Featured Expert
Dr. Samuel Lin, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Boston
Back in 2021, Real Housewives of New York City alum Jill Zarin took to Instagram to share her experience of getting an upper blepharoplasty—and declare that injectables were next. Now she’s back to share more of her recent cosmetic work and give her followers a look at her journey, via a Reel posted to Instagram. “I’ve been a bit MIA,” she says. “I’m bravely sharing that I had a lower facelift and a couple of other minor tweaks.”
The minor tweaks, as far as she’s disclosed, include a fat transfer to the hands. She’s a few days out from her lower facelift, having waited until her drains were removed before making the video. “They’ve been removed, so I look human. If I had this off, I’d look a lot more human,” she says, pointing to the compression garment around her face. (It helps with swelling and can prevent tension on the incisions from the facelift, says Boston-based plastic surgeon Dr. Samuel Lin. It’ll stay on, in some capacity, for four to six weeks following a lower facelift.)
The facelift was relatively comfortable for Zarin, who included a shout-out to her surgeon Dr. Ira Savetsky. In fact, it was the fat transfer to her hands—specifically, the process of harvesting the fat—that caused the most discomfort. “The worst part was the lipo coming out of my legs to fill my hands,” she says. “If you don’t have that, you’re fine. No real pain.” And that can be par for the course, according to Dr. Lin. While the incision sites can be small when you’re harvesting fat—which is typically done in the hips, buttocks, and thighs—”the liposuction cannulas may be used to harvest fat from a relatively large area and thus cause a seemingly disproportionate amount of pain, swelling, and bruising,” he says.
As far as side effects, Zarin also mentioned that she’s experiencing fatigue, possibly from the anesthesia. “I’m very tired,” she says in the video. “That’s the only thing.” And again, that’s very normal—and can last anywhere from a few days to weeks “as your body tries to heal itself while adjusting to the effects of the anesthetic and pain medications, sleep disruption, and changes in diet,” says Dr. Lin.
Zarin also says that she’s planning to give a full rundown of her pre-op and the surgery itself, so we’ll be keeping an eye out for more updates in the coming days.
