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“Tested on celebs, not animals” rings especially true for the latest in extreme dermatology. Ning Chao reports on the innovative, VIP treatments available around the globe
The latest skin treatments come celeb-approved.
Blame silent screen-era director DW Griffith for the cult of perfection in Hollywood (and the rest of the world) – his pioneering close-ups arguably led to generations of actors (supposedly everyone from Marilyn Monroe and Greta Garbo to John Wayne) becoming plastic-surgery guinea pigs, ready to try everything from cheek-plumping paraffin shots, precursors to today’s fillers, to painful hairline electrolysis. To help the most crinkled faces, early cinematographers started “Vaselensing”, coating the camera lens with Vaseline – a practice that seems both quaint and kind in this era of HD cameras, which are capable of discerning every pore and all but the most undetectable dermatological interventions.
“People think the true beauties of the world don’t do anything,” says Danny Holbus, founder of the beloved LA medi-spa DMH Aesthetics. “The reality is, they just have a lot of subtle work. It’s only the bad work that we notice.” Indeed, New York derm Dr Robert Anolik reports one noted perfectionist visited his office daily for two weeks, receiving microdroplets of lip filler until her mouth achieved its ideal shape. “My celebrity patients want very slow and steady improvement rather than a dramatic change in one visit,” he says.
Which is not to say Hollywood has become any less adventurous in its pursuit of perfection. LA continues to be ground zero for experimentation, full of medispas devising off-label ways to wield lasers and injectables. So what exactly are A-listers getting done now? We quizzed their go-to doctors.
LIFT IT
For head-to-toe skin tightening, celebs are dropping big bucks on the ultrasound-based Ultherapy – currently approved by Australia’s Therapeutics Goods Administration (TGA) and the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for use on the face, neck and chest. “The lack of downtime is key for celebrities,” says Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr Leif Rogers, who promises a single session will deliver visible tightening in three months. As Ultherapy vets know, the treatment can be painful on bony areas such as the jawline, but Rogers notes that it’s less so on the stomach and hips. In his office, celebs get double-timed: he teams up with another doctor, using two Ultherapy devices at once to cover the body more quickly. An unlikely awards-season target zone? The armpits. Sweat reduction is a welcome Ultherapy side effect.
SHRINK IT
Lipo scars? So last century. Now, fat-freezing Coolsculpting treatments can slim large zones such as the stomach, while injections of fat-melting Kybella (awaiting TGA approval and not yet available on our shores) erase smaller pockets around the armpits, inner thighs, knees and even ankles. One pop star, dressed in her exam gown, treated Anolik to a bit of choreography: “She was trying to show me an area
of fat that bothered her, but it was only apparent when she did a certain move,” he says. Luckily his office features the body-shaping equivalent of a Formula 1 pit crew: time-pressed clients can be hooked up to four Coolsculpting devices simultaneously. He calls it quadrotherapy. “You can treat the bra fat and both love handles in 35 minutes,” he says, adding that results – up to a 25 per cent reduction in fat – are visible after three weeks and can continue for up to six months.
Launched in the US in 2015, “Kybella is FDAapproved to treat double chins, but doctors can use it off-label wherever they want,” says Rogers. “It works best on small deposits of extra fat, like on the inner thighs or above the knees to make legs look more shapely and athletic.” Rogers carved out one soap-star’s six-pack with two rounds of shots, six weeks apart, without anaesthesia or downtime. Depending on the body part, injections can be painful, and swelling, which can last up to a month, can be substantial. But according to Rogers, the primary risk is temporary nerve damage. “Ankles are especially tricky – there are lots of small nerves there,” he says. “If you injure one, you’ll have numbness. But nerves grow back.”
FILL IT
While only a handful of hyaluronic acid (HA) fillers are available in Australia and the US, there are more than 50 in Europe, in consistencies ranging from liquid to gel. During a treatment known as mesotherapy or hydrofilling, doctors in Europe and Asia use everything from syringes to mini-needle machine guns to deliver shallow droplets of the most fluid versions – such as Restylane’s Skinbooster or Juvéderm’s Hydrate – all over the face. The treatment “refreshes the skin and gets rid of tiny dry-skin lines,” says German orthopaedic surgeon Dr Barbara Sturm (whose namesake skincare line is beloved by celebs such as Hailey Baldwin). Think of it as a deep hydrating mask delivered below the top layer of skin, says plastic surgeon Dr George Sun. “Unlike firmer fillers, which are injected deep under the dermis, hydrofilling deposits hyaluronic acid intradermally. Moisturisation and cell swelling take place, improving light reflection, texture and even wrinkles.”
To enhance the longevity of any HA injection, Sturm cocktails it with a concentrated solution made from the patient’s own blood. “I extract proteins and healing white blood cells and mix that into the hyaluronic acid,” she says. Sturm began using the technique to treat osteoarthritis in the joints, and claims this extract has 140 times the concentration of the healing factors in one’s regular blood. “The hyaluronic acid instantaneously fills, while these proteins promote the skin’s fibroblasts to produce collagen due to a wound-healing response.” According to Sturm, results last years longer than using HA alone. “I injected my nasolabial folds 10 years ago and never had to do it again.” She also sends patients home with a $1,800 tub of anti-ageing cream customspiked with their own blood.
The rich and famous plagued by over-plucked brows or underperforming scalps also seek salvation abroad, where stem-cell research is at the forefront. At the Hair Science Institute (HSI), which has clinics in the UK, Europe and Indonesia, the order of the day is hair stemcell transplants. Doctors pluck stem cells from donor hair follicles elsewhere on the body, then place the cells wherever new growth is desired; unlike traditional hair transplants, this approach “multiplies hairs instead of merely relocating them from one thin area to another,” says Holbus. Donor sites heal over a weekend, and patients see regrowth within a matter of weeks, subtly restoring thinning arches and receding hairlines. Holbus first heard about HSI from a TV star who was losing jobs to younger actors. “He’s quietly had the procedure three times in the past five years, completely rebuilding his hairline and removing his widow’s peak,” he says. Holbus was so impressed he recently tried the scalp treatment himself and “loves” his new growth.
SMOOTH IT
Fillers aren’t the only thing being micro-injected: top derms are also injecting tiny amounts of Botox all over the face. DMH Aesthetics is an early adopter of Botox micro-needling, also known as micro-botox or meso-botox. “When injected superficially, Botox won’t affect deep wrinkle formation, but will shrink enlarged pores for smoother, younger-looking skin,” says the clinic’s medical director, plastic surgeon Dr Glenn Vallecillos. To deliver the neurotoxin, he uses an Aquagold micro-needling stamp (a small vial topped with 20 hollow, gold-plated needles – each thinner than a human hair – that infuses skin with the doctor’s cocktail of choice). The neurotoxins weaken the muscles around each pore and could also reduce oil production. “I’ve used this technique on countless celebrities. Patients are typically younger – 25 and below – so wrinkles aren’t really an issue, but skin tone and quality are. The procedure improves skin appearance while maintaining normal animation.”