Would You Pay $1,800 for a Facial?

Candice Miller is 42 and clinging to the millimeter of volume that held up her smile lines and cheekbones in her 30s. Once a week, unless she’s traveling, she goes to Aida Bicaj, a spa on the Upper East Side where the well-heeled get their faces lifted, tightened, de-puffed and brightened.

On a day in early December, Ms. Miller’s $800 90-minute “remodeling” facial included manual massage; double collagen masks (because of sun exposure during a Palm Beach Thanksgiving); microcurrent (electricity that stimulates muscles and is said to give the appearance of a lift) and radio frequency (heating the skin, leading it to contract and tighten). Ms. Miller, an influencer who goes by Mama & Tata on Instagram, gets her face remodeled twice a month. Next, she will try the spa’s $850 microneedling treatment for the first time.

“I have friends doing their eyes and lower face lifts and doing filler everywhere,” Ms. Miller said. “This makes you feel like your face doesn’t need that stuff — if you’re truly committing to going every week or every other week.” (Ms. Miller started getting Botox injections at age 35 and said she doesn’t use any filler.)

The everyday facial has been disrupted.

Manual lifting through massage, microcurrent and radio frequency are changing the way we take care of our faces. The next-gen facial is not about cleaning your pores, but lifting your face.

Aestheticians like Ms. Bicaj, Iván Pol, Joanna Czech, Crystal Greene and Cynthia Rivas have practiced these techniques for years. But the types of facials they offer, once a secret of the rich or famous, have trickled into the mainstream — so much so that facial bars like FaceGym, Silver Mirror and Glowbar, with their friendly branding and accessibly priced services, are poised to make the new facials as easy as a Drybar blowout.

FaceGym opened its first studio in 2015 and now has 17 locations across the United States, Britain and Australia. Two signature facials — one hands only and the other a combination of manual massage and microcurrent — cost $125 each. At Glowbar, there has been a 20 percent increase in microcurrent and radio frequency requests in the last six months, according to Rachel Liverman, the founder.