Jamie tapped Dr. Amir Karam for a Vertical Restore facelift
Credit: Courtesy of Dr. Amir Karam
NEED TO KNOW
- Jamie never considered plastic surgery until her 60th birthday was on the horizon
- She turned to Dr. Amir Karam for his signature Vertical Restore facelift
- Jamie and Dr. Karam tell PEOPLE about their experience
Jamie never had facelift plans.
It was never something she thought about, never something on her mood board and never something that she thought she’d find herself doing.
And then she reached the precipice of turning 60.
“I always told myself I would never do a facial plastic surgery,” Jamie, 60, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I’m like, I’m going to age gracefully because for years I think plastic surgery on the face just had a bad name because the old way just wasn’t natural-looking.”
Credit: Courtesy of Dr. Amir Karam
Up until she hit 60, Jamie says she was pretty satisfied with the aging process. But the looming big birthday had her seeing herself in a different way. She decided to take the “bold” step and look into plastic surgery to preserve her youthful appearance, especially after having followed San Diego-based plastic surgeon Dr. Amir Karam on Instagram for several years. During that time, she admired his work, which helped her push past any “guilty” or “vain” feelings that tried to creep in.
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“I decided I don’t care what people think,” she says of taking the plunge on facial plastic surgery. She opted for Dr. Karam’s signature Vertical Restore facelift for her March procedure, which is the technique he uses to provide a balanced facelift that has a natural outcome.
“We did the Vertical Restore and fat transfer, and that’s kind of like that fundamental one-two punch of taking care of lost volume in specific areas and then repositioning the soft tissues back up to where they originally came from,” Dr. Karam explains to PEOPLE.
He adds that Jamie didn’t “have a lot of heaviness in her neck,” which meant he didn’t need to remove anything under her chin area. This leads to a shorter recovery time and no need for drains. The doctor also notes that Jamie didn’t need much work done around her eyes, as she wasn’t really showing signs of aging there.
“We didn’t need to do anything there beyond adding volume back to her upper eyelids and her lower eyelids and her temples to kind of frame the eyes and give it that youthful fullness back,” he says.
Credit: Courtesy of Dr. Amir Karam
Dr. Karam says Jamie’s concerns with her appearance are typical to what he hears from patients, even those who show fewer signs of aging. She was in “pretty good shape” compared to the average for her age, he says, but she still wanted to look more like how she felt on the inside.
“It was really important to retain her natural look and look like herself and get a reset,” he says.
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Jamie’s trip to California from her home base outside Philadelphia was a little over a week long, and she brought her husband with her. She tells PEOPLE that he was supportive throughout the whole process, telling her he didn’t think she needed a facelift but wanting her to do whatever made her happy.
And while her surgery with Dr. Karam all went according to plan, Jamie says her initial recovery was tough.
“It was really hard. I don’t think anybody realizes how difficult the first week is,” she says. “You can’t do anything; you just have to rest. Then every day you look at yourself in the mirror, and you see all this. You look like Frankenstein, all these stitches, and you’re swelled up.”
Credit: Courtesy of Dr. Amir Karam
She says that even knowing this would be part of the healing process, it didn’t make it any easier to deal with. Plus, she had a hard time sleeping because facelift patients have to sleep on their backs post-op, and that is not her ideal. The combo of all of this made for an uncomfortable few days, but four months post-op, she says she’s feeling much better and still can’t believe she went through with it all. She’s even considering more plastic surgery with Dr. Karam in the future.
“I told him he can’t retire any time soon, because I might still need him!”
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