Beverly Hills Aesthetician Receives Cutting-Edge Facelift from Friend and Renowned Surgeon

In September 2023, 48-year-old Beverly Hills aesthetician Tricia Dikes sent a candid video to her longtime friend and plastic surgeon Dr. Ben Talei, humorously lamenting how her aging face might appear to a new romantic partner. “What if I was having sex at my old age and I was on top of someone?” she joked while demonstrating her facial skin laxity. “This is what they see. It’s gross. Fix me!” This lighthearted exchange between friends prompted them to transform years of casual facelift discussions into reality—not just any procedure, but one of the most advanced and sought-after treatments available in elite Los Angeles circles. The surgery, an “AuraLyft” developed by Talei himself, typically costs around $200,000 and can reach $350,000 with additional work. Their professional relationship began in 2014 when they shared office space, quickly blossoming into a close friendship that ultimately led to Talei offering his signature procedure to address Dikes’ concerns about looking tired despite generally “looking good for her age.”

Dr. Talei describes the AuraLyft as “definitely the most advanced in the world,” explaining that it’s a maximized deep-plane facelift technique that lifts and repositions deeper facial muscles and tissues along with the skin. What makes this approach unique is how it optimizes muscle function to improve the smile and facial resting appearance. “I can actually make the face at rest look less like a resting bitch face—less tired, less sad, less aged,” Talei explained. “I tension the smiling muscles and drooping of the soft tissues back into position.” The procedure also incorporates fat grafting treatment, where fat harvested from the thighs or abdomen is re-injected into the face for volume and cushioning. This additional step improves skin quality and muscle function, decreasing the need for Botox around the mouth and other facial areas. Despite Dikes’ already attractive appearance, Talei noted that the increased mobility and laxity in her face created signs of aging that were becoming visible in all positions, rather than just certain lighting conditions—indicating the perfect timing for the procedure.

Preparation for Dikes’ transformation began with two consultations during which Talei dissolved leftover filler in her under-eye area to enhance the eventual results. He also provided a comprehensive explanation of the entire process: being placed under total intravenous anesthesia, waking with a head wrap, and spending a night or two at an aftercare center before beginning recovery. “Over the next week, you might have a headache for the first day or two—otherwise, it’s not that painful of a procedure,” Talei told her. “At a week, all your stitches are out. At three weeks, you’re going to look presentable… At three months, your twin won’t be able to tell because you look exactly like yourself, even though you have major changes.” On November 4, 2023, Dikes arrived at the Beverly Hills Center for Plastic Surgery at 7 a.m. During her pre-surgery meeting, she spontaneously agreed to Talei’s suggestion to document her recovery process on his Instagram, believing it could help others understand what to expect. “If it was going to help Ben showing the aftermath of a facelift and help him in any way, then I wanted to do it,” she explained.

The procedure itself lasted 7½ hours, after which Dikes was transferred to Pearl Wellness Center, a luxury surgical aftercare facility where she spent two nights under constant nursing care. Despite the intensity of the operation, she recalls that “the pain wasn’t bad at all” and she “didn’t need much meds.” She experienced a mild but persistent headache for about three days and some soreness in her ears, along with numbness from below her eyes to her jawline—a sensation that has since decreased by approximately 65 percent. Though she wasn’t initially afraid to see her post-surgical appearance, an accidental glimpse while brushing her teeth gave her quite a shock. “I just thought I’d come out of surgery and I might be a little swollen or look better, but I didn’t think I was going to look like that!” Dikes recalled with a laugh. “I looked like ‘Avatar’—I looked crazy… It was a little frightening to see myself like that.” Despite this initial shock, Dikes trusted the recovery process, which included applying Aquaphor to her incisions three times daily and taking occasional Tylenol along with prescribed steroids and antibiotics.

Remarkably, Dikes returned to work just five days after her surgery. Her skincare clients, many aware of her planned procedure, were supportive despite some having previously expressed that she “didn’t need it yet.” Around this five-day mark, Dikes began to notice her features “really start shifting” as swelling decreased, particularly around her eyes. “You could kind of see where this is going. I can kind of see myself again,” she recalled. The transformation continued rapidly between days five and twelve, with pain completely subsiding and makeup becoming an option around day ten. By the two-week mark, progress slowed but improvements in swelling and bruising continued. Over 70 days after her AuraLyft, Dikes has experienced a remarkable transformation that looks natural and refreshed rather than obviously surgical. “It’s just like you look refreshed—like nothing was done,” she explained of people’s reactions. “My eyes look kind of back to how they were—brighter, a little cleaned up.” According to Talei, visible changes will continue for about two more months, though internal bone shifting will continue for roughly a year.

The decision to document Dikes’ surgical journey on social media has generated mixed reactions. Her two-day post-op video garnered 12,500 likes and an astonishing 3.8 million views on Instagram, but not all comments were supportive. Some expressed horror at her immediate post-surgical appearance, while others questioned her decision to undergo the procedure at all. However, Dikes remains unfazed by negative comments. “It’s obviously coming from people who have their own insecurities, are extremely unhappy or jealous,” she reflected. “As you get older, you kind of just don’t give a s–t. You have your thoughts, but it’s not my reality.” For his part, Talei is pleased with his friend’s results, noting the emotional significance of helping someone he’s known for over a decade. “It’s not like you’re looking at someone who’s different or altered,” he said. “When you see her, you’re just like, ‘Oh, my God. You look exactly like the day we started.'” Dikes herself feels rejuvenated and authentic: “It feels great to look like the old me—it’s what I always looked like. For a couple years there, I saw myself aging for the first time and it scared the sh-t out of me. I’m vain, I know! But I wanted to see the youthful me in the mirror… I feel like myself again.”