Growing up as identical twins in the New Jersey suburbs, Erica Hyman and Nancy Marciniak did everything together. They played the same sports, wore matching prom dresses (Hyman found one first, and Marciniak got it in a different color), and even dated brothers in high school. Their lives were pretty much in sync.
Now, in their 60s, they still share a close bond. They live just two houses apart in a private Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, community, and their homes are almost identical, complete with beautiful backyard pools and amazing views of the golf course. So when Hyman decided she wanted to tackle the signs of aging that had been bothering her with some plastic surgery, she knew exactly who to call: her twin.
“I just wasn’t happy with what I saw in the mirror,” Hyman admits. “I wasn’t trying to look different — just fresher. Like me, but a bit younger.”
Marciniak was totally on board. “For me, it was seeing my reflection on the iPhone,” she jokes. “You look down at your phone and think, ‘Where did all these wrinkles come from?’ They just seem to multiply!”
The sisters turned to Dr. Jacob D. Steiger, a facial plastic surgeon in Boca Raton known for his natural-looking results and expertise with deep plane facelifts.
“The deep plane facelift is a newer technique that’s gaining popularity,” Dr. Steiger explains. “Instead of just pulling the skin or muscles, we’re actually releasing and restoring the ligaments in the face — those are what really sag with age. The result looks natural, lasts longer, and doesn’t have that tight or ‘done’ look.”
But it wasn’t cheap. They each forked over $57,000 for a package deal that included the deep plane facelift (typically around $50,000 at Dr. Steiger’s practice, depending on extras), a brow lift, lower blepharoplasty (to fix aging under-eye skin), CO2 laser resurfacing (which helps remove damaged skin layers while boosting collagen), and a small fat transfer from the thigh to plump up their under-eyes.
“When you have identical twins, their ligaments and bone structures are quite similar,” Dr. Steiger says. “But because of different life experiences, they’re not exact replicas. They’re more like variations of each other.”
**All About Transparency**
For Hyman and Marciniak, getting a facelift wasn’t about hiding anything. They were open about it with everyone.
"One friend joked that we should hang a banner outside our houses since the whole neighborhood knew we were doing it,” Marciniak notes. “But Erica and I are not ashamed of it at all.”
They even found some humor in the process — from being offered chin implants (“I still don’t get what a weak chin is,” Hyman quips) to the challenge of not being able to drink coffee on surgery day.
"Nancy went first because she found the doctor,” Hyman recalls. “But the hardest part for me was waiting all day for my turn without food or coffee. I wasn’t nervous; I just wanted it to be over so I could have my coffee!”
They had a nurse to help in the beginning, but recovery didn’t go as smoothly as they’d hoped. Two weeks after surgery, Marciniak’s husband, who was taking care of them, came down with COVID.
“We grabbed our pillows, pills, and ointments and trudged down the street at 6 a.m. to Erica’s house like we were fleeing something,” Marciniak remembers. “We thought we’d escaped it. But four days later, we both had sore throats. Sure enough, we caught it.”
That illness delayed their recovery quite a bit and was really tough on both of them. “We were doing so well, and then everything just slowed down. It really set us back,” Hyman shares.
They say the hardest part was how long it took to feel “normal” again. “I didn’t realize how major the surgery really is,” Hyman reflects. “You’re healing for three full months. I wish someone had warned me about that.”
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| 61 Year Old Twins TODAY! |
Marciniak adds, “I was caught off guard by the lingering numbness. And being inactive for six weeks was tough. We’re both super active — golf, pickleball, power walking — so that was a struggle. But at least we got to catch up on a lot of shows!”
More than anything, they say the experience brought the competitive duo closer than they’d been in decades.
“We lived together for the first time in almost 40 years,” says Marciniak. “We spent every single moment together for four weeks. It felt like being kids again — we didn’t need anyone else.”
They laughed, watched TV, compared swelling, and got through the discomfort side by side. “It was like therapy,” says Hyman, who points out that it also helped mend some tension in their relationship that developed when her sister moved next door. “Not just for our faces, but for us.”
**A Stronger Bond**
While the twins had each other's backs, their families didn’t always share that enthusiasm. “My husband didn’t want me to do it,” Hyman explains. “He took a picture before the surgery and said, ‘This is the woman I married.’ But when I came back, he could only look at me sideways. He was really upset.”
Even now, they don’t really talk about it. “He told me, ‘Don’t ask me how you look.’ But I think he’s cool with it now.”
Her daughters, Lizzie, 26, and Julia, 28, were definitely more accepting. “I just hope they never feel like they have to do this to be beautiful. They’re already perfect,” she said.
Marciniak got all the support from her daughter and husband, who kept saying she looked beautiful, even when she felt like “a monster.”
“My son doesn’t want to talk about it at all. And we didn't mention it to our 93-year-old dad, who’s totally against plastic surgery.”
Now that it’s been three months, both women are healing well and are super happy with the results. “We didn’t want to look different. We didn’t want to be pulled or ironed. We just wanted to look like ourselves,” Hyman explains.
But the sisters aren’t in any rush to go back for a touch-up. “One and done,” Marciniak says while laughing. “I’m still feeling the struggle of recovery.”
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