Woman, 53, Let Her Plastic Surgeon Husband Give Her a Dramatic Facelift. She Reveals the Shocking Price Tag

At 53, Neda Karam says she feels just as young as she looks — and she has her husband to thank for it.

Neda, married to San Diego–based plastic surgeon Dr. Amir Karam, had long considered getting a facelift. Over time, she found herself becoming less happy with how she appeared in photos.

“When I would take pictures at parties, even when I was dressed up with makeup, I could take 40 pictures and maybe like one,” she recalls. “I started not liking my pictures anymore, and I would see in the mirror that I was getting jowls. You could just kind of see everything starting to come down, and the facial shape I used to recognize wasn’t the same anymore.”

Unlike many patients who spend months researching surgeons, Neda already knew who she wanted to perform her procedure. Putting her trust in her husband, she says, was a “no-brainer.”

“Being in the world of facial plastic surgeons, you know everyone out there because you’re in the field,” Dr. Karam explains.
“I knew of many of the really renowned surgeons, but I knew I was going to go to him,” Neda says. “We’ve been together since we were 25 years old, and I’ve seen his results for the last 20 years. They’re all natural. I didn’t need to do much research because I knew he was the best.”

Dr. Karam admits he felt a few nerves before performing surgery on his wife. Normally, he says, he’s able to stay calm and detached — an essential part of his work — but operating on someone he loves presented a new challenge.

“You have to maintain detachment in a healthy sense to be able to do the surgery,” he says. “I didn’t know how I would feel in that very moment, right before the surgery began. I didn’t share that with her because I didn’t want her to worry about anything. She was very excited and positive. I did the surgery virtually, in my head, to prepare myself.”

After their consultation, Dr. Karam determined that Neda would benefit most from his signature procedure, the Vertical Restore facelift.

The surgery, he explains, “lifts the lateral brow, mid-face, jawline, and neck. When you go vertically, the neck comes up with it. It’s like a four-in-one type of procedure, and the verticality gives it that natural look. When people show what they want, they instinctively lift vertically.”

In addition to the facelift, Dr. Karam performed a subtle skin pinch under her lower eyelids and transferred small amounts of fat to select areas of her face. The goal, he says, is to help patients “look like themselves — just a younger version,” achieved through “a combination of lifting and restoring volume.”

The two-and-a-half-hour procedure was performed under IV sedation instead of general anesthesia. Recovery, Dr. Karam notes, was typical, with swelling peaking around days three and four. By days 12 and 13, Neda looked like her usual self — and she was back to her daily routine even earlier.

Less than 24 hours after surgery, she was already entertaining guests. “We had friends over to watch basketball that night,” she says with a laugh. “I was serving pizza and felt like nothing had happened — like I’d just had a cavity done.”

After only two days of taking Tylenol for discomfort, Neda says she no longer needed any pain medication. When her bandages came off on day seven, she was thrilled by what she saw.

“I couldn’t stop looking at my side profile, and I loved taking selfies,” she recalls. “They took the stitches off, and my face looked like a teardrop — exactly the shape it had always been.”

Dr. Karam says that by the two-week mark, the swelling had subsided enough for Neda to look completely natural again. “Patients swell up in the first week and look unusual,” he explains. “Between week one and two, that appearance goes away, and they look like a normal person — just a little more swollen. Every week after that, it just keeps getting better.”

He compares the healing process to “watching grass grow,” noting that recovery can continue for several months to a year as the swelling slowly diminishes.

A year later, Neda says she’s more confident than ever. “I feel the way I did in my 30s,” she says. “I look as young as I feel.”

She adds, “I’m back to putting my hair in a ponytail and going about my day, and I don’t feel tired anymore when I look in the mirror.”

As for the added bonus of having her husband perform the surgery? She jokes, “I didn’t have to pay for the procedure — I just had to be nice to my husband.”