In partnership with SA’s top medical aesthetic companies
Ever heard the old adage that a woman can lie about her age, but her neck and hands tell the truth? That’s all about to change…
The French have a saying that a woman’s face starts at her breasts, and that you need to take as much care of this skin as you do your precious face. They have a point. We spend a lot of time, money and effort to keep our facial skin looking its most youthful, but the picture below the jawline often tells a different story.
It’s no wonder, then, that people are realising that slowing signs of ageing means treating your skin from top to toe. Happily, Skin and Body Renewal have all sorts of different aesthetic treatments to help you do it. Of course, prevention is always best, but if you already have tell-tale signs of ageing on your neck and chest, there’s a lot you can do to soften these, or maybe even get rid of them completely.
Don’t neglect your neck (and chest)
The skin on your neck and décolleté is fine, yet because of its position, it is prone to sun damage, which can result in permanently tanned or reddened skin. Where you spray your perfume, you may also see dark patches of pigmentation where the fragrance reacts with sun exposure. And, of course, it is prone to loss of collagen and elastin from premature sun damage. This means you may begin to notice the skin feels looser, and that’s soon followed by horizontal wrinkles, age spots, vertical neck bands, a fan of vertical lines on your chest when you wake up in the morning, which often don’t go away at all, not to mention sagging and even the development of a dreaded double chin or turkey neck.
Preserving and reversing signs of ageing on your neck and chest area is achievable with investment in collagen-encouraging treatments such as peels, skin needling, carboxytherapy, PRP (vampire facials) and laser facials. In fact, most treatments that encourage the production of collagen in your face can be performed on your neck and chest, too. So take that investment in your face one step further.
Help your hands
The skin on our hands is also very fine, with not much padding, and we put our hands through extreme challenges such as frequent washing (which strips away their protective barrier against dehydration), not to mention the fact that they are very exposed to collagen-degrading factors like UV rays and pollution. But how many of us take good care of them? We should be washing with gentle, soap-free hand cleansers, and using hand cream with sun protection and antioxidants. This way, we could delay or even avoid the signs of ageing – ‘age spots’, thinning skin with visible veins and scrawny, bony hands.
Our advice
If your hands are already showing signs of damage, there’s much you can do to improve the appearance, tone and texture: chemical peels can increase your skin’s cellular turnover. Treat pigmentation and encourage collagen renewal with other beneficial treatments such as laser rejuvenation, skin needling and carboxytherapy. Lastly, you can plump up the skin so that veins and bones are less visible with dermal fillers, which are injected into areas where there is a loss of volume.
To find out more about the solutions available to treat the tell-tale signs of ageing on both your face and body, visit Skin Renewal on www.skinrenewal.co.za or contact 0861 SKIN SA (7546 72).
Take the quick Beyond Beauty Survey and you could win a R2 000 Skin Renewal voucher to spend in our online store, with free delivery within South Africa. T&Cs apply.