And now, the main event…

It’s been less than a month since I profiled Dr. Steve Levine, the baby-faced Upper East Side facelift king, whom one industry insider recently referred to, sans irony, as “the most consequential man” in New York. Indeed, I’m still receiving inbound about the elusive plastic surgeon, who famously performed Kris Jenner’s second facelift (Beverly Hills–based Garth Fisher did the first), charges $5,000 for a mere consultation (the fee is not applied toward any future procedure), and whose current rate card is somewhere in the $300,000 range. (Add-ons can lift the ticket closer to $365,000.) “His office is trying to control volume,” said a person close to Levine, adding that a strict referral-only policy has been in place for some time. “Well before Kris, he was referral-only.”

Now, I’m told that even the top TV and streaming giants are clamoring to work with Levine, with some of the most powerful executives in the business practically begging him to do a special. But my understanding is that Levine is not looking for more exposure. He’s not only intensely private, but his business just isn’t scalable in the traditional sense: He’s not selling beauty products, and there are only so many facelifts one man can do in a year. And while Levine could theoretically train a small cadre of apprentices in his trademark technique, that would take years, possibly create competitors, and cut into his high-eight-figure revenue. (Levine didn’t respond to requests for comment.)

Last week, the Levine discourse surfaced again when Cassandra Grey made him a topic in her recently launched Substack, Please Note. I caught up with Grey over the weekend, who told me that she knows no less than 15 people who’ve been Levine’d, ranging in age from 42 through early 70s. “Saying you saw Levine is like having a crocodile Birkin,” Grey told me, before adding that she, too, has been a Levine patient. (She’ll tell you exactly what procedures she’s had if you ask her.)

Of course, much of the press about the star surgeon has focused on the sticker shock of his pricing menu. But this kind of go-nowhere rubbernecking obscures one of the more interesting aspects of Levine’s practice, which is the neck-deep cast of other plastic surgeons, knock-offs, and industry characters that dwell in Levine’s rarefied orbit.

First, there’s the Beverly Hills–based plastic surgeon who allegedly took credit for Jenner’s facelift before she went public about Levine: Ben Talei, best known for his “AuraLyft,” which he has admitted is a “gimmicky name” to describe his vertical vector modified extended advanced deep plane facelift. I’ve actually seen some of his work over the years, and it’s definitely good.

Anyway, when Jenner had her facelift early this year, I’m told that she and Levine had agreed on no press—an anomaly for the Kardashian-Jenner gang. But after Jenner attended Lauren Sánchez’s May bachelorette party in Paris, her new face, understandably, was all anyone could talk about. For the next week, heated social media speculation focused on one surgeon––and it was the wrong one. “Kris got phone calls from friends saying, ‘Oh, I heard Ben did your facelift.’ She really didn’t want him getting any credit,” said a person with knowledge of the situation, mainly because of some personal history. The rest happened fast. I’m told Jenner got in touch with Levine’s office twice the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend. Levine finally relented, and the New York Post story broke shortly thereafter. (Spokespeople for Jenner and Talei declined to comment.)

None of this would have been possible, however, without Dr. Andrew Jacono, the surgeon most responsible for what we now know as the six-figure facelift. He’s featured prominently in these Times and Airmail pieces from 2022 and 2023, respectively, where his fees, similar to Levine’s, seem to jump from $230,000 to about $500,000 a year later. Jacono performed Marc Jacobs’s facelift in 2021, after which the designer posted a now-famous post-op photo: drainage tubes, head bandage, the works. Amid his ascent, Jacono had to go dark for a while amid other drama, which likely helped divert clients to Levine. “When everything blew up with Jacono, a lot of business was funneled to Steve,” said an insider. “That was a big surge.”

This person, who is very in the know about the most in-demand facial surgeons, credits Jacono with “emboldening these surgeons to charge more money.” A high-profile plastic surgeon who requested anonymity expressed his gratitude to Jacono: “We owe him a debt for massively high fees. He took the patient from $70,000, $80,000, or $90,000 for a facelift to these high numbers.” Still, he’s no Brian Novack, a more elusive Beverly Hills plastic surgeon whose prices have long been astronomical. I’ve heard that Novack, who apparently performs no more than two facelifts per month, charges $500,000 for women and $1 million for men. (Novack’s office did not respond to a request for comment.)

Grey told me that there are like “five guys” in New York and L.A. that everyone goes to. And almost all of them are, in fact, men—Levine, Dr. David Rosenberg, Dr. Sam Rizk, etcetera—with the exception of Beverly Hills’ Catherine Chang. (Grey also said she’s seen one of Chang’s faces, and confirmed it was really good.) The next generation, though, is likely to be led by Dr. Andrew Timberlake, who only graduated from Yale med school in 2018 and works out of Rosenberg’s Manhattan Facial Surgery Suites on the Upper East Side. I recently spoke to someone who saw Dr. Timberlake, due to his affiliation with Rosenberg and his more reasonable prices—which are still “north of $100,000,” this person said. The client was also “very happy” with the result.

I’ve also heard that Timberlake recently performed various procedures on influencers and fashion executive types, who I’m told are incentivized to post and document their work on social media. Now, a tip for regular people: Some surgeons will offer a deeply discounted rate in exchange for allowing them to post a patient’s before and after photos online. Proceed with caution!

Until tomorrow,
Lauren

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