turning back the clock

Turning back the clock: things to consider - Telegraph

BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING DRASTIC...

• Get a new haircut. It could make enough of a difference that you won’t feel a need to mess around with your face. In the same way, professional eyebrow shaping can “wake up” the face to a remarkable degree.

• Revise your skin care. A radiance-boosting serum (and eating foods rich in omega-3 essential fatty acids) can both help restore a glow to the skin.

• Enlist professional help to revise your make-up. Try Louise Constad’s www.beautyqueenworkshops.com, or Netia Hibbert (www.netiahibbert.com; 020 7795 1604), both of whom are brilliant at explaining what to do (and you won’t frighten the horses afterwards).

• Supercharge your diet with vitamin-rich vegetables, fruit and salads, plenty of oily fish (or supplements) to boost levels of omega-3 essential fatty acids and litres of water to ensure digestive health. It will all help to enliven your skin.

• Try a facial-muscle stimulator; the Tua Trend has a great reputation for firming saggy jowls. £209 from www.tuatrendface.com.

SAFETY FIRST

• Choose your practitioner with care. Ideally, get a personal recommendation, or go via a reputable organisation: the British Association of Cosmetic Doctors (www.cosmeticdoctors.co.uk); the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (www.baaps.org.uk) or, for consultant dermatologists, many of whom also have a private practice, the British Association of Dermatologists(www.bad.org.uk ).

• Don’t just sign up with the first doctor or surgeon you see. Have a consultation, see what they suggest, and see if you like them. Ask to see before and after pictures of previous clients. Then ask if you can speak to any of these people. Any good practitioner should have a string of fans happy to sing his or her praises. Then visit someone else, for a comparison. It is your money and your face, so take your time.

• Don’t be surprised if you find it’s a nurse who’s doing the injecting, rather than the doctor. Nurses often do Botox or fillers all day, and are very good at it. Also, don’t be surprised if your practitioner is a former GP who has retrained in the more lucrative practice of non-surgical anti-ageing, rather than being a dermatologist (there are relatively few dermatologists doing work of this sort). If they are well trained and have plenty of experience, they may well be doing great work.

• Don’t be pressured into having anything more done than you feel comfortable with.

• Do be realistic about what, say, Botox could do for you. You can expect improvements, but not miracles.

NOT QUITE AS EXTREME...

• Laser skin resurfacing: using multiple pinpoint beams of laser energy to encourage the skin to grow new collagen. Fraxel re:pair is the most aggressive, but most effective, of the methods available. From £3,500; Dr Nick Lowe, Cranley Clinic, London W1(020 7499 3223).

• Liposculpt: non-invasive method body-contouring that uses ultrasound waves to break up fat cells, together with radio waves to smooth and tighten the skin. Course of three treatments, from £977. For clinics, see www.liposculpt.co.uk.

• Thermage face and body lifting: uses radiofrequency energy to tighten slack skin and boost the production of collagen. From £1,950 (www.drritarakus.com; 020 7460 7324).

• Dermaroller: A small roller with multiple needle-fine spikes that is worked across the skin, to stimulate regeneration of the tissues. Treatments from £250 (www.genuinedermaroller.co.uk).