facial balancing
What is facial balancing?
Short answer
Facial balancing means treating the face as a whole rather than one feature in isolation. It often involves small amounts across several areas, chosen for how they relate to each other, instead of a larger amount in the one place you noticed. Done well it uses less product, not more.
Sally's take
The term has been used to sell very large treatment plans, so I want to be careful with it. Balancing is a way of thinking, not a package.
What it means in practice is that the area bothering you is often not the area driving the problem. Someone unhappy with their lips sometimes has a chin that sits slightly back, and adding more lip makes the relationship worse rather than better. A small amount at the chin can resolve what looked like a lip complaint.
So when I use the word, I mean spending the consultation looking at proportion before deciding where anything goes. If a balancing plan is presented to you as five syringes across your whole face at a first appointment, that is a sales structure wearing the language of an assessment.
What it actually involves
- Assessing proportion between the upper, middle, and lower face
- Looking at profile as well as front view, since chin and jaw read mostly from the side
- Identifying which feature is driving the concern, which is often not the one you noticed
- Small amounts in several places rather than a large amount in one
- Staging across visits, so each change can be assessed before the next
Common examples
- Chin projection changing how lips read, without touching the lips
- Cheek support improving the midface and reducing the appearance of folds
- Temple volume changing how the whole upper face reads
- Jawline definition improving the lower face more than a lower-face filler would
How to tell good balancing from a sales plan
- A good plan is staged, not delivered in one appointment
- It includes areas that will be left alone, and says why
- It starts with the smallest change likely to matter
- It is described in terms of your face, not a standard set of ratios
Questions worth asking
- Which feature is actually driving what I do not like?
- If we only did one area, which would change the most?
- What would you stage across visits rather than doing now?
- What are you deliberately not treating, and why?
Related questions
This page is educational and is not medical advice. It does not create a provider relationship. Results vary between people, and treatment decisions are made at your consultation.