How to Age Gracefully
It’s the million-dollar question that people have spent literally millions of dollars trying to find the answer to. The truth is there’s no one set answer. No holy grail. No pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. BUT and it’s a big but, there are lots of things you can do to slow the ageing process down. Or at least, appear to.
Let’s face it, the past 18-months have been tough, they’ve taken their toll on all of us, and especially our appearances. From stress-induced grey hairs and deepened frown lines to sporadic breakouts and crows feet caused by too much screen time – many of us could do with a helping hand to look and feel more like our pre-pandemic selves right now. In addition, this era of always being on our screens, whether our mobile phones or Zoom calls has made us hyper-aware of our appearance and wanting to improve certain aspects. Who hasn’t gawped in horror, transfixed at their own dark circles or a seemingly deep-rooted wrinkle when facetiming friends or family?
Specific non-surgical treatments such as anti-wrinkle injections and dermal fillers can assist in the quest to age gracefully by treating problem areas. The trick to ageing gracefully isn’t to try and mask the ageing process – that’s inevitable and even the very best surgeon cannot defy time, but more so it’s about making the most of your features, freshening and rejuvenating them, smoothing and balancing them to result in an overall more youthful appearance. And it’s never too early to start slowing down the clock.
Whilst I don’t recommend treatments in patients below the age of 18 where their features are still coming into their own, in contrast, there is no age limit to ‘tweakments’, although there is also no pressure to do so. People should start as and when they feel ready, although prevention is better (and easier) than cure.
For me, a single working mother in her forties it’s lots of water, eating a balanced diet, SPF, regular exercise and regular ‘tweakments’ as part of a solid skincare routine.
Normally, the neck and mouth areas are where the first signs of ageing creep in. Popular aesthetics treatments such Botox and Dermal Fillers, and skincare treatments such as Peels and the use of Retinol can help to minimise these signs of age without the need to go under the knife. Neck folds or sometimes unpleasantly referred to as “Turkey Neck” occurs when the skin loses its elasticity and the muscles of the neck which are active during your facial expressions, start to cause folding due to repetition. By injecting Botox into the platysmal muscles of the neck it can help to soften the prominence of the platysmal bands that cause vertical wrinkle lines in the neck. The neck is such a key area, it always amazes me that so many people chose to focus solely on the face for Botox and forget to target the neck as well, resulting in a dead giveaway to having had a bit of facial work done. You wouldn’t fake tan your face and not your neck would you? It’s the same with Botox.
Lips also often get neglected. Lip fillers often conjure up images of girls on Love Island pouting through lip-glossed voluminous lips.But not all lip filler is injected with the intention of creating Kylie Jenner-esque lips. Volume loss in lips and lines around the surrounding mouth area are key signs of ageing. It’s a cruel fact of life that most lips will lose their volume and definition over time, and lines and wrinkles first form in those who smoke, those with paler skin or those that have been no stranger to a sunbed or sunlounger over the years. Dermal filler is the best way to treat this. It restores both volume and structure around the mouth. Subtle treatments can help in defining lips from the surrounding mouth area. Botox can also be used to help soften and relax the muscles around your mouth, filling in fine lines and wrinkles.
Growing old gracefully isn’t impossible, but it’s important to opt for subtle tweakments over time rather than throwing everything at it in one go, especially if you fall into the prevention rather than cure category.
A combination of looking after yourself both physically and mentally, and a relationship with a trusted and experienced aesthetics practitioner can make all the difference when it comes to turning back, or even slowing down the clock.
