a good mood. This configuration can develop over the years, but it is sometimes present from birth: younger patients, whose brows have always sat low, also come in for consultations for this reason.

The procedure therefore answers two distinct requests, which often overlap: enhancing eyes whose architecture never quite worked, or rejuvenating eyes weighed down by loose skin. The right cause still needs to be identified. When it is the upper eyelid itself that is encroaching on the eyes, with excess skin localized just above the lash line, blepharoplasty, the procedure for the eyelid itself, is the right indication, not a brow lift.

Which technique, which scar?

Four surgical approaches can raise a brow, for the same goal but very different scars. The choice depends on the area to be corrected, the density of the brow and each patient’s hairline.

Direct brow lift removes a thin strip of skin just above the brow, with the widest part of that strip placed at the outer third. The incision is hidden at the upper edge of the brow hair, and the lift achieved ranges from a few millimetres to about 1 cm. Simple and long-lasting, this technique is particularly well suited to full brows, to men (whose hair hides the scar) and to patients with a high hairline, which limits the other approaches.

The temporal approach uses an incision hidden in the hair, at the temple: this is the temporal brow lift, the temporal-approach variant we cover in a dedicated article, reserved for an isolated drop of the tail of the brow. The endoscopic brow lift uses small incisions in the scalp and a miniature camera to limit visible scarring. The forehead lift, lastly, treats the entire brow along with horizontal forehead lines, with a scar that runs across the full width of the scalp. One variant is worth mentioning, the browpexy, a fixation of the brow without skin resection, sometimes combined with blepharoplasty.

How does the procedure work?

A brow lift is most often performed under local anesthesia, as outpatient surgery, lasting about one hour. Two pre-operative consultations precede the procedure, at the end of which a detailed quote is provided.

The day of the procedure begins with pre-operative markings, made while the patient is standing with their brows at rest, to precisely trace the area of skin to be removed. At the Rive Droite Paris Étoile plastic surgery clinic, this step is decisive: « the pre-operative markings set everything: they must stay precise, without excess, so the eyes open up without ever looking transformed, » says Dr Vincent Hunsinger. The surgeon then removes the planned thin strip of skin, and closes with a careful suture, matched to the chosen technique. The patient goes home the same day; the stitches are removed around day 7 to day 10, unless absorbable sutures were used.

Recovery: the scar over time

Recovery from a brow lift is generally straightforward: pain remains almost nonexistent and is controlled with simple painkillers, while mild swelling sets in for about a week. When bruising occurs, social downtime extends to 8 to 15 days, the time it takes to fade completely.

The scar, meanwhile, follows its own timeline: red for about 3 months, it can be covered with makeup from the end of the first month, which allows it to be hidden during its most visible phase. Strict sun protection is then required for a year, to prevent any abnormal pigmentation. If it remains slightly visible after that period, micropigmentation can help fade it further, generally between 12 and 18 months after the procedure. After the stitches are removed, regularly massaging the scar, as directed by the surgeon, also helps it become less noticeable over time.

Complications specific to this surgery remain rare: the occasional epidermal cyst, localized hair loss above the brow, or altered sensation in the area, which returns to normal within a year in the vast majority of cases.

Results: immediate and long-lasting

The result can be seen as soon as the first dressing is removed: the brows are visibly raised, and the difference shows immediately in the mirror. It then evolves gradually, as the swelling fully goes down, stabilizing at around 3 months, and staying long-lasting after that.

The goal remains a natural result: eyes that are open and rested, without a frozen brow or a permanently surprised expression. This lift, achieved surgically, stays durable over time, unlike the non-surgical solutions detailed below.

Non-surgical options: the Botox brow lift and other alternatives

When the brow drop remains slight and is mainly muscular in origin, a non-surgical solution can be enough to buy some time. The Botox brow lift consists of botulinum toxin injections performed at the clinic: the product relaxes the muscles that pull the brow down, which lets the forehead’s lifting muscles act unopposed and raises the tail of the brow by about 1 to 2 mm. The effect lasts 3 to 6 months, at a price generally between €380 and €500.

Hyaluronic acid, injected under the brow, provides support and a slight volume, without actually raising its position. Absorbable thread lifts, with a time-limited effect, can help temporarily but wear off after a few months. None of these three solutions replaces surgery when there is real excess skin: only surgical resection removes the excess skin, while toxin and threads merely shift a muscular balance or temporarily pull on the tissue.

Brow lift prices in Paris

Expect to pay €2,000 to €5,000 for a brow lift in Paris, the range explained by the technique chosen (direct resection, temporal, endoscopic or forehead approach) and by the type of anesthesia. This amount is always detailed in a personalized quote, provided at the consultation after an examination of the eyes and a discussion of your expectations. As with any purely cosmetic procedure, this surgery is not covered by French national health insurance.

A namesake: the beauty-salon brow lift

The term « brow lift » is also used, in beauty salons, for a semi-permanent styling of the brow hairs, achieved through a simple cosmetic treatment. With no needle and no surgical gesture, this treatment acts only on the hair, shaping it and sometimes tinting it, with no effect whatsoever on the skin or the muscle. It should not be confused with the surgical brow lift presented in this article, which changes the actual position of the brow.

To assess your indication and discover the technique best suited to your eyes, the team at Rive Droite Paris Étoile welcomes you for a consultation, ready to listen to your goals. You can book an appointment at the clinic, in the 17th arrondissement.