How fast can I recover from a facelift?

Question: I have scheduled my facelift and now have a very important special engagement that will take place three weeks afterwards. What will I look like by then? Will people be able to tell if I had surgery?

Answer: Usually, two to three weeks after surgery, bruising is gone, but there is still a little bit of swelling. It is the kind of thing that can be easily covered up with makeup in most cases. I think three weeks is reasonably safe time after surgery, but then again, it depends exactly what is being done in the surgery. Personally, I have noticed that with aggressive fat grafting around the eyes, and with cheek lifts, swelling persists longer than with other procedures.