Why I decided to have a facelift at 37 | Kim Haberley

Once deemed an anti-ageing fix for women in their 50s, getting a surgical facelift is now a growing trend for those in their 30s and 40s. But experts warn it’s no ‘magic bullet’.

Hairdressing influencer Kim Haberley 10 days before her facelift.

After spending nearly $10,000, 37-year-old Kim Haberley decided to ditch facial fillers and laser treatments and instead “refresh” her face with surgery.

The popular influencer and global hairdressing queen is part of a growing trend of young women who are turning their back on cosmetic injectables, which some claim are making them look older, and opting to go under the knife.

Last month, Ms Haberley travelled to Turkey for a $30,000 face lift.

“I’ve spent so much money on lasers, I’ve done fillers to lift up the top of the face, I’ve had Ulthera (ultrasound treatment), Thermage (radio frequency treatment), RF needling and all that kind of thing. And I realised I was actually just wasting my money. That’s when I started to look into surgery,” says Ms Haberley, who was worried about her “stretchy” skin, particularly under her chin.

“I didn’t want a full face, I don’t want to keep filling my face to try and lift it. That’s not the goal that I wanted. I don’t actually want to look like I’ve had work done. I’m very much a natural girl, I don’t wear makeup much ... and I felt like that’s essentially what was happening with the filler world.”

Kim Haberley after her facelift in Turkey at the age of 37.

Ms Haberley had a deep plane neck face, neck and forehead lift, buccal fat removal and chin liposuction, insisting on a “very, very natural look”. Her surgeon also decided, impromptu, to pin her ears back.

She is now five weeks post-surgery and back in Perth working at her northern-suburbs salon, Boho Blonde.

The global influencer is continuing to document her rollercoaster face lift journey – which has veered from “excruciating” pain in the first few days post-surgery to today loving her “fresh, snatched” look – in an ongoing series of honest updates for her 500,000 followers on Instagram and Tiktok.

Kim Haberley’s mouth and chin before and after her facelift in Turkey at the age of 37.

The social media influencer’s side profile before and after her facelift.

She has shown her viewers the medical staples under her hair line, the bruising under her eyes and the pucking on her forehead, which she calls her “devil’s horns”.

“The reason I chose to share was that my whole brand is built around authenticity so if I had disappeared for a month to get a facelift and came back ‘surprise’ ... I think it would be a big tarnishing for my brand,” says the influencer, who is touring the US with a calendar of $1000-a-ticket hairdressing tutorials in May.

“I also kind of wished that when I was in the position of researching facelifts that there was like a real, raw, authentic person that had documented the whole process so I knew what to expect.”

Kim Haberley before her facelift.

After: “I look in the mirror and I’m happy”.

In the days before she left for Turkey, the mum-of-one was swamped by nasty, sniping comments about her decision to go under the knife as a beautiful, young woman in her 30s.

“At the start it was very much hate,” says Ms Haberley, who has a 16-year-old son.

“It was from people all over the world, everywhere. They were saying ‘You’re too young, you have body dysmorphia, you’ve got a mental illness. You should be seeing a psychologist, not a plastic surgeon. Your doctor should have his licence taken off – all that kind of thing.

“I’ve got very thick skin, so it doesn’t affect me at all but in my head I was thinking, God, what if I didn’t, what if I was unfortunately someone that did deal with mental health and then I was reading all of these comments, that could be that that thing that pushes you over the edge.”

But as the days and weeks went by, the comments from followers grew more and more supportive.

Ms Haberley says they appreciated her honesty and were impressed by the results. Many told her they wanted to follow her lead and join the growing trend of having surgery in their 20s and 30s.

Lindsay Lohan at the 2025 Vanity Fair Oscar party earlier this month. Picture: Getty Images

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The actress on The Masked Singer in 2019.

Actress Lindsay Lohan, 38, has reportedly led the way, having her injectables dissolved and opting for a face lift to achieve her new look.

“I think you’re definitely going to see facelifts become a lot more normalised in the next sort of 10 years, I think, in a younger crowd,” Ms Haberley says.

“It is trending that way. And I think more so because our generation has filled themselves so much with fillers and as they are dissolved, you’re going to be left with stretched skin. I think that you’re going to see a lot more little facelifts, minor tweaks in the next 10 years for our generation, that’s for sure.”

Ms Haberley says she approached surgeons in Perth last year to deal with “heaviness” around her chin and jaw and was repeatedly told to “come back when you’re 50”. Only one eventually agreed to operate, at a cost of about $50,000.

But after researching her options, she was drawn to Turkey, where the “techniques, the technology, the after-care, the experience was just so much more”.

“They’re so much more ahead over there,” says Ms Haberley.

“My doctor in Turkey only does face lifts and he’s doing two or three a day, not two or three a month. That’s how I made my decision to go there and not stay here.”

She travelled to Istanbul in February with her mum, Jen Head. She spent the first three days in hospital, suffering through unexpectedly intense pain, and another 11 days recovering in her hotel room.

“I remember just literally trembling for a whole day on day two. It was so much pain – I’ve given birth, I’ve felt pain before, but I don’t ever remember feeling anything like this,” she says.

“At this point I was thinking ‘he’s damaged all my nerves and I’m going to be like this forever. I was in such a dark little moment in my head ... what if this pain never goes away and I’ll have to die because I can’t live with it?

“I was thinking ‘I regret this’ – I said on video that I wouldn’t tell anyone to do this, I was thinking ‘what have I done?’.”

Five weeks later, she is pain-free but still has some swelling under her chin that is expected to take three months to calm.

With hindsight, she says the pain has “definitely been worth it”.

“And the journey and going over to Turkey and, of course, the cost – it was all worth it to me. I’m definitely happy that I did it now,” she says.

“I look in the mirror and I’m happy.”

The young influencer has a message for other 30-somethings who are thinking about following the latest trend and having some work despite their young age.

“I don’t want to influence anyone into doing it – although I’m aware that that’s probably what I have done – but I think what I would just say to anyone that’s feeling insecure about something is ‘don’t be afraid to fix it if it’s going to make you feel better inside’,” she says.

“For me, I know that it’s made me more confident on the outside. Confidence adds to my career, my career makes me successful, so I’m just all for anything that’s going to make you feel better.”