The facelift is going mainstream, and Denise Richards is proof

• The actor Denise Richards shared intimate before-and-after photos of her facelift on Instagram.
• The 55-year-old represents a new and growing set of facelift patients who are younger and more open.
• Social media, more advanced surgical techniques, and GLP-1 medications could explain the rise.

Denise Richards had a facelift and she doesn't care who knows it.

The '90s sex symbol and former Bond Girl had the procedure in June 2025. On Sunday, she posted a carousel on Instagram featuring before-and-after photos of her face and neck from six different angles. It included a photo of her face covered in colored lines, presumably marking the areas her surgeon believed needed lifting or sculpting.

In the post-op photos, Richards looks like herself but a younger, tighter-skinned, brighter-eyed, version.

The post came two days after the lifestyle magazine Allure published an article featuring an in-depth interview with Richards, where she discussed the facelift and shared intimate photos of herself during recovery.

"This is something that I want to do for me," Richards told the outlet. "I'm not trying to change the way I look. I'm just trying to put things back. There's a little difference, in my opinion."

At the age of 55, Richards is representative of a new type of facelift patient: One who is younger and far more open about cosmetic enhancements than was traditional until recent years.

Patients like this could help to explain the rise in the number of facelifts performed each year. In 2024, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons named facelifts as a trend to watch. While the organization's data on 2025 cosmetic surgery trends is due to drop mid-2026, Dr. Bob Basu, a board-certified plastic surgeon based in Houston, Texas and president of the ASPS, told Business Insider that he thinks the number of people getting facelifts has "significantly increased" since then.

"I see that in my practice," Basu said on a call between back-to-back facelift surgeries.

The rise of Ozempic has likely contributed too, according to the ASPS. With around 1 in 8 Americans taking a GLP-1 medication, more people are seeking facelifts because with weight loss has come a lower facial volume and sagging skin.

A facelift can help patients "look as good as they feel," Basu said.

Patients are becoming less embarrassed of having a facelift

When Basu started practicing plastic surgery over two decades ago, his patients didn't want anyone to know they'd had a surgical procedure. The advent of platforms like Instagram and TikTok, and newer techniques that enable skilled surgeons to perform "undetectable" procedures, which leave patients looking refreshed but natural, many patients want to share their results, he said.

"Now, I would say a good 50% of my patients, when they see how good they look in a week or two, they say, 'I want to share my result.' They're open about it because they're feeling confident," Basu said.

A growing number of Gen Xers share Richards' perspective that a facelift is about looking more like yourself than changing your appearance, according to Basu. "We're essentially repositioning a patient's own anatomy to where it used to be 5, 10, 15 years ago. And so it's almost like a more natural restoration, and that's why patients who are younger are opting to do these procedures in their 40s," he said.

He believes that surgeons sharing results and people sharing their experiences on social media have played a role in the facelift's rise in popularity among this younger set. In July, a 50-year-old American woman's TikToks documenting her facelift in Guadalajara, Mexico, went viral, garnering over 25 million views. In September, The Cut published a feature about the rise of the "Forever 35 face" that Upper East Side moms were noticing — and striving for— at school pick up.

People working in real estate, PR, and education previously told Business Insider that they got a facelift or other cosmetic work done in the past few years to further their careers. "I really wanted it for myself, but I also knew it would benefit my work — and it has. It's given me a lot of confidence in an industry filled with younger people," Susan DiLeo, a 65-year-old real estate agent based in New York, said.

The average facelift costs around $11,395, according to the ASPS, but when performed by coveted surgeons, they can go for up to $225,000 depending on the complexity. The results typically last up to 10 to 15 years.

Basu warned that people considering plastic surgery need to be careful not to be swayed by marketing or slick social media posts. He said to make sure your surgeon is board-certified and operating out of a state-licensed surgery center or hospital in case of complications.

"Facial surgery is complex surgery. It's real surgery," Basu said.